Year in review: What did you learn?

[MikeK]

Yeah Jz, Tele is cooool. Hey it just finally hit me what your avatar is! All this time I thought it was some Mars crater.

[jzahnny]

...I thought it was some Mars crater.

Yeah, some wood scraps I put together. I've always kept up a music/arts/craft space for making stuff.

[Woodserson]

I learned:

1. I can actually somewhat Tele badly.

2. that the tele turn is for me.

3. that the tele turn is easier on my back because there is more suspension all around with my free heels and I'm not pushing it like a goddamm madman all the time.

4. that committing is best and not to look back at my wonderful alpine and AT gear that I have curated over the years.

5. that my wonderful AT gear that I love so much but have committed to not use fits my brother and he can ski that while I ski my tele stuff.

6. that leather boots at the ski area garners respect from grizzled lifties.

7. that I can feel my brain rewire itself while I learn The Turn.

8. that I am ok with cables and looking for plastic boots to augment my quiver.

9. that tele skiing makes me strong.

10. that after all these years I still love skiing no matter how I do it, as long as I am sliding on snow.

[MikeK]

Nice list Woods.

I blame the XC. Once you got into that the Tele was inevitable given your background.

[Harris]

I learned the Meidjo binding is an expensive mistake that might someday be otherwise. I learned there is a far better alternative to Rott bindings despite the afore-mentioned (Outlaws). I learned how to ski and enjoy PNW slop (my first year out here). I learned that the best ski for teleing PNW conditions might just be a ridiculous fat tip-looking K2 alpine ski. I learned that a ski area can have only 2 operating lifts and still be amazing (Alpental). I learned a lot less folks tele anymore, which might be a good thing, except gear availability-wise. I learned from shared lift rides that other non-freeheel skiers still respect tele (if you aren't a stuck-up dick about it). I learned that Taylor Swift has a strangely attractive sense of humor. And... And I learned that my knees aren't getting any younger.

[MikeK]

Hey Harris,

I'm totally out of my wheelhouse here and I didn't know if I should respond here or on the other Meidjo thread, but...

Seems to me that doohicky wasn't necessarily made to take a beating with lots of laps resort skiing. I was under the impression since it's inception that it was meant to be an ultra-light option for NTN skiers.

I also think based on seeing the prototypes to production parts (in pictures) that they cut a lot of corners to keep cost and weight down. Those two don't always go hand in hand.

Also, just another random observation but perhaps skis and boots are just too wide and too stiff to be skiing lightweight bindings on hard snow?

Maybe if you are getting 100 runs in a year on BC powder then it can hold up? Don't know? Seems like it has some other flaws as well. And like I say, seems to be a bit frail/cheap.

I equate this to lots of things, but one near and dear to me is boats. I could buy an near 30 lb carbon fiber 16' tripping canoe that would be a dream when I have to toss it on my shoulders and hop to the next pond, but one stiff bounce off a sharp rock hiding in dark waters and the thing might split in two. On the other end I could get a 50-60 lb 'lightweight' Royalex river tripper that can bounce off rocks and never bat an eye but carrying it two miles between lakes in the heat of the summer is murder. Then there is the middle ground. Carbon/Kevlar composites. Stiff, tough as fuck. Kevlar is almost tear resistant. You can punch it into a sharp rock impact and break all the resin and the cloth will most likely not tear. It will lose it's structure, but it's hydrophobic and with a little duct tape will still keep out the water and keep you going provided you didn't fold the whole thing around a rock and split the gunwales (even that failure can be fixed in the wild). A 16' boat might weigh in at 40-45 lbs with world class construction and need major repairs when you get home if you did something like that, but you'd get home.

I use a carbon/Kevlar composite. It's tough enough I don't have to worry about being stranded but light enough to get me where I'm going. It's not a whitewater boat whereas the Royalex river tripper could handle mild rapids in the right hands. The 30lb full carbon boats are good for those who move fast and are very careful, are racers or aren't very strong and want something to get on and off their car easily and are just going to diddle around in duck ponds or day trip.

Durability and weight need to be consistent with the needs of the user.

[Harris]

Hey Harris,

I'm totally out of my wheelhouse here and I didn't know if I should respond here or on the other Meidjo thread, but...

Seems to me that doohicky wasn't necessarily made to take a beating with lots of laps resort skiing. I was under the impression since it's inception that it was meant to be an ultra-light option for NTN skiers.

Durability and weight need to be consistent with the needs of the user.

