Ski Patrol Toboggan Technique

[Jonah5]

Hi Everyone
I've been on telemark skis for two years now and in the ski patrol at the local hill and I am a basic alpine patroller on alpine skis, and curious about testing on telemark, so I have questions on proper technique for pulling toboggans.
For those of you on patrol, do you change your technique when you're at the handles and/or at the tail rope. It seems to me it would be more stable to either drop the knee less or not drop the knee at all, especially on tail rope. And is it mandatory to drop the knee during evaluations? Just curius as to what's the norm also in actual situations. Thanks

[teledaddy207]

Hi fellow patroller,
I am a training evaluator here in Maine. Senior level for 10 years in OEC and S & T. my recommendation is to go through all the basic stuff on your tele's and ski what ever style your stronger at. The only time we require you to demonstrate tele turns is when skiing without a tobo.
Sideslipping infront of a tobo, a tele can lengthen your effective edge or scissoring skis to loose a pile of sluff can be effective too. It is best to ask those who oversee the training and do the sign off. I have been heel free since 82 and now use NTN that feels like alpine to me as far as control of the ski. no more tele slop in binding to ski interface.

As they said when I went to my first senior clinic, if you where em, better be able to use em.

[Jonah5]

Awesome-thanks for the advice. Apparently the NSP doesn't have specifics on telemark with respect to outdoor transportation (toboggan) technique. This will make the test easier for sure, knowing I'm not required to drop the knee while pulling the toboggan or while on tail rope.

[TomH]

Drop the knees during the ski-pro portion if you want, but keep the heels down when running the sleds. Dropping into tele's in the horns makes the handling a bit more awkward as you really mess with the handle height relative to your body and your ability to pressure/release the brake (if using). It also tends to result in less stable and slower transitions. Like teledaddy mentioned, you can do some scissoring for build-up, but I'd recommend just falling leafs if you need to dump snow. The only time I tele the horns is unloaded/unlocked.

Tail-rope, I'd still roll heels down for simplicity and fast transitions.

[Jonah5]

Thanks for the very helpful tips! I feel a lot more confident now and looking forward to the ski and toboggan test (on tele's for course)!