Norpine Skiing
Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2017 4:04 pm
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
- Paula Colangelo, director of the Intervale N.H., Nordic Leaming Center, 1984
"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
-Dickie Hall, 1983