What is the future of Telemark?

[lowangle al]

rongon, I've been touring single camber dh skis with kick wax for a long time and they work for me. One of my favorite skis is an Atomic tour cap light from the early 90s which was a mountaineering ski around 75mm in the waist. they do tour better than the vectors and work equally well with plastic or leather boots.

[lilcliffy]

I have a pair of Madshus Annum (very similar size/shape as S-Bound 112, but softer) and a pair of Vector BC. Both have Voile Switchback bindings on them. If the Annum is anything like the SB112, I'd say the SB112 will be far better for kick-and-glide on the flats than the Vector BC. I find the Vector BC's tip rocker, 95mm width, and aggressive fish scales make it extremely slow on the flats. It's really a full-on downhill ski with fish scales. Not an XC ski at all.

I share your perspective- the flex pattern of the Annum is perfectly designed for xcountry skiing in deep, soft snow. The full-length, soft, even flex just seems to respond so beautifully to a good-ole Nordic kick! (Also makes it useless on hard/dense snow! ) (As an aside- I find that NNN-BC brings this out in the Annum even more than NN)

In a several-hour tour- in mountainous terrain- I once tested the S-112 vs. Annum vs. Vector BC- all with my T4s on. This limited experience gave me the same impression you have of the Annum vs. Vector BC. I see the Annum as a fat powder XCd ski (I even wish it had LESS sidecut for skiing in powder); the Vector BC as a downhill ski; and I would place the S-112 as an XCD ski- with more climbing/downhill prowess than the Annum- but less than the Vector BC.

If I had a mountain in my backyard I would already own the Vector BC.

Your description of the S-125- in the other thread- suggests it is a fatter version of the S-112/S-98- I hadn't expected that...

[legacygt]

I've gotta say that this question seems like a huge disconnect to me. I guess you can't argue with the data. Sales of telemark equipment are down and there are fewer manufacturers offering more limited options. So telemark must be dying. But this doesn't really match up with what I"m seeing.

Some background. I'm a lifelong alpine skier and almost all my skiing is in VT at a resort. I used to make a trip to the Western US or Canada once a year that included some side-country stuff with some hiking and some cat trips but nothing that included touring. About 5 years ago, as my kids were learning I grabbed a used demo telemark setup at a tent sale (BD Ethics, BD O3 bindings and Scarpa T2s). The idea was to learn something new to keep things interesting if I was going to moving more slowly with my kids. I was instantly hooked, trying to learn telemark turn while keeping an eye on the kids.

After a year or so I bought some skins and would use them to do some uphill trips at the resort on holidays when the lift lines were long or cold/windy days when the lifts were closed or miserable. Turned out that I loved that too but found that bindings without a free pivot are a nightmare for uphill travel. So I sold my gear and bought my current setup (Atomic RT86 with BD 01 bindings and grabbed some Scarpa T2 Ecos while I was at it). My kids have gotten better faster than I have so now they're the ones looking out for me while I continue to learn the tele turn.

So that's my history with telemark. Obviously I'm new to sport but I've always been pretty aware of what I was seeing around me. I started alpine skiing in the 80s and also have about 10 years of snowboarding in there as well. I've always noted the telemark skiers I've seen on the mountain in VT where I spend most of my time. There have never been more of them than there are now. In the 80s your would occasionally see someone. Maybe 4 or 5 sightings a season. Through the 90's it was more of the same. But in the last 10 years or so the increase has been dramatic. There are telemark skiers in every lift line. You see them coming down the mountain all the time. There are telemark skiers in the resort's promotional videos. You see more than a couple going up the mountain each day. These people are obviously not touring and may not be interested in the backcountry. They just like making (or trying to make) good tele turns. I think that sturdier boots have something to do with this. I think that NTN has something to do with this. The barrier to entry to telemark seems lower than ever.

Still, there are challenges. The lack of retailers and instructors is a problem. So are newer boot binding systems that make AT setups seem as good or better than tele for backcountry. But again. I'm seeing more interest than ever among resort skiers. It would be shame if this increased interest coincided with the death of the telemark.

[MikeK]

It's a thing:



This being from a VT outdoor supply company.

Here's my guess: There probably are a lot more people telemarking at resorts. The previous tele revolution was something to do with BC skiing... I guess... who knows? Apparently AT was available in different forms and developed pretty quickly, but it didn't develop the same cult following that tele did. The resort skiers now are definitely due to plastic boots and NTN. That's what brought tele into the mainstream.

[dnt_upton]

I'm not sure I'd say skiing is mainstream, so saying telemarking is mainstream is a stretch, to me. But however you slice it, it is and always will be a small slice of the ski/snowboard market. Maybe 10% of resort users?

Even smaller is the group that does only backcountry and spends zero days at a resort.

Until this website reinvented itself, I personally had no idea that folks had quivers of XC/XCD skis. More power to you, even if I can follow the conversation 1/3 of the time.

As I've said before, the future of telemark will most likely be virtually identical to its present. It's fun and adds a challenge to anyone who learned on alpine gear or has an XC ski background.

Not much longer until fall turns to snow and snow starts to fall . . .

[lowangle al]

From what I see in Ak. I think it is dying quicker in big mountain terrain. People I know switched from tele to AT because they wanted to ski a particular line or because the rest of there group was on AT gear and they wanted to keep up. I would like to add that these people were far better skiers than I, and they came from an alpine backround.
I think that the ones who stayed with it consider themselves Nordic skiers.

It seems to have a stronger following in the East and Midwest where people are looking for something more challenging to keep it interesting.

[MikeK]

Being mainstream and being in the mainstream, I guess I see as two different things. Mainstream = vast majority of people do it. In the mainstream = a vast majority of those people are familiar with what it is.

Whatever the mainstream or being in it is, what I do is certainly not it.

[lowangle al]

[quote="MikeK"]It's a thing:



This being from a VT outdoor supply company.

I want a set of those. Can ya buy em?

[MikeK]

Looks like it's out of stock Al - http://gearx.com/gearx-ski-like-a-local-pint-glass

Guess you'll have to settle for a pink beanie

[lowangle al]

Thanks Mike.

As far as the beanie, I have two on the way.