freeheel on alpine boards vs. tele-specific?

So I just finished my first season with tele gear and loved it. I had found some decent skis on e-bay and bought new boots. I'm getting the hang of it, and next season I may be on tele gear almost all the time (the exception would be on steep, often-icy moguls; I'm an Eastern skier). But the skis are very touring-oriented, nice and light but a little narrow and old-school, especially in powder and spring corn snow, so I'm looking for something a bit beefier and maybe slightly shorter, mainly for in-bounds resort-type skiing. I can't spend a lot, so my question is should I convert some nimble alpine skis I have or go for something made for tele gear? Advantages, disadvantages? Is the softer flex of a tele-specific ski worth it? What would I give up if I convert the alpine ski?

Last season I got some Rossi Bandit X former DH skis at the local ski swap for $75, and put my tele bindings on them. They are very nice, I found out afterwards that they are one of the skis commonly converted for tele. I havent' completely switched to free-heelin' it, my ski ability lags way behind compared to DH at this point.
I think any soft-flex alpine ski would work-- I needed to save my $$ for new downhill skis, it's too much fun going really really fast!
You might give up the love and affection of the tele-snobs if you convert some old alpine gear, I think unless you are pushing them by being a high skill-level telemarker, it doesn't matter enough to spend the $$.
I've noticed I can hear the scccrrraaaaapppeeee of snowboreds coming up behind me when I'm puttering along on telemarking gear, never heard that before on the alpine sticks!

world'sworsttelemarker":11h82h68 said:

... I just finished my first season with tele gear and loved it. ... But the skis are very touring-oriented, nice and light ... I'm looking for something a bit beefier and maybe slightly shorter, mainly for in-bounds resort-type skiing. ... should I convert some nimble alpine skis I have or go for something made for tele gear? Advantages, disadvantages? Is the softer flex of a tele-specific ski worth it? What would I give up if I convert the alpine ski?

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I'm not sure if you are still checking this board, but in case you are, here are some thoughts. You'll need to buy bindings anyway, so why not give the alpine skis a try. If they don't work out, take the bindings off and put them on some tele skis. It sounds like you need some wider skis for sure.

I expect that what you give up in most cases is light weight. If you are relying on the lift most of the time and not doing much touring, than the weight may not be much of a problem.

You don't say what kind of boot you have, but you want plastic boots for sure.

I have a pair of Scarpa T2 plastic boots, Black Diamond Havoc tele skis and G3 bindings. I do some touring with them and they are a little heavy, compared to lighter touring skis. We have soft snow where I "lift ski" and this combination works great. However last year I did have occasion to make several runs through some heavy cut up "crud" and I really think that I would have done better with heavier skis (and with my tele boots cinched up tighter).

Much of the time I ski powder on intermedate level to almost flat slopes. I enjoy tele much more at these slower speeds. Parallel sking tends to slow me down too much and almost seems to be boring. However on steeper slopes I enjoy making parallel turns.

You want to be sure that you have the tele turn down well and don't "cheat" and finish your turns with a parallel turn. However once you have the tele mastered, you should also practive your parallel turns. With a good set of boots, skis and bindings you should be able to handle the steeper slopes using parallel almost as easy as you once did on alpine skis. Practice your tele on increasinly steep slopes and you may find that you won't NEED to parallel on the steeper slope - but you may still enjoy it more. Paul Parkers book discusses skiing parallel on free heel skis.

I hope this helps,
/s/ Cliff