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For alpine skiing, there's a fairly established pattern of skill development (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert) such as:
- Getting in/out of gear/bindings
- "Walking" around on skis on fairly flat or gentle slopes just as turning around, herring bone, and side-stepping uphill
- Snowplow or Wedge skiing
- Parallel turns
- etc.
What do you all think the Telemark Skill Levels 1-9 would be?
I can even see it being three or more lines of 1-9 such as one for Cross Country, one for Resort Tele, one for [filll in the blank] as there are different types of Boots, Bindings, and Skis to deal, and that's before one even covers terrain (resort, backcountry, snow conditions, steepness, obstacles, ...).
Re: Telemark Skill Level Progression, 1-9 ?
Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2023 4:06 pm
by lowangle al
It would be good to know a person's skill level when they review a product or give technical advise.
It would be good to know a person's skill level when they review a product or give technical advise.
I can see a recreational skier rating a boot differently than an Olympian. Too often people used "good" or "bad" for personal things rather that "fit" as in what it's best suited to. Technical advice is a little trickier.
@lowangle al, I'd be curious what you'd have as a Tele 1-9 progression, even if a rough and incomplete form.
Re: Telemark Skill Level Progression, 1-9 ?
Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2023 4:24 pm
by mca80
Is bloviating on a forum for pages and pages a level 1 or level 9 tele skill?
Is bloviating on a forum for pages and pages a level 1 or level 9 tele skill?
And what is "being able to fix your own gear"?
Or find the info via a search engine?
Re: Telemark Skill Level Progression, 1-9 ?
Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2023 11:13 pm
by CwmRaider
I'm quite good at alpine and sit quite solidly at 8 for alpine skiing according to your descriptions here. The difficulty in relevance is that 9 is so big and encompassing it may as well be 8 out of 15 as opposed to 8 out of 9.
And even with alpine it is strongly gear dependent. I learned to ski on skis with hardly any sidecut until i could woosh nonchalantly down steep slopes with my boots stuck together like on a monoski. Carving skis came on the market for everyone in the early 90s or something? And all of a sudden everything became so much easier for everyone. Being a teenager on a budget in those times i didn't indulge with ok skis until the mid 2000s.
The numbers here are performance indicators, which are a function of both skill, and equipment used, the latter probably to a much greater degree than in alpine skiing as alpine abandoned leather boots more than half a century ago.
I used to train pilots at Delta, as a line check captain. That was simpler! "Just don't kill us"!
At 18 I had two friends that had skied from 5? They got jobs on Ski Patrol, took me skiing for the first time, learned how to snowplow, wedge turn, & stop, before they started work. They took me to the top of Snow Valley, CA and were going to ski down with me. Their radios went off and they are like got to go and bombed it straight down. It was a long, painful ski down on California Concrete. I did get some help from an OG, showed me how to step turn, helped a little. Sharp edges on the Rentals probably would of helped more.
