Sunday Pic of the Day

Dougfirtree said:
That's impressive. 28 years for me and I can still do it, but I'm starting to eye those alpine skis. I don't know that I'll make it another 5 years... Isn't it amazing to look back at the gear we used to use!? 😅
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Grew up alpine/ cross country skiing back East. A girlfriend got me to try telemark in '90...sold my alpine gear the next day. Pretty certain I won't go back to alpine when the time comes.
I hung on to skiing my leather boots until maybe 5 years ago.😁 I think skiing leather was far more strenuous. I also think the turn was more pure with leather. Plastic has its benefits, and I am fully on board. It has extended whatever leg strength I still have, but I do think it stresses the joints significantly.
Sad to see the decline in telemark skiers. But heck, if it were easy they would call it snowboarding.😁
 
Hem said:
Grew up alpine/ cross country skiing back East. A girlfriend got me to try telemark in '90...sold my alpine gear the next day. Pretty certain I won't go back to alpine when the time comes.
I hung on to skiing my leather boots until maybe 5 years ago.😁 I think skiing leather was far more strenuous. I also think the turn was more pure with leather. Plastic has its benefits, and I am fully on board. It has extended whatever leg strength I still have, but I do think it stresses the joints significantly.
Sad to see the decline in telemark skiers. But heck, if it were easy they would call it snowboarding.😁
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I skied in leather boots that were basically stout x-country boots for a couple of seasons (along with my super skinny 205 cm TUA's). I bought my first pair of T2's in Missoula, in '96. I'm not sure I've ever purchased any piece of gear that has changed my abilities so radically, in such a short span of time. My skiing improved about 600% overnight.

There are still a decent number of tele skiers around here, but fewer than there used to be and most of them are in their 40's or 50's. Hope you get lots of snow this winter!
 
Dougfirtree said:
I skied in leather boots that were basically stout x-country boots for a couple of seasons (along with my super skinny 205 cm TUA's). I bought my first pair of T2's in Missoula, in '96. I'm not sure I've ever purchased any piece of gear that has changed my abilities so radically, in such a short span of time. My skiing improved about 600% overnight.

There are still a decent number of tele skiers around here, but fewer than there used to be and most of them are in their 40's or 50's. Hope you get lots of snow this winter!
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Yeah, we ski Discovery Basin half of the time, which gets the Missoula crowd. Always a bunch of " older" tele skiers hanging on. I pretty much cheer the younger skiers...especially the women.🤣
 
Dougfirtree said:
There are still a decent number of tele skiers around here, but fewer than there used to be and most of them are in their 40's or 50's. Hope you get lots of snow this winter!
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My dad did a lot of tele-ing back in the leather boots era, I'm going to be honest I don't get tele skiing. The tele turn makes 0 sense with modern equipment. The boots and bindings are such that as long as your balanced you can essentially make alpine, and hardly notice the difference. I think the one caveat to his being skiing with a lot of weight in powder or crusty snow. From time to time I use to borrowed my dads stuff to mess around in the back country, with a heavy pack and your heels free a tele turn is super stable... though not as stable as an AT binding.

My 2cents modern AT bindings have made tele skiing completely obsolete, much in the way the altai form of skiing is completely obsolete.
1669744596475.png
 
wllm said:
My dad did a lot of tele-ing back in the leather boots era, I'm going to be honest I don't get tele skiing. The tele turn makes 0 sense with modern equipment. The boots and bindings are such that as long as your balanced you can essentially make alpine, and hardly notice the difference. I think the one caveat to his being skiing with a lot of weight in powder or crusty snow. From time to time I use to borrowed my dads stuff to mess around in the back country, with a heavy pack and your heels free a tele turn is super stable... though not as stable as an AT binding.

My 2cents modern AT bindings have made tele skiing completely obsolete, much in the way the altai form of skiing is completely obsolete.
View attachment 252764
Click to expand...
AT bindings benefit alpine skiers for climbing. Heard alot of people say they telemark on AT, yeah right.
Don't get your comment about it " making sense". Its a technique some people prefer. I do agree I see alot of people with modern tele gear cheating the turn,something you couldn't do as easily with the older gear.
 
Hem said:
Don't get your comment about it " making sense". Its a technique some people prefer.
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It doesn't make sense as a means of initiating a turn, it requires far more energy, exposure, etc. Tele skiing in general doesn't have much utility (with current technology). It exists because folks needed a technique so they could climb and ski steep challenging terrain with the same setup. New AT gear is actually lighter than tele gear, and the alpine turn is far more stable and efficient.

Now as a fun thing to do on snow totally, nothing against the tele turn/skiing in that regard. I'm just saying that's the impetus for the decline.

The primary reason tele exists is for backcountry skiing and the utility is no longer necessary.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
wllm said:
It doesn't make sense as a means of initiating a turn, it requires far more energy, exposure, etc. Tele skiing in general doesn't have much utility (with current technology). It exists because folks needed a technique so they could climb and ski steep challenging terrain with the same setup. New AT gear is actually lighter than tele gear, and the alpine turn is far more stable and efficient.

Now as a fun thing to do on snow totally, nothing against the tele turn/skiing in that regard. I'm just saying that's the impetus for the decline.

The primary reason tele exists is for backcountry skiing and the utility is no longer necessary.
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Good points.
Some of us are stubborn. Like the challenge of the turn, like the workout.
 
wllm said:
My dad did a lot of tele-ing back in the leather boots era, I'm going to be honest I don't get tele skiing. The tele turn makes 0 sense with modern equipment. The boots and bindings are such that as long as your balanced you can essentially make alpine, and hardly notice the difference. I think the one caveat to his being skiing with a lot of weight in powder or crusty snow. From time to time I use to borrowed my dads stuff to mess around in the back country, with a heavy pack and your heels free a tele turn is super stable... though not as stable as an AT binding.

My 2cents modern AT bindings have made tele skiing completely obsolete, much in the way the altai form of skiing is completely obsolete.
View attachment 252764
Click to expand...
I agree that from a practical standpoint, it is obsolete, though if my backcountry touring involved 70% flat/uphill and 30% downhill, I think I might rather be in tele gear, than AT. As a former alpine skiing instructor who went through all the training, and taught in, tele gear (😅), I can attest that cheating the turn is much more possible than it used to be, though there's still a huge difference. You can't lean into your boots in the same way that you can on alpine gear, unless your balance is literally perfect. Teaching alpine taught me a lot about carving that had a huge influence on my tele turns, which (when I do things right), are actually carved turns now. I'm super glad I did that and encourage all tele skiers to put focus on that area (especially if you live in the land of "packed powder"/ice).
 
Dougfirtree said:
I agree that from a practical standpoint, it is obsolete, though if my backcountry touring involved 70% flat/uphill and 30% downhill, I think I might rather be in tele gear, than AT. As a former alpine skiing instructor who went through all the training, and taught in, tele gear (😅), I can attest that cheating the turn is much more possible than it used to be, though there's still a huge difference. You can't lean into your boots in the same way that you can on alpine gear, unless your balance is literally perfect. Teaching alpine taught me a lot about carving that had a huge influence on my tele turns, which (when I do things right), are actually carved turns now. I'm super glad I did that and encourage all tele skiers to put focus on that area (especially if you live in the land of "packed powder"/ice).
Click to expand...
So true. Keeping weight balanced on both feet utilizing the inside ski is paramount.
Probably my flaw...annoys the crap out of me when I realize the inside ski is chattering around. Nothing like skiing back East to train edging .
 
Sorry, two pics. Needed a couple angles.

52536465282_24a1cec77b_5k.jpg

52536464727_dd495a9a72_5k.jpg
 
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