CRMS Telemark Crushes the Red Hill Time Trial!

The dryland season came to an end with the 3rd annual Red Hill Time Trial. It was a beautiful bluebird day with a winter chill in the air and snow on the north facing slopes... the perfect setting to step into the hurt locker and get fired up for the winter season.

The men's record of 20.02 was CRUSHED by 2 and 1/2 minutes this year by Luke Falcone!

On the women's front, Aisha Weinhold snuck ahead of record holder Jacklyn LaRoche to take this years women's title.

Across the board the Telemark team gave it their all and ended the dryland season in flying colors.

2009 Results:

Luke Falcone, Telemark 17:30
Max Stevens, Alpine Coach, 18:16
Gus Griffin, Nordic 18:30
Peter Madigan, Telemark 21:09
Ludwig Ragnarsson 21:52
Joy 22:53
Charlie Boyne, Telemark 23:08
Sam Kaufman, Nordic 23:28
Grady Lenkin, Telemark 23:44
Aisha Weinhold, Telemark 23:51
acqueline Larouche, Alpine 24:00
Middle Schooler (Sorry I forgot her name) 24:33
Meghan Detering, Telemark Coach 25:57
Florentina Arthuber, Alpine 26:00
Kelsey Freeman, Telemark 26:05
JJ Whorley, Telemark 27:07
Sam Bell, Alpine 27:34
Peyton Heitzman, Telemark 30:11
Catherine Masters, Alpine 31:07
Emily Bartlomiejczuk, Nordic 31:22
Lilly Reed, Alpine 31:22
Mima Strong, Nordic 31:46
Maggie Devany, Nordic 31:46
Aubrey Mason, Alpine 34:06
Tamsin Pargiter, Nordic 34:18
Michaela Craig, Nordic 34:20
Julia Williams, Alpine 35:04
Coleman Spence, Nordic 36:42

Foam and Plastic are the New Powder

This year we thought we would take a different approach to preseason training by taking advantage of the aerial facility in Copper.

The crew getting an introduction to the facility.


Woodward combines trampolines, ramps, and foampits as a venue to learn the aerial aspects of skiing in a benign way.

Escaping the pits of dispair.


It was a skiers equivalent of Disnyland, and the excitement of the crew was tremendous as we made the transition from skiing Copper Mountain to Woodward.

Getting a feel for skiing on carpet.

Luke Falcone about to drop in on the big ramp.



Unfortunately the day would not finish with out tradgedy. It was heartbreaking to see one of the most enthusiastic members of the team, Evan Marcus, dislokate his knee, and in doing so tear almost every ligament, on a trampoline.

Medals Testing!

Medals Testing is a fitness test and set of criteria set by the US Ski team that allows athletes to monitor growth in fitness and also simply creates a couple days of great work outs.

The test includes:
40 yards sprint (100% = 4.4 sec)
440 (100% = 1 min)
Mile (100% = 6 mins)
Hex Jumps
Box Jumps ( 100% = 110 in 90 seconds )
Sit Ups (100%=65 in 60 seconds)
Push Ups (100% = 90 before breaking rythm)

Previous CRMS Telemark Team Records:
40
440
Mile
Hex Jumps: Men 17.19 sec, Jake Sakson, Women, 21.43, Meghan Detering
Box Jumps : Men 83, Jake Sakson, Women, 57, Meghan Detering
Sit Ups
Push Ups

2009 Results (new records are indicated in pink):

40
Luke Falcone
Kelsey Bohannon
Kelsey Freeman
Weaver Frelicher
Kelsey Lewis
Even Marcus
Aisha Weinhold
Juan Pablo Alcocer
JJ Worley
Charlie Boyne
Peton Heitzman
Peter Madigan
Gracyn Overstreet
Adam Hobby
Hannah Horn
Thorne Warner
Jared Carlson
Grady Lenkin
Meghan Detering

440
Luke Falcone
Kelsey Bohannon
Kelsey Freeman
Weaver Frelicher
Kelsey Lewis
Even Marcus
Aisha Weinhold
Juan Pablo Alcocer
JJ Worley
Charlie Boyne
Peton Heitzman
Peter Madigan
Gracyn Overstreet
Adam Hobby
Hannah Horn
Thorne Warner
Jared Carlson
Grady Lenkin
Meghan Detering

