Talk To Me About Telemarking

cauld · *by **cauld** on Sun 6/Dec/09 3:58pm*

I've kicked around the idea of a bit of Tele as something different to do on the ski field. WIll provide me with a challenge without the risk of challenging myself on AT gear.

For the most part I just ski my AT gear and that's just fine to be honest. Modern AT gear is light (says he with Dukes :sneaky:

) and bomber enough that one pair of skis can cover the whole mountain on and off piste.

j2hyde · *by **j2hyde** on Sun 6/Dec/09 10:36pm*

Trail wrote:
Butch wrote:
j2hyde wrote:Duncan at RnR in chch knows lots about tele gear, be warned he'll try to sell you lots of stuff you really want but really cant afford.

Jeepers, you weren't kidding!

Is it really a necessity to drop 1K on a set of boots straight off the bat?

Boots make a huge difference, and good boots work way better than crap ones. I bought a pair of $600 boot for alpine a couple of years back, but kinda wish I had splashed out on the $1000 ones.

Boot fit is pretty critcal as all the control of the ski comes from the foot.

With telemark boots the good news is you have no choice about what to get so you don't have to make any decisions. If you have a narrow to medium foot you buy a Scarpa T1. If you have a wide or wierd shaped foot you get a Garmont (a SynerG or whatever their T1 equivalent is now - one level down from the race boot). Both have thermoformable liners. There are other boots available but despite what anyone else tells you you don't want them (this includes the T2 - it's too soft for the variable snow conditions often encountered here). The bad news is in NZ they are sold in low volumes and are stupidly overpriced. If you know what size you need you can order online from europe much cheaper.

Boot fit is important but no so critical as with alpine because you drive using technique not power, which means you stay centered in your boots. A good tele skier can manage most terrain without doing up most of their buckles.

Also, skiing steeps tele is super fun. Jump turns take on a whole new meaning. Lunges in the gym pre season are recommended...

CrustyMTB · *by **CrustyMTB** on Mon 7/Dec/09 8:32pm*

j2hyde wrote:
Also, skiing steeps tele is super fun. Jump turns take on a whole new meaning. Lunges in the gym pre season are recommended...

If by super fun you mean, more likely to result in death. Training is cheating surely.

j2hyde · *by **j2hyde** on Mon 7/Dec/09 9:05pm*

CrustyMTB wrote:If by super fun you mean, more likely to result in death.

Steep chutes, unracked deep, pow, cliffs. Textbook avalanche terrain and conditions. People that enjoy these things are by definition unreasonably interested in risking their health in the selfish pursuit of fleeting pleasure. It's the point

CrustyMTB · *by **CrustyMTB** on Tue 8/Dec/09 7:50pm*

j2hyde wrote:
CrustyMTB wrote:If by super fun you mean, more likely to result in death.

Steep chutes, unracked deep, pow, cliffs. Textbook avalanche terrain and conditions. People that enjoy these things are by definition unreasonably interested in risking their health in the selfish pursuit of fleeting pleasure. It's the point

I know and enjoy such conditions and terrain, it's just I believe that tripping up on ones tips while jump turning a tight chute and dying is a silly look...

There was also the infamous incident where a friend on teles failed to land a heli and somehow got one of his skis stuck down the back of his jacket, his considerable pain was worsened by the fact that he had to wait for the rest of us to stop laughing and untangle him before we went and got the meatwagon, I argued that he could have had a spinal injury so we shouldn't move him till the patrollers arrived...

Freeheelpete · *by **Freeheelpete** on Tue 26/Jan/10 7:20am*

www.telemarktips.com for all the buzz and stoke.

I've been teleing since it was leather boots and skinny skis. I was going to try another snow sport when I got good at teleing but....

It's a buzz and there's a cool bunch of folk out there doing it.

Butch · *by **Butch** on Tue 26/Jan/10 7:25am*

Cheers man, yeah I've been lurking on TT for a while now. Seems like a good bunch.

sly · *by **sly** on Tue 26/Jan/10 9:14am*

There's two schools of thought on the boot front. One says get some lighter, more flexy boots to start with so that you can feel what your feet (and toes especially) are doing underneath you. There are a whole lot of subtleties which you need to master to avoid consistently catching an inside edge and arseing off...

The other side is that you are less likely to hurt yourself if you have bomber boots like the Scarpa T1's. I started on Scarpa T2's and now ski T1's. T1's are very uncomfortable for touring and are designed with lift-accessed turns in mind.

It's not a very steep learning curve unless you are naturally gifted

. Definitely pays to put your board/alpine skis to one side while you're learning.