Norpine Skiing

The ultimate telemark knowledge base and encyclopedia. All you need to know about free-heel skiing. History, technical terms, glossary, how-to's and tips. Just the facts, no opinions. Your #1 place to start for everything tele.
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Johnny
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Joined: Wed Dec 18, 2013 5:11 pm
Location: Quebec / Vermont
Ski style: Dancing with God with leathers / Racing against the machine with plastics
Favorite Skis: Redsters, Radicals, XCD Comps, Objectives and S98s
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska XP, Alfa Guards, Scarpa TX Comp
Occupation: Full-time ski bum

Norpine Skiing

Post by Johnny » Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:04 pm

Norpine Skiing.jpg
Norpine skiing in Vermont
Norpine Skiing
Source: Johnny / Skiing Magazine

Norpine skiing, for Nordic / Alpine, is basically the same thing as XCD. The main difference is that while XCD was ususally used for telemark skiers using cross-country equipement, Norpine was used to name skiers doing the same thing at lift-served downhill ski resorts. The term was quite popular in the late 70's and the 80's. Today it is mostly used to describe skiing at downhill resorts using skinny XC skis and soft leather boots.

"There's nothing more exciting than jump telemarking through a mogul field, the terrific speed of a steep glade on Cross-Country gear, of carving graceful telies on an open slope. Skiers are arriving at Norpine from both the Alpine and XC camps. I started from the Nordic side, never thinking I'd be riding chair lifts or picking a line through a mogul field. A whole new world opened for me, and I find it addictive. This new craze is a revival of the earliest ski turn, but, of course, today's skiers are pushing the new, high-tech equipment to the limit."
- Paula Colangelo, director of the Intervale N.H., Nordic Leaming Center, 1984

Norpine Skiing Telemark.jpg
One classy Norpine skier

"The Turn has opened up a whole new world. It used to be that people just sort of survived going down-hill on XC skis. They snowplowed, and a few of the better ones telemarked or paralleled. But basically, they were looking at just the snowplow turn, which they used as a utility turn. They weren't doing it to have fun. What the telemark turn does for XC is make it a lot of fun to go downhill."
-Dickie Hall, 1983
/...\ Peace, Love, Telemark and Tofu /...\
"And if you like to risk your neck, we'll boom down Sutton in old Quebec..."

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