Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Hi y'all. I'm really new to telemark, coming from a nordic backcountry ski touring background. I'm looking to have some good cheap fun exploring various tele ski shapes, mostly as at a resort. I got hold of mid-FAT G3 saint with hammerheads. I have a pair of voile switchbacks hanging around and have been coming across a few old school alpine/tele skis such as the Rossi Nepal and Rossi Black Widow with Riva/Chili bindings for pennies. Now here are my thoughts:

-Install the switchbacks onto the G3 Saint and using it as a backcountry telemark ski on those days I want to hunt for powder (I got the skins for those planks already).
-Place the hammerheads on another ski that I can have fun with at a resort, where the runs are either hardpack or heavily modified anyways.

Does that sound like a decent plan?
Also, is it even worth playing around with those oldsckool planks? Thanks for for tips guys!

What length are the Black Widows? Horrible tele ski, great alpine ski for the time.

Dongshow wrote:What length are the Black Widows? Horrible tele ski, great alpine ski for the time.

198cm. I did not pick them up but I could if it was recommended. I'm 165lbs, 5 foot 10 by the way. Was thinking of slapping of the Hammerheads on whatever you peeps think is best.

If I remember right they are 85-65-75 and stiff as planks. I had some 205s that were a handful telemarking with leathers back then, I gave them to a friend when I got my Montets and he put downhill bindings on them and loved them.

They might be fun with HHs and plastic boots.

It's my opinion you can find a better cheap resort ski than the Widow. I think it was a rebadged 7S? Any decent resort ski is a good match for the HH's.

Jeff wrote:It's my opinion you can find a better cheap resort ski than the Widow. I think it was a rebadged 7S? Any decent resort ski is a good match for the HH's.

Thanks Jeff and Dongshow. What would you then suggests as measurements/criteria for a decent cheap resort tele to go with my HHs and Garmont SynerGs?

Do you have a used ski shop around? Find a ski that is 75-85 underfoot and with a low twenties to high teens turn radius and doesn't have a bindging plate on it, you're good to go.

K2 Backups..Pretty cheap if you can find some..Ebay..Really, any ski from the "Back" series will do what you want..I just got rid of some old Black Widows not long ago..You could have had them for the shipping..Nowadays most would think them a difficult ski to be on..They are just cut from a common old profile of the late 80's and 90's .. Maybe they were a little stiff, but depends on how aggressive the skier is too..At 84 or so underfoot, you can ski the Backups on about any half-decent snow..and they are light enough for climbing pretty easily.

THanks to both of you, unfortunately, I do not anything close to a used ski shop around. I will keep a look out though. Buying skis on ebay is also pretty much out of the question as shipping from the US gets really complicated with skis. How fat should this type of ski be at the shovel?

The key is really width under your feet..When it's at least 80+ under the boots , it's very unlikely it will be less than 110 or so at the shovel (a sidecut mid-to-front of around 30 or more is pretty standard these days)..Unless you just want a ski to literally race on hard snow, go for a min of around 85 or so under the boots.