What is the deal with telemark skiing?

Question

I'm kind of new to skiing. I use a longer pair of ski blades.

I've seen poeple telemarking before. They are always on some black diamond run or harder. I see them from the lift on the way to a blue or green run.

What is the advantage of not having your ankle attached? Are they using longer skis than normal downhill skis? Are they just using a cross country set-up to do the extreme drops I've seen them on? Like in the nature valley granola bar commercial.

I'm just curious because it looks like a lot of fun, and I wish I was that good. ha

Answer 1

Um....yeah.  The lady above me is completely full of it.  Telemark equipment is not cross country or downhill equipment.  Telemark skiing is a hybrid of the other two types of skiing and thus has equipment that is a combination of the two.  Telemark skiing is really for backcountry hikers who ski the steep deep but want to be able to traverse across fairly large expanses as well.  The telemarkers who ski on groomers are generally attention hogs who are trying to be cool but are kind of trying to hard.  That's the real story on telemark.

Answer 2

Ummm....no. Neither of those are correct.

Telemark skiing is not some hybrid, nor is it some sort of cross-country thing. It is the way skiing was done for years before locking the heels down became the norm. It nearly died out but was revived by some Crested Butte locals back in the 1970s. It has slowly and steadily grown over the last 30 years.

Telemarkers, for the most part, are non-conformists to begin with. Many of us are self-righteous...but we'll admit to it. (I will.) But we also telemark because we've gotten bored with regular skiing and snowboarding or freestyle skiing didn't appeal to us. (That's my story, anyway.)

It does have practical application in the backcountry. By placing climbing skins on the skis, one can ski uphill. This beats having to haul your skis up a mountain on your pack...although on really big mountains, you'll have to put them on the pack too. You also ski a lot closer to the ground, so your center of gravity is much lower...very good for descending steep terrain. Furthermore, telemark boots are much more comfortable than regular ski boots, you can walk in them much more normally than regular boots, and they have a lugged rubber sole (most of them anyway) so you can climb over rocks and dirt trails without beating up the bottom of your boots. The bindings are similar to Cross-Country 3-pin bindings, but are very different from a Cross-Country NNN or SNS binding. My telemark skis are actually 10cm shorter than my regular skis and 15cm shorter than my old race skis.

A lot of telemarkers ski at resorts for the same reasons regular skiiers do...because we like to ski. In order to ski the backcountry well, it takes practice. You get much more practice at resorts than you can get in the woods. It's not just about showing off....but I'd be lying if I said a small part of it wasn't.

Telemark bindings can be put on any skis. For years many companies just put a different graphic on a regular ski and BAM...it's now a "telemark" ski. However, in recent years, many companies have developed skis specifically for telemarking. They are lighter, the core is different, and some have special shapes and side cuts that better address the telemark turn.

If you ski at a small hill, especially in the Poconos or the Mid-West you see more telemarkers on the expert slopes because chances are they learned to telemark someplace else. However, at bigger ski areas where telemarking is more popular, you'll find them on all of the slopes....you have to learn on easy slopes too, just like regular skis and snowboards. Many of the newbies might not be bending their knees as much as the experts, so they look a lot like regular skiiers. So the only way to tell is to look at the boots and bindings.

It's not extremely difficult to learn. It does take slightly more atheletic ability to do it well. You have to have more flexibility and skiing telemark style does involve more aerobic activity than regular downhill skiing...even when going downhill. When learning, it helps to do so around other telemarkers. They will usually spot a newbie and give tips and pointers....we love converts.

So give it a try one day.

Answer 3

They are using regular cross country skis. It takes skill and balance, but my kids were doing it on downhill runs when they were 10. Their real problem using the runs was the ski falling off when they were on the lift.