What is the future of Telemark?

[Lo-Fi]

I used to white water kayak(playboating) alot, through the peak of its popularity in the 90s and early 00s. During that time the boats evolved very rapidly, allowing higher and higher performance. That higher performance also made the boats very unforgiving and that was blamed for killing off the interest of many entry level boaters. By the time the manufacturers figured that out and promoted designs that delivered high performance for both novices and experts, the population of potential paddlers had moved on (got SUP?)

Could this be in part what happened with Tele skiing? It saw great advances in boots and skis, but more to serve the already adept tele skiers or advanced alpine and nordic skiers. There wasn't really the focus on making the "sport"/technique more accessible to novices.

When I think now about a boot like the Excursion(comfy, warm, dry, flexible, powerful) matched with a ski like the Altai Kom(stable,short & manoeuvrable, floaty, turny, easy climbing), it seems much closer to a perfect combination for initiating a much wider segment of the population into the elemental form of skiing we all love: ski up, ski down, almost anywhere you have available. Sub $1000.



Here's my lightweight 12 year old daughter catching her first ever tele turn with zero instruction from me. Its the first ski this season on a measly 6" of snow. We traipsed all around the woods and fields and she had fun just goofing around, but actually completing viable telemark turns on the Koms.



The future?

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[Cannatonic]

that looks like a nice first day to me, I'm walking my dogs through green hayfields around here. yes, telemark can make the local sledding hill or XC spot a lot more interesting. for that hill any XC ski with a little sidecut would be fun too.

[TeleBeaver]

Going back to the original post, I am one of the few who decided to start skiing and said "Telemark is what I'll do!" Perhaps it was because I could find an old pair of powderbirds and cobras for dirt cheap on ebay, or that my dad has an old pair of tm-22s in the basement, or that I liked the idea of doing things a little differently. Whatever the reason, I am so grateful every ski day that I chose telemark. I mostly thrash the lift-served terrain at Sugarloaf, but the added challenge and swagger that comes with the telemark turn can't be beat. It really is like dancing. It keeps things interesting, and there are so many different types of turns you can do that I never get bored even when lapping the same two trails on opening weekend.

Speaking of opening weekend, free-heelers had an excellent showing the last four days at Sugarloaf, I would say it was almost 25% telewhackers out on the hill. The most committed and hardcore skiers I know do do it with a free heel, and I think that really says something about the future of the sport. Everyone wants to be a local, and when the local rippers are on tele gear it definitely gets noticed.

[lilcliffy]

LoFi-

Loved your post and your video of your daughter skiing. My oldest daughter is 12 years old as well. She professes to be a "downhill" skier- as opposed to her Dad, the "xcountry" skier. I don't have anything as powerful as the Excursion for her, but she does amazing things on her Eons and Fischer BCX6. I absolutely love skiing with her- she is always in search of downhill fun! (I can convince her to go on a distance tour with me, as long as there is enough vertical to satisfy her downhill cravings!)

Your story about kayaking and the performance-oriented was an excellent analogy. (A similar analogy can be drawn with track-oriented XC skiing).

IMO- the biggest mistake that the manufacturers could make is to focus too much on high-performance big-mtn Tele. After all- when one considers high-performance downhill skiing on extreme terrain- can any free-heel tech compete with AT?