Mile
Luke Falcone
Kelsey Bohannon
Kelsey Freeman
Weaver Frelicher
Kelsey Lewis
Even Marcus
Aisha Weinhold
Juan Pablo Alcocer
JJ Worley
Charlie Boyne
Peton Heitzman
Peter Madigan
Gracyn Overstreet
Adam Hobby
Hannah Horn
Thorne Warner
Jared Carlson
Grady Lenkin
Meghan Detering

Hex Jumps
Luke Falcone 17.56
Kelsey Freeman 26.62
Weaver Froelicher 22.20
Even Marcus 18.56
Aisha Weinhold 20.27
JJ Worley 27.11
Charlie Boyne 17.00
Peton Heitzman 20.10
Peter Madigan 16.47
Adam Hobby 18.97
Jared Carlson 18.17
Grady Lenkin 18.40
Meghan Detering 19.18

Box Jumps
Luke Falcone 83 (tie for record)
Kelsey Freeman 38
Weaver Frelicher 46
Even Marcus 56
Aisha Weinhold 56
Charlie Boyne 60
Peyton Heitzman 30
Peter Madigan 75
Adam Hobby 50
Jared Carlson 61
Grady Lenkin 50
Meghan Detering 68

Sit Ups
Luke Falcone 55
Kelsey Freeman 39
Even Marcus 39
Aisha Weinhold 38
JJ Worley 41
Grady Lenkin 42
Meghan Detering 41

Push Ups
Luke Falcone 30
Kelsey Freeman 21
Even Marcus 27
Aisha Weinhold 10
JJ Worley 40
Charlie Boyne 40
Peyton Heitzman 23
Peter Madigan 41
Jared Carlson 17
Grady Lenkin 55
Meghan Detering 34

Tabata!!!!
(and other visits to the Pain Cave from Week 2 of dryland)

The tabata is a new form of torture that Meghan introduced to the telemark team last season. She learned the work-out her senior year at Bowdoin College from hockey coach Terry Meagher and her own personal telemark consultant, Matt O'Donnell. Simply put, the tabata is brutal. It hits balance, aerobic, and strength conditioning all at once. It might be the fastest route to the pain cave known to man.

The camera can barely capture Aisha's blazing speed at box jumps

Let's paint the scene here for a minute: a large group, spread all over the fitness room, throwing balls against the wall, slamming them into the floor, lunging, doing push-ups, crunches on a bigger ball, balanced squats on a half-ball, and the dreaded box jumps and burpees. Burpees are the demise of us all. They're where the telemark athlete's legs go to die. Laying on the floor on your stomach, jumping as high in the air as possilbe, then hitting the deck only to repeat it all over again. As a team, we've been know to look like we're collectively performing different actions of a simple machine. But on a personal level, it's much more complicated. You start to feel it in the first few sets. Eventually twenty seconds seems like an eternity, but then ten seconds becomes the blink of an eye. It's all about digging deep and not giving up, making the most of the last few reps of every set, as MC Hammer or some bluegrass version of an Ozzy Osbourne song blares in the background. (Different students come up w/ the tabata playlist each week!) All the while, the fitness room gets a little bit warmer and a little bit stinkier with each new exercise.

Tele Team alums Dillon Smith and Sam Stevens show their

love for tabata (and each other) with buddy lunges

But, the telemark team is killing it! We perform 8 different movements at separate stations. Each person stays at a station for 4-8 sets and does 20 seconds on, 10 seconds resting for each movement. We started week 1 with 4 sets and hit 6 sets this week. We'll do one more week of 6 before finishing the dryland season with 8. It's always great to have just finished the first day of it (4 sets), barely being able to stand up, and then hear, "Congratulations! By the end of dryland, you'll do that-- but double!!!" Oh yea, and there's a good chance you'll be sore for the next few days. The tabata is the ultimate sufferfest, but we love it!

In other news this week: SNOW! Lots of it. Probably 5 inches on the ground Tuesday, making for a lovely, wintry, aerobic romp around tick ridge, followed by push-up pyramids in the silent auction tent, and Grady's Abs of Steel work-out in the library. Don't worry, everyone passed the ab test at the end. Kayo dropped a book on everyone's chest and they all bounced a foot in air! We rounded out the week with an equipment fitting session at Bristlecone and game of ultimate in the snow with the alpine team. Our group was bit larger this week, but we're anxiously awaiting the return of our soccer players once their season is over.

