This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips / Telemark Francais Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web since 1998. East, West, North, South, Canada, US or Europe, Backcountry or not.
This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips / Telemark Francais Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web since 1998. East, West, North, South, Canada, US or Europe, Backcountry or not.
This is the World Famous TelemarkTalk / TelemarkTips Forum, by far the most dynamic telemark and backcountry skiing discussion board on the world wide web. We have fun here, come on in and be a part of it.
And when I was at Mont Royal this summer I was thinking I wanted to go ski some XCD there!
Cannatonic wrote:Parc du Mt. Royal is awesome! I did some XC there on a trip last year, I may be going again in Feb. When snow is deep there are steep lines coming down through the woods too, I saw some snowboarders and AT'ers hitting it. It's fun to be up there with all the other city people XC-skiing.
It's a great park. As for XCD, I've found a handful of spots in the woods, but a lot of the mountain is made up of cliffs and very steep pitches. I'm not there yet
For regular XC skiing, aside from the main path that goes up there are some fun little trails around the higher part of the mountain. Fun for a couple of hours but for real skiing I find I have to leave the city.
Cannatonic wrote:I know everyone says to use a ski area to practice your tele turns, I tried but I didn't like it either. It's often icy or rutted on the trails. I was also forced into defensive parallel skid-turns much of the time. I found it better to yo-yo the local 100-foot vertical sledding hills. Your legs are getting stronger with every climb. That's probably going improve your skiing faster than sitting on the lift, right?
Yeah if I take those skis to a resort again it would either be after a snowfall or maybe in the spring in some corn snow. I'll be on the lookout for good practice spots as well.
Thanks for the update on your pursuit of XCD Montrealer.
I appreciate you taking the time to describe your experiences.
It is exciting- but it can be very discouraging- especially when rigid big-mtn tech can make it so "easy"- and truly- it really, really does. Yes skill and experience are worth a lot- but mechanical advantage changes the entire context.
In my experience- getting comfortable and skilled on slopes on xcountry Nordic tech is the only way to achieve the true balance of xcountry efficiency with downhill control- that is XCD.
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.
It's the least I could do. I've gotten so much useful info/tips from you and the others here. I look forward to more attempts.
I guess it's hard to know for sure, but I feel like for me the couple times in the heavy setup made it easier to learn with the lighter boots/skis. The heavier setup let me feel the "big picture" body / muscle movements / rhythm necessary without having to focus on the "finer" aspects of foot movement with the lighter gear. It clicked for me when I combined the two sensations + felt the difference. That said, I'm more excited to develop the skills on lighter gear and use em in all sorts of places away from the resort.
Speaking of lighter, I found myself attempting some very shallow turns while going down hills on my super skinny track skis. It led to a couple of falls...
Well it’s great that you found the big-mtn tele tech was a help.
I wish I could say the same.
At least in my experience, the key to unlocking my ability to downhill ski on xcountry tech, is to be able to balance on one leg/ski- while travelling downhill at speed. Although weight is evenly distributed on both skis- while in the telemark- I find I must be able to transfer all of my weight, from ski to ski- when initiating/completing turns.
Being able to steer my way through turn transitions generally requires a lot more boot/binding power than xcountry tech has to offer.
My experience was that the skills I learned on very powerful boots/bindings, would not work on xcountry tech. I was used to simply steering, dropping my knee, edging/carving... When I try to do that on xcountry tech- the skis don’t respond.
BUT- if it helped you- that’s great!
Perhaps I spent too many hours on Alpine/AT/heavy tele tech- and developed too much muscle memory?
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.
lilcliffy wrote:
At least in my experience, the key to unlocking my ability to downhill ski on xcountry tech, is to be able to balance on one leg/ski- while travelling downhill at speed. Although weight is evenly distributed on both skis- while in the telemark- I find I must be able to transfer all of my weight, from ski to ski- when initiating/completing turns.
Being able to steer my way through turn transitions generally requires a lot more boot/binding power than xcountry tech has to offer.
