How do you describe telemarking?

This made me think...

Lately I feel like I have to explain myself to all my AT friends... they seem to look at my gear confused... Like, "why are you doing that?"

AT = All Trendy!

Fortunately skiing on tele rigs no longer appeals to these wanabees...

That's a nice demonstration video. My only complaint is that it was shot entirely on a groomed slope. So we never get to see the skier turning in soft, natural snow. He doesn't really need to carve a turn. There's a lot of skidding in the video.

The desire to ski natural snow on light, 70mm(-ish) skis is what drove the telemark renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. Most people have forgotten how hard it is to ski natural snow on old-school equipment. It has been made simple by fat skis. Today we don't ski in the snow as much as we ski on top of it. Need to check your speed or avoid an obstacle? Just pivot and smear.

It didn't used to be that way. Alpine skiing in the backcountry used to be hard. That's why telemarking was popular.

Oh wow, have I not forgotten! So many days I say to partners, we'd have not gotten 1/2 this far in, up or down on our 198 Karhu Supremes or XCD's or Fischer 99's!

That's a nice demonstration video. My only complaint is that it was shot entirely on a groomed slope. So we never get to see the skier turning in soft, natural snow. He doesn't really need to carve a turn. There's a lot of skidding in the video.

The desire to ski natural snow on light, 70mm(-ish) skis is what drove the telemark renaissance in the 1980s and 1990s. Most people have forgotten how hard it is to ski natural snow on old-school equipment. It has been made simple by fat skis. Today we don't ski in the snow as much as we ski on top of it. Need to check your speed or avoid an obstacle? Just pivot and smear.

It didn't used to be that way. Alpine skiing in the backcountry used to be hard. That's why telemarking was popular.

Nobody can ski like this anymore with light gear
Telemarking on modern gear, plastic boots, powerful bindings and fat skis is fun but it is closer to alpine skiing than leathers, pins and skinny skis.

Telemarking gave me great pleasure when my knees were younger. I still do it a bit when on my XC gear, e.g. coming back down the ski hill after spending some time above on the XC groomers at the pass, though frankly even with my Fischer XCDs I find parallels are a bit easier and at least as effective for me on the packed slopes.

AT also gives me great pleasure, which I appreciate now that my knees are older. I also love the weight/beefiness ratio with a light Dynafit setup. And I've learned that I also get the bonus of MUCH easier skiing when there's breakable crust. Soon after going to the dark side, I was touring a crusty tour with some really strong tele partners - if we were all on tele they'd have been at least keeping up if not getting ahead of me. But on this day, we AT skiers were getting lots of rest on the way down waiting for them.

I do miss the tele turn sometimes on steep-and-deep in cold powder, but not enough to carry the weight of releasable bindings etc., nor to give up the power steering.

Aaron,

That video rocks! I grew up in the Wasatch skiing on leathers and 3 pin bindings with those guys as my heroes. Thanks for posting that. It's why I still tele 90%

Aaron,

That video rocks!  I grew up in the Wasatch skiing on leathers and 3 pin bindings with those guys as my heroes.  Thanks for posting that.  It's why I still tele 90%

I still think my best tele turns ever were with pins, leathers and Tua Montets in powder.

I've put that vid up a couple of times to 'shame' the converters  ;D  At 64, I haven't found the knees to be a reason, yet..  quads, maybe..

On the deck and sub 90 is still the ticket..  said the guy on 97's / 105's with NTN..  

I've put that vid up a couple of times to 'shame' the converters  ;D  At 64, I haven't found the knees to be a reason, yet..  

Sorry, I feel no such shame  ;D. I'm having too much fun. I'm always amused at the ardent nature of the stalwarts of either tele or AT in these discussions. Shame and penis envy? C'mon guys, this is all just fun either way, isn't it?? Yet another amazing and silly human invention that lets us recreate with joy.

Anyway, glad for you that your knees aren't an issue, David. I have some early degeneration and have started to think about how to ration the remaining knee function in hopes that these critical joints carry me further for longer. There are lots of things I CAN still do, but my doc's advice is to be smart about which ones I actually DO...

I made the switch I forget how many years ago after realizing that I was p-turning over half the time on my tele gear. And that I could be skiing a much lighter set up with zero friction (touring mode tele bindings either weren't out or were just barely out at that point; though the weight issue remains). The bonus that I didn't count on was that my p-turns are even more fun on the AT gear, especially in funky snow!

