Telemarking is a form of skiing characterised by the elegant dropped knee turn only possible when using free heel bindings. The name is derived from the region of Norway where Sondre Norheim first devised the technique and swept all before him in the competitive arena. Telemarking, however, lost favour over time as skiing spread outside Norway. Alpine downhill skiing evolved more rigid fixed heel bindings, stiffer boots and skis which encouraged parallel turns and the quest for speed left telemark behind. Meanwhile, cross country skiing on lightweight Nordic skis and freewheel bindings remained popular as a competitive and recreational activity in the forests and tracked areas of lower hills.
High mountain ski touring became a minority activity as the popularity of mainstream downhill grew from the 1960s onwards. Alpine ski mountaineering equipment was not imported into the United States, leaving more readily available Nordic equipment and the telemark technique as the only way to access the backcountry. As a result, the joys of telemark skiing were rediscovered in North America. This renaissance spread to continental Europe, particularly to Italy and to Scotland where lightweight equipment proved ideal for the hills and plateaux. Most of Europe remains committed to Alpine ski mountaineering rather than telemark which reflects in part 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.
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 practice, 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. As telemark gear evolves 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. Telemark equipment has become more like Alpine, gaining downhill skiing facility at the cost of lightness.
The equipment pages and the telemark specialist pages listed below are the places to keep up with gear developments. Although telemark is still a niche market, 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 Alpine 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.
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.
Backcountry is the specialist backcountry winter activities journal and is available in web form.
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.
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.
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 but not Aviemore (the latter called Cairngorm Mountain Sports). Braemar also provides an excellent carrier based hire service for people who cannot get to the shop.
Mountain Spirit is a specialist shop in Aviemore which hires telemark equipment. http://www.mountainspirit.co.uk/
Backcountry UK is a specialist retailer in Ilkley, West Yorkshire. They have a very good boot fitting service. Appointments required. http://www.backcountryuk.com/
Facewest.co.uk style themselves as the UK's backcountry specialists. They are based in Yorkshire but sell entirely on-line.
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 late 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.
Free-heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques for All Conditions (Mountaineers Outdoor Expert Series) (2001) by Paul Parker. 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
Allen and Mike's Really Cool Telemark Tips (Falcon Guides) by Allen O'Bannon and Mike Clelland. 100 Tips with cartoons to deal with common problems of telemark learners
© Copyright Edinburgh Ski Touring Club 2011. e-mail: webmaster@estc.org.uk Last updated November 2011