Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Hi all!

The other day I dug out my old tele boots and borrowed my wife's tele skis to try something new (and hopefully fun). I'm okay enough at alpine skiing but her turns look just so much better.

After about an hour of skiing and shuffling my legs around, thinking "yeah, I kinda get the hang of it", I realized I was leading with the wrong foot...

So then I thought, not to worry, let's just do whatever I did before but with the outside foot forward. And something I'm doing with my weight and body position just doesn't mesh or click. When I'm traversing a slope and just want to practice sinking into the tele stance, I immediately end up making a sharp pronounced turn UPHILL. I'll have to remember that for way later when I want to show off riding switch, but now I'd just like to sink into a tele stance and continue going straight.

It might be premature asking for explicit advice because I probably just need to flail a bit more and get some mileage, but maybe this is a common enough beginner problem with a simple answer like "sounds like you're putting too much weight here and not enough weight there".

(I got the 123 or whatever super cool telemark tips book, too, but that one didn't have my specific troubles mentioned in that neat flowchart at the end)

@Lagerbaer, I had maybe a similar problem starting out, where I would make a turn ok, but then spin out backwards at the end.
Maybe related, maybe not.
Anyway, I posted here about that and got some feedback, but to be honest, it was never absolutely clear to me what the problem was.
All I can say is that after a while, I somehow figured it out by trying different things.

Things to pay attention to are:
Weight distribution front ski / back ski;
Edge angle of each ski, individually;
Weight distribution on each ski (heel, balanced, ball of foot);
Body rotation relative to the hill.

If it’s as simple a scenario as you describe, it shouldn’t be too difficult to observe what is happening as you go from an upright position to sinking to a lower position. Then maybe try to not make the change you must be making as you drop down?

Lagerbaer wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:07 pm

...When I'm traversing a slope and just want to practice sinking into the tele stance, I immediately end up making a sharp pronounced turn UPHILL.

Is it always uphill regardless of which ski is forward?
Let's assume for the moment that you only turn uphill when your downhill ski is forward. This seems to suggest that you are edging either or both of the skis (big toe/little toe). So, if you were pointing down the hill rather than across, you would be initiating the turn (just fine) vs. turning uphill. It seems like you may be turning in the correct direction. (Modern skis love to turn, so it may not take much edging for them to start to turn, suggesting pay attention to edging or even thinking about it.)
I hope this is helpful.
(If my "let's assume" is wrong, then "never mind", and feel free to clarify.)

Is it always uphill regardless of which ski is forward?

When I do the "tele shuffle" and put the uphill ski forward, it's all fine. It's when I want to be in the proper tele stance with the downhill ski forward (i.e. the outside ski after completing a turn) that I overturn / turn uphill.

Yeah, the skis are nice and modern and, according to my wife, really fun to ski with.

Good chance that it's about the edges. Or maybe I'm not leaning down the fall line enough?

Is the front ski turning, or is the rear ski skidding out downhill?

Sorry to say, I am having a hard time following -- verbal descriptions are tricky!
If you have completed a turn and continue turning uphill, it does seem that you are not keeping the upper body in the fall line -- I used to do this (fear-based); still do sometimes. The more you can stay oriented to the fall line, the easier it is to initiate the next turn vs. continuing the previous one uphill.
(We may still not be communicating well!)

Personally it sounds like you are disconnecting the turn from your stance change and something is going weird. You should already be starting your turn downhill before your stance changes.

As you're moving across the fall line (downhill foot forward) you should start getting off of your uphill edge and onto the flat of the ski. This will start your skis rotating towards the fall line. While you start to rotate is when you smoothly swap the lead foot, ending up on the inside/uphill edges to finish the turn. If you're trying to swap feet before you begin turning all kinds of strange things can happen, which of course experienced skiers can overcome (a good tele drill is to do turns in both directions without changing stance) but you're working against normal movement in that case.

What's probably happening is that you're totally on the uphill edge, and when you push your foot forward you're engaging the full uphill running edge which on a modern (and probably soft since it's your wife's gear) will initiate the turn. The other tip is to keep your upper body facing downhill, even when just messing with lead changes traversing. (stilltryin ended up saying the same thing at the same time it seems)

I suggest you watch some video so you can see what tele turns look like. because you stated in your original post that you were leading with the wrong foot, I think you could benefit a great deal from just watching vids of tele...it will take practice, but at least you have the visuals in your head

My guess is that you're not getting enough weight on the rear ski. Without seeing your stance I would think you need to tighten it up fore and aft. Keep that rear boot under your butt (as much as you can) and it will be easier to get weight on that ski. I would also keep your skis about hip width apart and stick to low enough angle slopes that you don't have to worry about speed.

Lagerbaer wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 11, 2023 4:25 pm

Good chance that it's about the edges. Or maybe I'm not leaning down the fall line enough?

Or too much leaning downhill.
While traversing, if you are leaning downhill and your body is making a C your engaging the uphill edges of the skis, those skis probably love to turn or hook, J

Are you practicing on a green? Less edge required, good place to practice. Or a blue, more edge required, maybe not the best place to practice.