Interesting, I'll keep this in mind next time I'm on the lighter gear. I think I understand what you mean by "being able to steer through turn transitions". On the heavier setup I hardly have to think about placing the skis, they just kind of turn themselves when I edge them and I'm in position. This could also be due to the much higher sidecut compared to Eons. (Using an old pair of dynastar legend 8000)
lilcliffy wrote:
My experience was that the skills I learned on very powerful boots/bindings, would not work on xcountry tech. I was used to simply steering, dropping my knee, edging/carving... When I try to do that on xcountry tech- the skis don’t respond.
BUT- if it helped you- that’s great!
Perhaps I spent too many hours on Alpine/AT/heavy tele tech- and developed too much muscle memory?
Could be. As I said, I was on them literally 3 times before trying with the light gear. The biggest thing I transferred over was the overall body shape and knowing to "twist" to face down the fall line. Also, I'm still very much a beginner even on the heavy gear.
I wrote a lengthy response to this... read it, and realized it was kind of stupid, but I've decided to try again.
I've only been skiing on my NNN Alaskas so far this year, and only had a few chances to practice my turning. We did have a nice day earlier this year where I spent a lot of time on hilly terrain with my Eon and the NNNs. The base was rock hard, and there was 6"+ of light fluff over top. Excellent touring conditions, and what I would call 'hero snow' for turns.
I certainly didn't feel like a hero with my turns. I was maybe getting about a 30% rate of decent turns where the rest had some major flaws.
My most frequent flaw is not setting the edge right from the start. The symptoms of this are either front ski washing out (despite me trying to turn it more), either skis chattering or wobbling, or the rear ski wanting to go straight.
The one little thing I found, and maybe someone can confirm this, was really driving my weight down into the ski and snow, especially as I'm dropping my knee/scissoring into a tele. I was literally thinking about bending the skis and trying to feel the edge set, and the ski flex.
I was also thinking about the turn in three parts. Initialization. The set. And exit. Initialization seems to me to be steering the front ski into place. Set is getting both the skis to bend and arc together. Exit is keeping speed and balance to come up out of the turn and set up for the next.
To me the critical phase seemed to be set. That is where the bad stuff wold start. If I didn't roll the skis enough or pressure them correctly there, I was done... I might as well fall because it would screw me for the exit and then initializing the next turn. I probably should focus on trying to get to a parallel turn as a bailout...
The other big thing for me is speed control. If I get going too fast, it's hard to start into a turning rhythm. If I'm too slow, I'm forcing myself or losing speed at the exit. Seems easier to set yourself in the rhythm sooner and not turn, just do the tele-run, and then start the turns when speed is right. Bomb something and decide you want to start turns to slow yourself down at mach1 and it's almost impossible to get the balance and the rhythm.
Another thing I've really focusing on rolling that rear foot, really edging over that rear ski. It's awkward, but watch the videos of all the best tele skiers who are carving that rear ski and their rear foot looks almost deformed. They put on so much rear ski edge angle.
Bienvenue sur le forum. Some lessons might help you out to understand the basics but I strongly believe that telemark is something you have to learn by yourself. Apparently, a certain Johanne is giving really good courses at Le Massif.
I don't know if you've been to La Reserve before, it really worth the drive. I'm still trying to convince Johnny to come for a day trip but he declined all my offers so far
Haven't logged in to the forum for some time... the updated look is pretty nice.
Hey all those in and around province of Quebec... there is a telemark festival going on at Ski La Reserve on February 13 and 14, 2016... Le Festival du Talon Libre (Free Heel Festival)! I recently obtained my CANSI Level 1 Telemark instructor, and was invited to come give some lessons, ski for free. I'm thinking of going, I want to spread the word about the festival... free Tele demo's and lessons all day. hang out with a fun tele crowd, and explore a new ski mountain (I never been, but I agree with Bri7, it looks pretty cool)!
I've been looking at AirBNB options for lodging... if anyone is interested in sharing accommodations, reply here!
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