Sorry, I feel no such shame  ;D. I'm having too much fun. I'm always amused at the ardent nature of the stalwarts of either tele or AT in these discussions. Shame and penis envy? C'mon guys, this is all just fun either way, isn't it?? Yet another amazing and silly human invention that lets us recreate with joy.

Anyway, glad for you that your knees aren't an issue, David. I have some early degeneration and have started to think about how to ration the remaining knee function in hopes that these critical joints carry me further for longer. There are lots of things I CAN still do, but my doc's advice is to be smart about which ones I actually DO...

I made the switch I forget how many years ago after realizing that I was p-turning over half the time on my tele gear. And that I could be skiing a much lighter set up with zero friction (touring mode tele bindings either weren't out or were just barely out at that point; though the weight issue remains). The bonus that I didn't count on was that my p-turns are even more fun on the AT gear, especially in funky snow!

Totally..  but TTS..  just sayin..   

Text-to-speech? True-to-size?

Oh, maybe you mean the binding system! Is there a releasable version that would get me in the weight zone of something like say the standard (i.e. not any superlight race tech etc.) Dynafit AT binding (w/o brakes)? And that would enable me to pull my tails out the crud anything like the way that a fixed heel does? I get that they are supposed to perform well and have good engagement immediately upon lifting the heel from the ski, but the heel does still lift from the ski when going downhill, so I assume I get that much more tail lift with the fixed heel when in breakable crust and other cruddy snow...

I realize that many telemarkers differ from me on insisting on releasability, but once I moved beyond the V1 superloops (which while not really "releasable bindings" did essentially release if you stretched the bungie sufficiently in a fall), I always either mounted my binding on a release plate, or used an integrated binding/release system. Again, I want to preserve my knees etc., and I also want those skis to just come off if I'm ever caught in a slide! But I also want a light system - fortunately I seem to be able to have my cake and eat it too! At the cost of giving up a little mysticism/lore, but so be it.

Just tried out my new set of AT skis yesterday on the groomers. Well that was different and had to fight some muscle memory. I'll still tele - and for a while it will be my stronger suit in the backcountry, but I suspect after some practice it will be the other way around.

So much lighter - and releasable.

Chamois - you are reminding me of my own return to fixed heel skis (before I learned to tele, I did alpine gear on lifts and XC elsewhere) - I thought I was going to rip my calf trying instinctively to get into position! The shift happened fairly quickly for me, and though I kept the tele gear thinking I would use it for this or that condition, I have to admit that it lay dust covered ever since (oh the shame  ). Finally admitting to myself that I should sell that stuff for a few bucks so someone else can have fun with it!

Oh, it is strong, the dark side, it is.


But having never been an alpine skier I can't imagine going into the backcountry yet. But practice I will, yes.

Telemark is to Tai Chi as Alpine is to Boxing

reposting cuz it disappeared last time..
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nGBbku9zHvSeFsdOofEzGFSCcALAz3_96eloxRJeflK7WwrHr4utvw5go4288m_JuXNBK4qns13w_qg5MvCF4-ZbrNE2XgxR5ajKbDW8gDD3ZTHnaxndBqAL3FB-EcWKoGodrwF-SsjAOR2KaLmwFg_0FeUPMiQ6Pkl4a8jchqSv6KhCUL7MTXMlNAfeYAXTxNAuBPgvgOwFxWWSeHuzCHIYL0fSTh6JkQYxl8LEw9C9FTwizUMX_B3yYV85uQ_U6G-bTC6O4RH6syAWCwE6DY6on9T6_x3tvaJ-ZFSWJHS32F0P1gALaXfUXu38BWx2mmpCaNZM6A0Wq7IBgRKrGET7Wriw98nu8Hi-j6ADfvA41UlVd-Eb-s3rK-PyZFEncHBIpkPzTmB52foopg6i6RmzDAxwrCljX7ZONsFwKZdAAZAhtsVetFXilN2Z-Xp8FAlF9cg144OPUaE1JY8TkCLCKRAoW55ph9sODRUzRDClG948YBYrcC_8LqV39TTD2xR8L_SMgwY4C3_nxkRoeRdRkTbkHVeUdrcuCO3SFwmBdonPb0cjBzUsqh5wqTNeJj082fLN_1ulkPudXkyvBXx8a4dY4VQ=w568-h605-no