recommendations to learn telemark early season

V

volvo122

New member
I'm interested in taking some teleskiing lesson's pre january in NH/Vt and looking for recommendations on where I should take them I do spend most of my weekend in between Bolton and jay vt cooridor but open to NH also.

Backround:My parents had me on skiis at an early age since 2 and then switched over to snowboarding at 15 then snowboarded for the last 15 years averaging 25 days a year. I am primarily a boarder however I have gotten back on alpine skiis a few times in the last few years and always have a blast. Also bought X-try skiis for my girlfriend and I about 4 years ago probably average 10 days a year on those also mostly either at bolton or hazens notch by Jay. So I do have some skiing backround and rate my self an intermediate. I would like to learn how to tele in the future.

I have chickened out the last two years on tele-thurs at bolton but regretfully I kind of might be in a rush to learn due to my job might be moving to southern Germany \:D/ and I will have to be there by mid January if I want the job.

Any recommendations would be great thanks. I am on 1st tracks a couple of times a week but have never really posted with any regularity or even bothered to sign in. I think I may be in the market for used bindings and boots and skiis because I know I am going to take a liking to it.
 
I would check out one of the NATO courses to get the basics. The great thing about tele now is that it is no longer a requirement to drop the knee to the ground and smell of major B.O. Unlike some of the throw-backs you see at MRG, you now ski in stiff four buckle boots and apline skis. You can even tele-pine to save your quads and gives you the benefit of throwing in a more upright, core driven tele-turn. Remember - Earn-your-turns and wash your base layers ocassionally.
 
It may be worth mentioning my experience since we have similar backgrounds. Not trying to suggest that you do one thing or another, just telling a relevant story. I skied alpine (a lot) from early childhood until I was ~25. Then I started snowboarding. Although I crossed back and forth for a year until I got good enough to go board anywhere I could ski, this basically changed everything. Snowboarding renewed my passion and I started getting more days/year than I ever had before.

Then, at ~35 I started wanting more backcountry access and felt tele was the best mode. I always get ~20/30 days/year of XC but mostly on flat trails, and wanted to expand the available terrain. I spent a summer pouring over Paul Parker's "Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques for All Conditions". I highly recommend this book. I spent nights visualizing how I would ski. When I got on the teles in November I actually picked it up pretty fast. Your alpine and snowboarding experience will both contribute a lot to tele skiing. The hardest thing I found was avoiding falling into old alpine habits. I could immediately make a good a good right hand turn (surprisingly similar to toeside snowboard carve), but going left I always wanted to make an alpine turn. Anyway, I took an OK lesson at Cannon (wouldn't overly recommend it) and started to really pick it up. For the next 5 years I bounced back and forth between tele and snowboarding, on-piste and off. I loved the tele feel but I have to admit I never felt quite as confident as on either alpine or board. I prefer the trees, but if I'm on a trail I either like super high speed or bumps. Teles never seemed quite right for any of those things. Although this is obviously just my personal feeling since there are plenty of tele-rippers out there who just kill this stuff.

So last year I switched to fat twin tips with AT bindings. I think I've found just the thing now. This gives me the BC access, the high speed capability, and confidence in virtually all conditions. Although I will probably still board at least 50% of the time.

Anyway, that's just my story. Tele is a blast and worth getting into. But with your experience, AT may give you everything you want with no learning curve.

Good luck.
 
Thanks. Yeah, you know, jobs change. Sometimes you sit at a desk...sometimes you don't.

Right now I'm just jones'n to get out and slide, so trolling for info and inspiration.
 
My background:
I learned to alpine ski in VT as a small kid and then spent 20+ years skiing strictly alpine, mostly on the EC and occasionally in UT and CO. After finding myself in the upper-midwest, I bought some used T2s and some half-spent boards at a ski swap and figured the free heel would make things a little more interesting when skiing the molehills of the UP and northern MN. However, I found that plastic boots and "active" bindings made the teleturn reasonable to control right out of the box and that the alpine skills transferred really easily. Pretty soon I was bringing the tele gear along on my trips east and west and feeling pretty all-terrain with a free heel. Before too many seasons passed, I grew to dislike having my heel nailed down and started leaving the alpine gear at home. I've been strictly freeheel for 11 years now (I think) and despite the occasional round of cursing when I hook a tip in crud, I haven't really looked back. Most of the pinheads I know who are former alpine skiers have had similar experiences. The knuckle-draggers I've known who have gone tele have progressed a little more slowly, but none of the ones I have known had any prior experience on alpine boards.

