How should I try tele?

[Staccato]

Learned to alpine ski last year after snowboarding for around 10 years and I’d like to try tele skiing.

I’m not at all familiar with tele gear and would like to try it without too much of a financial investment. I’m thinking that looking for used gear would be my best bet, but I’m not sure what type of boots / bindings I should be looking for.

Anybody have recommendations or tips on used tele gear they’d like to share? I’m in Denver if that helps.

[Dying2Live]

There’s actually a telemark demo day at Loveland this Sunday.

https://skiloveland.com/mc-events/telef ... mc_id=1418

[Lhartley]

The biggest benefit to tele (imo, as a recent convert) is that there is the opportunity to have zero transition between tour and ski mode. Meaning you can learn on the smallest of available slopes with the help of fishscale traction patterns or grip wax, for example golf courses,nordic centers. Find a pair of 75mm plastic boots and whatever wide, flat camber tele skis you can get your hands on and go hit some low angles. Personally, I lucked out and found a pair of karhu guides with fischscales. Similar skis can be found made fischer, voile, altai etc. A bonus with these traction pattern skis is you can learn basic nordic kick and glide techniques with them as well. If you have good access to a ski hill this won't matter, just go skiing on whatever setup you get your hands on. You'll soon have a basement full of skis anyways. Also, YouTube videos and a book called telemarktips (avoid the forum with the similar name, avoid like a lady of the night on East Hastings)

[Bavarian Cream]

Hi Staccato, and welcome to the unexpectedly immersive world of tele you’re about to be blindsided by. Are you planning on skiing lift-served or touring the backcountry? Also, if you feel comfortable mentioning your height/weight or shoe size, people might be able to link some gear or know if they have something lying around to hook you up with. You live in a great place to get your whole setup for free-$100 if you aren’t ready to commit to state-of-the-art gear and just want to give slightly old gear a try first.

[Montana St Alum]

Telemark is just a turn technique with a free heel (free in movement, not cost. There's the old joke - I took up tele because I'm cheap and was told the heels were free!). Do you want to stay on runs at ski areas, or do you want more of a cross-country type of experience?