Telemarking?

Question

i want to try telemarking but dont know what to do

i dont think there are lessons at my hill

so i was wondering if you could give me tips on how to do this

(not clothing and such cuz i ski a lot anyway)

Answer 1

A: Find a place that rents teles or somehow acquire some. Don't steal a pair. Telemarkers are by nature pacifists, but they will kick your *** if you pike their planks.

:-)

B: The guys at the tele shop will give you some tips. Chances are they do demos. Maybe they have one coming up. You can also check the North American Telemark Organization web page http://www.telemarknato.com for local demos and other info in your area.

C: Pick up a copy of Allen & Mike's Really Cool Telemark Tips book. I used this book a lot and it was very helpful. This book gives step-by-step info and helps pinpoint certain problems. It also has a great troubleshooting section in the back of the book.

D: Go For It...your first day w/o a lesson can be bad, but if you tele at a place frequented by other telemarkers, and they see you are having problems, 9-out-of-10 times one of them will stop and give you pointers. My first day was tough, but people were stopping when I fell or shouting tips to me from the lift. It was great and I was making somewhat decent turns on the green slopes by the end of the day.

If you are a very agressive Alpine skier you will have to unlearn some things as well as take some time to develop the muscle memory to drop turns. Allen and Mike's book addresses a lot of these common issues, but it's really not as hard to do as it might seem.

Once you develop the muscle memory it  becomes really easy to start making better turns. I still suck on very steep ice and I'm still not happy with the way I ski through the heavy stuff even after 4 seasons...but since I mostly ski at a very small resort nowadays I don't have the opportunity to hone my skills as much as I wish. When I do ski alpine now, I have to think about how to turn..it's kinda funny. I was in an alpine clinic in December and on my first run I went to drop my knee...in regular boots...and fell flat on my face.

Basic Tips:

A: Stay balanced. Keep equal weight on both skis.

B: Keep your back heel lined up with your butt. Too far back will cause your tails to get squirrely.

C: Work on your dip-rise-dip-rise technique without turning on a very easy slope.

D: Start your turn after crossing the Fall Line. Hold the turn. Come parallel before the Fall Line. Initiate next turn...repeat.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I just started to learn to do the turn also (been practicing on a local little hill).

1) Get comfortable with the position

2) Get comfortable with the shuffle

really good hints and video can be found at;

http://www.telemarktips.com/Lesson.htm