Alumni Fueling the Fire...

There are CRMS Telemark Team Alumns out there killing it is so many passionate ways. Here a few on the immediate radar:

Luke Lubchenko, along with help from Nick Malik, Sam Stevens, and Dylan Smith, have started Fort Lewis college's first ever Telemark Club. Rumor has it that 80 people showed interest in signing up. Check them out on Facebook: Fort Lewis Pinheads Telemark Club

Max Mancini is featured again this year in Warren Miller's 60th aniversary movie Dynasty. Also check out a stunning recent article on Max:

http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/news/story?id=4527311

In the article is his remarkable recovery from his tragic car accident as well as the story of him starting Life Turns (a program to provide kids -- orphans, cancer patients and paraplegics, among others a week of skiing in Crested Butte).

Nick DeVore continues to make tremendous wakes in the global Telemark world. He is featured again this year in Powder Whore's Flakes (Just got the Telemark Team copy in the mail, we'll be watching it soon!), as well as Sweetgrass Productions movie Signatures.

Jake Sakson makes his debut in the ski movie world in both of these films as well, and he has created quite a buzz as the "New Up and Comer" in the professional Telemark world. We'll be throwing our popcorn at the screen and cheering him on as watch these new flicks as a team.

Thanks to all these folks for fueling the fire on the front lines, but also heartfelt vibes to the hordes of CRMS Telemark Team alumns out there using artistry in Telemark skiing as an analogy for living outstanding, deliberate, and passionate lives.

Waiting for Snow

Charinne Contouris coping with balance and pain at the same time.

If you are mentally suffering because you can't yet ski, you might as well physically suffer as well. Thus the invention of DRYLAND TRAINING.


We have just successfully navigated the first week. People are feeling muscles they didn't know existed as we tackled our first runs and plyos.

Weaver Froelicher mid burpee.

It was a quiet week due to the fact that the SOCCER TEAM ROCKED THE HOUSE this year and extended their season by getting into the State Tournement.

The play and the climbing team also claimed some of our members (for noble reasons).

The small crew that came out suffered in good humor and it feels good to have Telemark on the mind.

Abs of Steel.

And so it begins...

There is snow on Sopris, frost on the grass in the mornings the leaves have changed and dryland begins on Monday...

Welcome to the 2009-2010 Telemark Season!

Welcome, also, to the CRMS Telemark Team Blog. There is two years of archived stories, travel, adventures, competition results, dryland results and more...all of which can be accessed through the Blog Archive.

Our Dryland Schedule and Competition Schedule can also be accessed through Important Links in the right hand side bar.

From the Land of the Rising Sun

Alumni Jake Sakson just returned from a trip to Japan to film with Sweetgrass Productions. He is now in Alaska competing in Telemark Freesking Worlds. Below are several journal entries from his Japan adventure.

March 9th 5:30am
Just made it through security destination the Island of Hokkaido in Japan. Hard for me to believe I'm actually going. Keep thinking something is going to go wrong - too good to be true. Can't really tell if I'm dreaming; but then again I'm sleep deprived.

March 11th 11:00pm
I'm the only person on a gi -normous bus and I've been sleeping. Its pretty tiring running around an airport with two 50 pound bags, barely making your bus, trying to find an ATM and holding your pee. Well at least I'm on the bus now but I just hope I haven't missed my stop. First time I've seen snow covered roads in months and it is absolutely puking out; its hard not to be happy even though I have no idea where I am about to end up. (I did make it...)

March 13th
I dug a really big hole today. And filmed skiing at night. Nick Waggoner really takes ski filming to the next level. Its not just about capturing the skier instead each shot is a carefully thought out piece of art.March 17th
Great day of skiing, blower pow. Finally got enough snow to cover up the rain crust and the opportunity to leave the house and ski some lines.

March 19th
Don't think I have spent this many days inside and not skiing all season. But what can we do, low clouds, warm weather and rain. The powder got shot fast. The best option is to head to a new zone at a higher elevation and further north. The mountains up here are wild, not exactly what you expect when you think about Japan - jagged faces, tall and steep. Now we just need a little love from the weather. And so the waiting begins.

