Nick Devore hoists the hardware at the 2011 Polartec Scufoneda. Photo: Doug Schnitzspahn
Last winter, I competed in my first telemark extreme contest. Well, sort of. The Polartec Scufoneda may be the oddest alpine derby around—mashing up knee droppers, guys in wigs, grappa shots, Jumbotron footage, pillow drops, more grappa shots and a contest that is judged by some Byzantine system that combines style, air and speed. Oh, and it all goes down in the Italian Dolomites with the local police chief running things and partying with the competitors. Truly, like most things in Italy, it’s more experience than contest.
The competition is the culmination of a six-day event that began in 1997, when a group of local telemarkers who called themselves the Scufons del Cogo (which translates roughly as “local dirtbag telemark slaves”) decided the Dolomites needed an event that celebrated the slightly foolish method of skiing down an extreme slope by dropping your knee—and often falling. More than that it was to be a celebration of skiing backcountry, or off-piste or, as it is called in Europe, “freeriding.” Central to the event is a sort of party on skis—participants spend the week skiing together at the interconnected resorts of the Val di Fassa, imbibing local wines, dancing to ‘80s music (while sort of in drag) and generally frightening the unwary tourists.
Beyond the bacchanalia, the real goal of the scufons was to show how freeriding developed from the mindset of telemarking. Long before AT equipment evolved to where it is today, it was telemarkers getting out and exploring the crazy, free lines on the other side of the ropes. And the Scufondeda has evolved. Last year, it attracted 500 competitors in tele, alpine and snowboard divisions. It hosted a marketplace for freeride and tele gear and it raised money for children in Uganda with its kids program. While it is increasingly becoming more of a full International freeride event rather than a tele comp, the scufons have made their point. The spirit of telemarking rules here.
Oh… and my liver wants to remind you that it’s still a full-on party like only the Italians can sustain—think three people doing grappa shots with their arms intertwined in wrist stocks.
It’s also a hell of a competition. The Scufoneda was one of the hardest things I have ever done. The “course” dropped off the backside of a tram along a 500-foot cliff into rock bands and solidified avalanche debris. I tried to bomb the top to gain speed points and ended up with my legs screaming, lungs depleted and pride broken as I tried to hide from the helicopter cameras before I even reached the cliffs. Rain days before turned the snow into garbage. Telemark stud Nick Devore, who ended up winning, got stuck in a hole halfway down. Eben Mond of FlyLow finished third despite saying, “I skied like shit,” when he crossed the finish line. It hurt. But oh did the Barolo taste sweet when it was over.
The Scufoneda will take place this year from March 4-11 in the town of Moena. I suggest you get there.
