Telemark and Nordic skiing have a long association. Indeed the name is derived from the region of Norway where Sondre Norheim first devised the technique of free heel skiing and swept all before him in the competitive arena. Telemark, however, lost favour over time as different emphases and more specialised equipment took over. Down hill skiing evolved more rigid bindings, stiffer boots and skis which encouraged parallel turns and the quest for speed left telemark behind. Cross country skiing became popular as a competitive and recreational activity in the forests and tracked areas of lower hills and the emphasis shifted first to lightening the weight and later to skating.
Backcountry or mountain touring became a minority backwater as the popularity of mainstream downhill grew from the 1960s on. However, with increasing affluence, the ecological reaction to recreational activities which leave a strong imprint on the land, particularly ski resorts, improved cold weather clothing and more leisure people began to discover the joys of telemark skiing. The initial growth points were in North America and in Italy, although it is now gaining popularity in Scotland and with tour providers in Europe who cater for British off piste skiers. Outside Italy, most of Europe remains committed to ski mountaineering rather than telemark, this is partly fashion but it also reflects the terrain with both steeper ascents and descents and circuits with more extreme exposure; terrain which is the home of the climber and mountaineer rather than the hill walker or trail follower.
Telemark looks different, feels different and still marks its practitioners out as different from other skiers. There is something extremely elegant about perfectly executed tele-turns which turns heads and which gives a real satisfaction to the skier. If you are red run competent at downhill skiing or have good balance and experience of Nordic touring telemark turns should be achievable in a few days practise, lessons obviously speed the process. Telemark sacrifices speed and control in icy conditions and returns instead greater stability particularly in powder, greater ease in covering terrain with kick and glide Nordic style skiing, and a lower centre of gravity which is beneficial if you are carrying gear for a hut to hut tour. But as telemark gear evolves the fanciest gear for coming downhill is beginning to separate itself from the most practical gear for touring. Telemark skis are becoming wider, more waisted, stiffer, more diverse, bindings are incorporating step-in technologies with quick release, shims are raising the boots to allow more extreme angling of the skis to promote carving, boots are getting higher and stiffer and plastic has all but replaced leather.
The equipment pages and the telemark specialist pages below are the places to keep up with gear developments. Although telemark is still a niche market and Nordic skiers are relatively not fashion conscious the progress of new technologies is relentlessly shortening the effective life of equipment, unless you are happy to settle for second best. Safety factors and the sheer commitment of most Nordic skiers to get the maximum out of their activities create receptive markets. You do not need new gear every year but skis, boots and bindings for telemarking are now unlikely to last more than five years and leather boots and straight skis are history, especially if you have come to Nordic or backcountry skiing via any downhill experience.
The size of the American backcountry market and the lack of commitment to a single tradition has meant that America has become the leading source of information about, and enthusiasm for telemarking. The annual telemark festival in Livorno, now mirrored by the Braemar Telemark festival, each March crystallise European interest.
Telemarktips.com is a great site for gear reviews, lessons including downloadable videos for the broadband user, tips, and features with an American bias. This is the site everyone links to especially the lessons pages. There really is no better site than this for starting your searches.
Skitele.com tries to "represent the telemark community accurately and supply the most useful telemark information available. We live and die to drop our knees each and every winter. That is why we have made our homes and developed our lifestyles in one of our favourite telemark communities...Jackson Hole, Wyoming!".
Descender is a very West Coast site, based in Seattle, with emphasis on features.
Couloir Magazine is the specialist backcountry winter activities journal and is available in web form. November 2002 saw their launch of Telemark Skier magazine.
Tele-skiers.co.uk is a British attempt to focus British telemark interests and contains good basic material and useful links.
ski-telemark.co.uk is an attempt be a group of central valley telemark skiers to put Scotland on the map. Currently a relatively undeveloped site, but by people we may know or meet.
Ski4Real is the telemark instruction set-up of Kim George, who offer a range of instruction and holidays.
Pyrennean Mountain Tours are also a major provider of telemark instruction and tours.
Dr Tuggy's Telemark Skiing Injury Website - learn about the risks and prevalence of different forms of injury.
The Dr Mike Langran of the Aviemore Medical Practice has also posted an ski-injuries.com web page.
Europe is still not well served for telemark gear shops. However both Braemar and Aviemore have shops associated with the online site braemarmountainsports.com. Braemar Mountain Sports has a large specialist section of its catalogue devoted to Nordic and telemark and provides in-shop hire at Braemar and Aviemore (the latter called Cairngorm Mountain Sports). Braemar also provides an excellent carrier based hire service for people who cannot get to the shop. They have Asnes Sondre Norheim available as fishscale and list Tua Montour on the site, as well as a number of more specialist telemark skis. These Asnes and Tua models are two obvious choices for most club members.
Facewest.co.uk style themselves as the UK's backcountry specialists. They are based in Otley and have a limited range of kit, unfortunately not Tua or the less extreme tel kit appropriate to use with Edinburgh Nordic.
Telemark-Pyrenees.com is run by Neil and Rosie Hardy, who are based in Ax-les-Thermes in the French Pyrenees. They have set up a good on line catalogue and have good last season offers. They are geared up to supply people all over Europe. They are also extremely committed to promoting ski touring in the Ax- region and their site has other good materials. They have Tua Montour listed.
Paul Parker (1995) Freeheel Skiing Baton Wicks London
This is the bible written by the guru of telemark who has done as much as anyone to promote telemark's revival and growth
O'Bannon A and Clelland M (1998) Allen and Mike's Telemark Tips Falcon Montana
100 Tips with cartoons to deal with common problems of telemark learners
© Copyright Edinburgh Ski Touring Club 2010. e-mail: webman@estc.org.uk Last updated May 2007