WHAT IS TELEMARK SKIING?
Telemark skiing is a style in which skiers schuss down snow by bending their knees and lifting the trailing heel to initiate each turn. Telemarkers use different boots, bindings and skis. Created by Norwegians in the 1860s, it's gaining popularity because of improved equipment and the access it provides.
TELEMARK GEAR
The price of telemark ski gear is becoming comparable with traditional ski equipment. A good pair of boots costs $300 to $500, skis can run $300 to $600 and bindings go for $100 to more than $200.
Anyone looking to telemark for the first time can rent gear from the following places:
DENVER
Mountain Miser, 209 W Hampden Ave., Englewood, (303) 761-7070
FORT COLLINS
The Mountain Shop, 632 S. Mason, (970) 493-5720
BOULDER
Neptune Mountaineering, 633 South Broadway, Suite A, (303) 499-8866
COLORADO SPRINGS
Grand West Outfitters, 3250 N. Academy Blvd., (719) 596-3031
Mountain Chalet, 226 N. Tejon St., (719) 633-0732, www.mtnchalet.com
College is about new experiences. New experiences with friends, new experiences in the classroom, new experiences with living arrangements, new experiences with the opposite sex, and new experiences with, well, you get the idea.
So while you're adding up your list of new experiences in Colorado, why not go for one on the ski slopes? Try telemark skiing, a historic way to slide down a snowy mountain that has suddenly become envogue again with the availability of new and better equipment.
Telemark, also known as free-heel skiing, is about freedom.
Not freedom of speech or religion or freedom from parents, but the freedom to travel in the mountains, freedom to hike up a powdery peak wearing a pair of skis and the freedom to ski back down.
"It is just a different way to get down the mountain," said Rick Borkovec, widely considered the father of modern telemark skiing. He reinvented the telemark turn while a ski patroller in Crested Butte in the early 1970s. "It is historic. It is beautiful. It is functional.
"The elegant, bent-knee turn originated in Norway in 1865. Fueled by new equipment that makes relearning easier than ever and by the increasing desire of many skiers to ditch the resorts and get into the backcountry, it is winning converts at a record pace.
While telemarkers only account for just over 2 percent of everyone who visited a ski resort in 2001, the number of tele skiers taking to the slopes increased 83 percent between 1996 and 2001.
"It really opens the door to a much larger skiing experience," said Tim Kranz, who recently started telemark skiing after almost 20 years with his heels locked down on alpine skis.
"I've tried snowboarding and it didn't appeal to me," Kranz said. "Tele was an opportunity to learn a new form of skiing and have a new challenge. It has a unique grace; it is fluid and has different physical demands than any other kind of skiing.
"With young, 20-somethings like Kranz starting to tele, the ski industry is standing up and taking notice.
Major ski manufacturers such as K2, Rossignal and Atomic have branched out and now offer skis specifically designed for telemark skiing. Niche companies such as TUA, Black Diamond and Genuine Guide Gear make skis, bindings, adjustable poles and other gear for telemark skiers. The companies are growing and the market is blooming.
"Probably since the mid-1990s, people started getting on board," said John Albertson, assistant manager at Grand West Outfitters in Colorado Springs. Sales of telemark gear at Grand West stores during the last three years went up 30 percent to 40 percent each year.
But telemark skiing lay dormant for decades before that.
Free-heel skiing was invented by Norwegian hunters to negotiate steep hills on long wooden skis. It was fashionable in the early 1900s but died out when the modern ski industry took off after the advent of fixed-heel ski bindings.
The telemark turn remained underground until the 1970s, when Borkovec rediscovered it as a way to spend more time in the deep powder of the backcountry near Crested Butte.
"I was skiing on Nordic racing skis in the backcountry, and they didn't turn very well," he says. "I was relying on my Alpine experience, trying to do parallel turns and snow plow. I just figured there must be another way."
Borkovec remembered seeing someone do a telemark turn when he was a kid and went searching for information. He found dusty books picturing Norwegians dropping a knee to steer the ski. He emulated the style and came up with the modern telemark turn.
He eventually began using cross-country skis and telemark turns to cover his avalanche-control routes at Crested Butte and converted several other ski patrollers to relearning. He wrote an article about it for Ski magazine in the mid-1970s, which sparked interest in the turn.
But it wasn't until recently that the telemark turn gained wider acceptance. Most experts credit the mass production of plastic telemark boots with igniting the recent boom.
Before the mid-90s, telemark skiers were known for their leather boots and long, skinny skis. The set-up was lightweight and great for cross-country touring, but descending on it was a considerably more difficult matter.
As a result of the awkward equipment, relearning was largely considered a small tributary of mainstream skiing, generally populated by hippies, burly mountain men and other rugged individualists who sported thick beards and heavy backpacks.
"Because of the evolution of equipment, it has really taken off," says Borkovec. "The plastic boot, I think, was the most critical piece."
When coupled with modern, wide, parabolic skis, the plastic boot took relearning to a whole new level. Although still considerably more difficult than Alpine skiing (think of it as doing lunges down the mountain), relearning has become easier and more accessible.
It began attracting the attention of expert Alpine skiers who were looking for a challenge.
"After you get so good at Alpine, people feel like they are limited with fixed heels," say Albertson, who suggests that relearning also has a philosophical side. "You know, free your heel and free your mind. That's how a lot of people embark on the tele odyssey."
Joe Groshong began telemark skiing five years ago and caught the fever.
"At first I did it because it was unique, and very soon I just got hooked," he says. "The different balance required made it a welcome challenge."
Making the switch from Alpine skiing to telemark skiing takes some getting used to. Generally, Alpine skiers stand upright and turn by shifting their weight from side to side to put pressure on the edge of the ski. The skier's feet remain pretty much parallel the whole time.
Telemarking requires the skier to put one foot in front of the other, much like walking, to make a turn. The skier must shift his or her weight to turn, but the balance is tricky because the feet are spread apart.
When done properly, the telemark skier gracefully zips down the mountain, fluidly shifting their feet back and forth to respond to the dips and rolls of the terrain.
After descent, a telemark skier can shift to a cross-country style of skiing and easily move about on flat or even uphill terrain.
Although the sport of relearning skiing is growing, it will probably never see the kind of growth that snowboarding has enjoyed.
For Borkovec, the reason is simple: "Telemark skiing still isn't easy. It is for people who like to work a little bit harder and for people who like the freedom of a free heel." |
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