Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

New member, first post. As I’ve been reading through the posts, building fire for the upcoming season, I’m struck by how little mention there is about using alpine skis for tele. Am i one of the very few doing so? Keep in mind, little to no touring, spending 98% of my time skiing at big vert resorts. Am i missing something?

Fyi, my daily driver is a blizzard cochise, 191.

No you're not alone, you've just stumbled on this land of misfit toys where conversation trends towards lighter equipment and XC skiing and XC touring.

When I'm going down big hills I'm on Icelantic Nomad 105's, Pioneer 96's, etc.

All telemark convo is welcome, though!

Post pics!

EDIT OH NICE! You are already on it!

mountainmaxy wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 30, 2021 9:12 am

Fyi, my daily driver is a blizzard cochise, 191.

Welcome, Maxy.
That's a gluttonous ski. What kind of rig you turning them with?

I'm using Nordica Enforcer 93.
This season I am trying Icelantic Saba 117, first time to try full banana rocker, and first time to try to introduce "slarving" into my vocabulary. I am stoked.
Both powered by 22D Vice, and Scarpa T1's.

You are not alone. I'm in the same category, but I do find the posts regarding the lighter touring stuff informative and entertaining - and the pictures are great!
My quiver:
Tx Pro NTN boots
Meidjo bindings (4 $$ets!)
Rossignol 84AI at 160cm - 11.5m turn radius for carving days and iced up bumps and early rock season.
Blizzard Rustler 9 at 164cm - also very carvy (at 14m, I think they carve better than the Rossi's) and good in bumps but more floaty. Even at this short length, 8" of fluff is comfortable.
Blizzard Rustler 10 at 172cm for typical medium (<12-14") powder days.
Dynastar M Free 108 at 108 for big, deep, charging days. They replaced some 184cm JJ's at 116mm underfoot.

All tuned to 3 degree side, 1 degree bottom bevel.
They're all tail-rockered and ski switch beautifully!
Mostly Wasatch Back with some Big & Little Cottonwood and Wyoming skiing.

Welcome aboard.

And as little as these 84AI's are, they can carve. You can dang near drag an elbow through the turn.
I don't usually wear kneepads, but on carve day.....

22D on all. I’ve really done away with anything less than 108 underfoot. I feel they just get too squirrelly.

Volkl Katana 190
Blizzard Cochise 192
Salomon Rocker with swallow tail 192- these stomp anything. Whether i do or not is always a question.

Have a pair of DPS Powder works 115s 192 on the way. A bridge ski. Not sure i need it but what the hell. We only live once.

Scott Voodoo boots.

Welcome to the forum. I've been pushing the use of alpine skis on here for years. I think most of us on alpine skis here have it pretty well figured out and don't need to post about it much. we are more xcd focused which for me is the experience I prefer. Maybe we can convince you to put some kick wax on those Cochises and hit the woods for some quiet fun.

I'm a big fan of Voiles wide skis. I ski them with T4s and a cable binding or switchbacks. I ski mostly BC with either kickwax or scales. To get my steep fix I'll hit the resort on a powder day or do some skinning in the spring after the snowpack goes isothermic.

For as much as I love the xc part of skiing I'm addicted to the downhill.

Nice pics!

More than 50% of my 100-pair quiver is alpine skis with telemark bindings. Mostly narrow and speed oriented SL and GS machines... I just can't help buying them when they are special gems... The thing is, there is not much to talk about alpine skis right...? Perhaps because they are all heavy, very easy to find and there are too many options? While being amazing and beautiful, they have (very sadly) never been discussed a lot here in the last 20 years...

There was a time not so long ago when the telemarkskier species really believed that they needed telemark skis for telemark. I'm still not sure if it happened because of the buyers or the industry. But this false belief somehow never really went away...

There is no such thing as a telemark ski... A ski is a ski is a ski...

Johnny wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 01, 2021 7:35 am

Nice pics!

More than 50% of my 100-pair quiver is alpine skis with telemark bindings. Mostly narrow and speed oriented SL and GS machines... I just can't help buying them when they are special gems... The thing is, there is not much to talk about alpine skis right...? Perhaps because they are all heavy, very easy to find and there are too many options? While being amazing and beautiful, they have (very sadly) never been discussed a lot here in the last 20 years...

There was a time not so long ago when the telemarkskier species really believed that they needed telemark skis for telemark. I'm still not sure if it happened because of the buyers or the industry. But this false belief somehow never really went away...

There is no such thing as a telemark ski... A ski is a ski is a ski...

Whoa 100 pairs!
I like it. I think you win.

I(and others as well) have detailed reviews on various alpine skis in tely application in the reviews section.

But yes, a ski is a ski is a ski.....

Johnny wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 01, 2021 7:35 am

they have (very sadly) never been discussed a lot here in the last 20 years...

Are you actually trying to claim some type of connection or continuity with the original site? Dude, all you did was buy the domain name. Cut the shit; somewhere Mitch Weber is positively spinning in his grave.

Alpine skis rigged for tele was a constant topic of conversation at TelemarkTalk and if you actually knew anything about the history of that site before you bought the domain name and created......whatever the fuck this is supposed to be ...... you'd know that. Ever wonder why absolutely no one from the old site is here? Because this is a XCD site. There was a much more modern-telemark oriented crowd at Mitch's site and they had, almost to a person, moved on from "telemark specific" skis long before Mitch passed and the site closed down. That's not even slightly debatable.

Show some fucking respect and if you can't manage that, at least know the history of what you're now trying to cravenly appropriate.