I think that if I had had a chance to see the binding in person I wouldn't have bought it (my first mistake!). And that is what rubs me the worst; I did a lot of reading on it before I bought it. It won awards (learned that that is a BS gig), it had rave reviews, it was marketed as being durable, etc, etc, and no-where did I read anything in reviews about it being incapable or fragile as far as resort skiing goes. My rub is that there really is very little "true" reviewing going on with tele gear, and probably alpine as well. I know AT guys who are getting bit by gear that is hyped "latest and greatest," but was in fact cut corner, half-assed engineered and rushed to market without comprehensive R&D. But back to tele gear, we seem to be plagued by gear that geared strictly for lite BC use, I see this especially in ski selections, which to have that pure pow gear is fine, and there are plenty folks who just tour on tele, but there are still a lot of skiers working the gear pretty hard in an "all mountain" sense, and finding solid performing, all condition durable gear is getting tricky. I had to take a big gamble when I bought my K2 Pinnacle 95s. I had never seen anyone mount telemark bindings to them. In that case my gamble paid off--they work very good for my local conditions and preferred terrain. Are they my best option? Well they work far, far better than my old BD Havocs, but I'll never know if there is something much better still because unlike alpine gear, there is very little demo availability concerning "all mountain" tele, which coupled with today's puff piece reviews, it really leaves a buyer blind.

But really in the end, I write what I have written about the Meidjo because I don't want anyone else to get bitten like I did; it needed an honest review, pointing out both the pros and substantial cons. Ironically, last week I rode up a lift with a guy who's friend has Meidjo bindings and he ran into the same issues.

[MikeK]

R&D? Receive and Deliver. Replicate and Duplicate.

I don't know that R&D exists on this level of engineering. That kind of stuff takes serious money and effort. And no way any serious product testing was accomplished with the amount of time that elapsed between the protos and the production parts.

You guys are the beta testers. You're also generating the capital to make the design changes necessary to make the next gen working, or not... depends on how much they are losing on fighting fires with the current designs and honoring warranty.

Seriously though. I work in and ultra-conservative industry and the amount of product testing to get something out is ridiculous. And it still fails! And people still think cars are unreliable (I work in the auto industry).

I also work in R&D so I tend to think the tele industry is a little humorous. We're constantly getting our budgets cut on new development and this is a trillion dollar industry with a shit ton of government regs that HAVE to be met and tons of government money being reinvested to develop new tech to meet those regs and conserve energy. Tele is a cottage industry in comparison. There simply isn't enough money for these small guys to put the money into real R&D. Might well be guys in sheds making stuff with chisels and files.

OTOH, the inventors of NTN, Rottefella, are a huge company. No doubt they spent a lot of time and money developing their NTN bindings, and they are heavy and they still break. I bet those guys on that design team are just laughing watching these other companies take on their license trying to reinvent their wheel. There are always unforeseen challenges waiting around the corner with a design that has this much complexity and has to be cheap enough for the market and cutting edge on some aspect: weight, release, feel, whatever...

I'm not saying the little guys can't make good products, but to do it with high volumes without lots of product development is crazy... and for that, you almost need some other proven product line to keep you going. Just my guess but I think that Meidjo would have been a lot more successful if it stayed secret for longer and was manufactured by a big time company, like dynafit or black diamond.

[montrealer]

- Big toe little toe - focus on edging
- "Two legs, one ski" - don't know if that's a thing, but that was a key to things clicking for me, actually thinking/pretending I was riding one long ski and trying to carve it.
- Varying turn arcs for different pitches. - very obvious, but things got better when I stopped trying to force the same turn on all parts of the hill.

Not sure if this is good technique, but I noticed when I really almost sat on my rear leg rather than "holding a pose" my leg muscles felt more relaxed and didn't get as sore for many runs. I'm not really describing it well, I need to try it more.

[lilcliffy]

I think that you are describing it very well.

And "sitting on that rear leg" is exactly what I have been working on as well. It has become something I have had to focus on more now that my legs/ankles/feet are not locked up in rigid boots. I know that you have a desire to telemark on BC-XC tech- "sitting on that rear leg" is definitely a transferable skill!

"Two legs, one ski". Man- you've got it there. Once the turn is initiated- no matter with what technique/technology- riding one long ski is the essence of carving the telemark.

And yes- the type of turn, the turn-radius, the turn-initiation, the degree of aggressive power needed- depends on the immediate context of where you are on the hill, and what you need/want to do- and the ability to read what's coming next!

Great stuff man.