My thoughts about the learning curve:
I never took lessons, but I'm sure they would have been a good idea. I did spend a lot of time reading Paul Parker's book before my first season and also highly recommend it as well. I also spent a lot of time in my first few seasons seeking out and methodically tackling conditions and terrain sometimes thought as contraindicated to learning tele, like bumps, bumps, more bumps (on my trips east) and mank and crud (on my trips west). I also spent a lot of time skiing with more experienced and better teleskiers, or occasionally just following some unknown wizard for a few turns from a discreet distance. I've still got a lot to learn, but IMO that's half the fun. Good luck.
 
Thanks all,

I ordered Paul Parker's "Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques for All Conditions on Amazon for 1 cent plus 3.99 shipping.

I found the NATO site there is a beginers workshop @ sunday river on nov 21 & 22nd. and the 28 and 29th. My girlfriend was looking to get me something for my birthday, this might be perfect.

Thanks
again
 
flyover":10gjy5nz said:
...Before too many seasons passed, I grew to dislike having my heel nailed down and started leaving the alpine gear at home. I've been strictly freeheel for 11 years now .... I haven't really looked back....I never took lessons, but I'm sure they would have been a good idea.

I did spend a lot of time reading Paul Parker's book before my first season and also highly recommend it as well ... I also spent a lot of time in my first few seasons seeking out and methodically tackling conditions and terrain sometimes thought as contraindicated to learning tele, like bumps, bumps, more bumps (on my trips east) and mank and crud (on my trips west).

I also spent a lot of time skiing with more experienced and better teleskiers, or occasionally just following some unknown wizard for a few turns from a discreet distance. I've still got a lot to learn, but IMO that's half the fun....
Click to expand...

WOOO HOOO!!!

Go get em Volvo.

That is all. :-D
 
You guys got me all fired up now!

Last year, I decided to try telemark, so I treated myself to a two-day seminar at Killington. As it happened, I was the only student, so it amounted to two full days of 1-on-1 instruction for the price of a two day seminar. I'm afraid that I kept reverting to the 'tele-pine' turns, and although my instructor cheered me on a couple of times, I could tell that it was probably more frustrating for him than it was for me.

Never one to give up, however, I picked up skis, boots and bindings at an end-of-season 1/2 price sale, but due to problems getting the bindings mounted, I didn't get out on them, so now I'm really psyched to get started and break in all this nice stuff.

Thanks for the tip on the Parker book. I picked up a used one from Amazon for $5.19, which doesn't sound too bad to me. Now I need some snow!

Thanks again for all the infectious enthusiasm!

Tom
 
My $0.02 on learning to tele .... My crossover to tele occurred after 20+ years of alpine skiing. In the late 80's, my wife and I shared a weekend ski house in southern VT. On Saturdays, we would ski Magic and on Sunday morning while she lounged in front of the fire, I would catch the free early chair to the top of Stratton on my Karhu Kodiaks 3-pinners, take a glide over and back to/from the fire tower summit, then stumble down one of the alpine trails experimenting with technique. Having graduated to cable bindings and BD Toute Neiges, and finally to Scarpa boots and shaped skis, I feel that I'm reasonably competent though I've never achieved that true feeling of tele stability. I took a NATO course at Bellayre on a very icy weekend a couple of years ago and learned alot, mostly that a deep knee to the ski tele bend is not required but also that when the conditions are hard packed, I'm on my alpine boards, without shame. While I originally imagined myself becoming solely a tele skier, I have since decided that tele skiing is much more enjoyable in soft snow. This has increased the enjoyment for my 54 year old body considerably. Living a bit south of the Catskills and w/o a whole lot of time for weekend trips to ADKS/VT/NH, when the conditions are right locally, I can skin up a thousand vertical feet on a wilderness hiking trail, and spend an hour crashing down through the woods - and if I get a handful of nice linked turns, I have my skiing fix for the next week. I got this year's NATO brochure a couple of days ago and am planning one the Camel's Hump workshops. If you are serious about learning to tele, the best thing you can do is to put the alpine skis/snowboard away for the season and force yourself to learn. Being an alpine skier can be a handicap because you find yourself making parallel turns out of habit, but if you think of what you're trying to learn as not just tele skiing but as backcountry technique, you'll find that your alpine skills meld nicely. I have also found watching Dickie Hall's NATO videos excellent armchair instruction. Good luck.
 
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