March 24th
Right when we were beginning to think that out trip was going to only consist of Onsen (a hot spring bath house) and amazing hospitality (would have still been a great trip if that was the case). The pelting rain turned to snow and the skiing got deep for the last day of my trip

.
March 26th 5:31pm
Seattle: flights are canceled to Denver. But thats ok, unknowingly I booked one flight that went Tokyo - Seattle - Denver. And my flight the next day went Denver - Seattle - Anchorage. I am headed to Girdwood for the World Telemark Championships and then two weeks of skiing and filming in Valdez. Luckily I got rescued from a 24hr stay in the Airport by some extended family and the journey continues. Flights have been getting canceled to Anchorage because of too much snow, so maybe I won't make it out tomorrow but I say - Let it Snow!

I took these pictures off of sweetgrassproductions.wordpress.com

CRMS Telemark in XSport International

Luke Lubchenko wrote a great article on the CRMS Telemark Team for the online magazine XSport International. Sam Stevens is also featured in the same edition for his downhill mountain biking.

Check it out!

USASA Slopestyle

My camera was giving me trouble today, so I wasn't able to do justice to the superb CRMS Telemark Team showing against an alpine and snowboard field at the USASA Slopestyle at the end of February in Snowmass. Although we got off to a rocky start with most of the crew showing up too late to get properly registered, we were able to get most people into the event and the day ended in heroic fashion. Below are a few shots and results from the event.

Peter Madigan was one of several people on the team that came out to enjoy the bluebird conditions and support the crew competing.

Luke Lubchenko, mid 720 over the judges, and on his way to a second place finish in the men's open field.

Dillon Smith on his way to stomping his second corked 9. Two clean runs, both culminating in corked 9s, put him in first place in the mens open class.


Luke Lubchenko sending skis everywhich way mid 3 off the second table.

Dillon Smith, mid switch unatural 5 (I think)

Adam Hobby and Thorne Warner have hit their first season on the Telemark Team hard. They have continually supplimented what we can accomplish during the week with weekend and break seshions, often in the park perfecting rails and tables. As a result, they have made huge strides this year. Unfortunately Thorn was sick for this comp, but Adam put together 2 clean runs in his first slopestyle comp.

Adam and the tail tap picknick table gap.

Salomon Extreme Freeride Championships Taos New Mexico

After the usual chaos of getting packed, classes covered, homework done, and tying four million loose ends together, 19 students and three coaches met at 5:45 A.M. Wednesday morning and we hit the road for Taos.

"That there is the best frozen cheeseburger I carry in the store"

Spring is in the air and roads were clear. After a few caffeine and junk food stops, we made it to the Sand Dunes, because our craving for a backcountry experience where you can ski down and hike back up without having to put skins on had gotten the best of us again. We loaded up our skis and boots on packs and began the trek up the tallest dune.

Thorn Warner and Adam Hobby on the summit ridge

Luke Lubchenko, anticipating some sweet sand freshies.

Brooke Lederer, one step at a time on the final ascent.

The sand was warmer this year and a bit slower, but that didn’t stop people from getting gnarly. We lapped a couple of runs of the top dune, skiing and then “skinning” back up without skins and then traversed over to a couple other steep sections on the way down.

Juan Pable Alcocer gets his first taste of San Luis Valley Sand. So good when it hits the lips.

Meghan Detering lets 'er rip.

Hayen Kennedy... Sand People genes run deep in his blood.

Liza Cochran contemplates the zen beauty of it all on the skin track back up.

Adam Hobby stretches it out on the slip face of the tallest dune.

Brooke Lederer, already putting her game face on for Taos.

Walking the earth...

Dillon Smith kickin' up some sand rooster tail.

We rolled into Taos around 5:30, checked into the Super 8, and the competitors headed up to the competitors meeting and registration up at the mountain. We rolled into the meeting at 6:30, in perfect timing to jump in the food line, and registration line just as the meeting was beginning.

Prelims this year would be held on Kachina Peak rather than the West Basin.

