Very basic troubleshooting for the telemark stance: Unintentional uphill turn...

[lowangle al]

Lagerbier, when you are practicing that drill, do it going straight down the slope. If you are traversing the slope you will naturally want to lean into the hill. It's this leaning that's causing the lead ski to turn. Without enough weight on the rear ski and lacking edge control on the lead ski you are spinning around.

[Lagerbaer]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I'll let you know how it goes next time. You've given me lots of things to think about and experiment with. Back to the bunny hill it is

[comradeporcupine]

In my first tele lesson, the instructor had me just go straight down the most gradual slope, no turning at all, doing the alternating pumping lunging motion that is what ultimately drives tele. Take the turning part out of it entirely, and just concentrate on getting that rear foot behind you and under your butt, and then the other leg, etc. just going down a gradual slope. Later once you have practiced this, you can take it into turns with more confidence. And one thing to remember, in lead change, it's about getting the rear ski back behind you, not pushing the front ski forward.

Tele lunge or not, turns on skis happen because of the angulation and edge-weighting of the skis. You obv know this from skiing alpine parallel turns but it's easy to forget once you're throwing a whole new kind of turn into it. So another thing to try is just get comfortable in your tele boots and bindings doing parallel turns in them. Once you can ski comfortable doing parallel turns, and you're used to the skis bindings and boots, then you can start on the tele stuff.

I'm no expert, those are just things I've picked up in my short little journey.

[Lagerbaer]

Ah, finally an update.

Went a few more times (roughly once a week for ~ 2 hours in the evening) and I think I figured out what the issue was:

The classic beginner mistake of entering the tele stance by drawing the back leg back instead of pushing the front leg forward. Took a lot of mental focusing and finding the right "image" to correct this mistake, but since then it's been going much better. Another problem was me having the body weight subtly wrong along multiple axes

So much better that I decided to upgrade from my way-too-big and way-too-worn boots to a pair that actually fits. Got a chance to try those guys out once already and that, too, made a big difference in just being able to feel much more accurately where my weight was going.

I guess that means, next step, putting in a Craigslist alert for some Tele skis of my own so I don't have to steal my wife's setup.

Thanks everyone for your tips and that helped a lot.