Lots of warnings in the safety briefing of firm conditions. The word from Jake and Amon, who had skied today, was that conditions were super hard and challenging. Taos hadn’t seen snow for a couple of weeks, and warm weather had taken their 120 inch base down to 75.

Liza Cochran stops after phase one of the hike up to Kachina Peak, about a 1 and 1/2 mile hike, not unlike Highlands Bowl.

Kelsey Bohanon's first big mountain comp... the monster hike, hard conditions, and intimidating venue seemed to spawn thoughts of "what the hell have I got my self into..." which were followed by wide eyed excitement after wreaking havoc on the women's Alpine field and moving into the semi finals in first place.

Luke Lubchenko enjoys the bluebird morning hike up to the summit of Kachina.

A south facing grassy traverse with the competition venue in the background.

The final ascent up to the starting zone on top of Kachina peak is reminiscent of Highlands Bowl.

Kelsey Lewis enjoys the by she earned with a 4th place finish last year as she gets to enjoy the spring conditions and chill in the finish during the prelims on day one.

Wind-scoured, bullet proof conditions make for some additional butterflies during the prelims. Brooke and Kelsey's decision to ski fast and clean lines sat well with the judges.

Brooke celebrates a solid, stand-up run, which would advance her to the semi finals in 2nd place.

Kelsey Bohanon moves with the wind in her first big mountain comp ever.

Deserving smiles in the finish seem to forshadow her advancement to the semi-finals in first place. CRMS Telemark women wrecked havoc on the alpine field today.

Noah Johns charges some monster air on the upper part of the course which gets the crowd fired up. Unfortunately the snow gave way under him on his landing, resulting in a head over heals tumble, which prevented him from advancing to the finals.

Luke Lubchenko, fresh from a 6th place finish in the men's division in Alpine Meadows California, on his way to a clean finish that would advance him to the semifinals.

The crowd goes wild as Sam Stevens shows Taos what clean Telemark skiing looks like.

Unfortunately Sam took a monster beater in the finish zone, preventing him from moving beyond the prelims, but we got it on camera, which makes it well worth the pain. Sam's skiing, in his final competition of his senior year, was a tribute to his movement and comitment over the last 4 years.

Nick Malik finishes a beautiful run. He took off out of the start like a bandit, laying down beautiful, monster GS turns. Nick's skiing has taken quantum leaps this year as a result of his relentless and passionate pursuit of snow and the Telemark turn.

Alumni Jake Sakson charges the bottom of the venue. Jake had a couple of unlucky crashes up high, but he was in good spirits at the bottom with a "that's the way it goes some times" attitude.

Hayden Kennedy: "The Peoles Run"
Above: Hayden launches into the stratosphere on the upper part of the venue.
The Judges were hard on Hayden's run, most likely because of the fact that he blew through the finish zone and out onto the public run, but Hayden skied the run of the day by threading the needle through a rock band that looked un-skiable from the finish zone. People were out of their seats and cheering and sputtering spittle encrusted statements about the fact that he was on Telemark skis.
Below: Hayden skis the unskiable.

Day 2:
8-10 inches of snow fall overnight, and Saturday looked like this:
...definate weather day. The competition was bumped to Sunday, and we skied absurd powder lines off the West Basin all morning. Not a soul, other than the CRMS Telemark Team, was out tracking up these lines, and we had fresh tracks on every shot we traversed to. It was a morning that will live long and large in the annals of Telemark Team powder days.

Most of the team packed up and made the trip back to CRMS that afternoon to get back for interim and a handful of people, including those who qualified, stayed for semi-finals and finals on Sunday. We made sure to pay proper tribute to the UFO Highway on the way home.

Brian Butcher, eyes peeled.

Gracyn Overstreet and Noah Johns with make extraterrestrial contact.

Extraplanetary love.

Peyton Heitzman in the zone.

Rift Valley sunset.

Trying to catch a bubble pop on film attempt 392

We met some good folks along the way.

Day 3: The Return of the Telemark Jedi
More pictures and story soon coming to theater near you.

2009 Results : Junior Women : Extreme Freeride Championship at Taos

Finish	Bib	First Name	Last Name	City	ST
1	127	Chysanthe	Demas
2	18	Brooke	Lederer
3	92	Carmen	Fregulia	Graeagle	CA
4	28	Kelsey	Lewis	Basalt	CO