Telemark

[Teleman]

Looking like ice or a glacier out there....There is out and out skating ice in the fields with white here and there that used to be powder....Thinking it's probably hard crusty breakable horrors.....Should warm up so.....it might soften.....so....head to the Highlands and do a low angle Nature cruise.....Turns could be difficult and the undergrowth should be thick and high....Just what this old guy needs....Wonder if I should bring my LEATHER ice skates to skate Dead Moose Pond?....Nah! Do spins on skis...Commune with Moose, listen to the few birds that live up there....TM

[Rodbelan]

By the way Luca looked like a Roman Senator and didn't the girls up at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center enjoy having them around.....We did too! TM

It sounds like some orgy went on... just kidding. Well, when I read your last comment Teleman about «communing with moose», then, I start to think that it might be serious...

[MikeK]

Let loose with that moose, Bruce!!

Git down wit yer bad self

[Teleman]

Boy was I wrong about conditions.....Just flat out faster powder....Moderate steeps were an invitation to rocket ride....Had to be on the skis and make more turns than normal but it felt great....When you look at the tracks where you turn there is a big rounded belt of snow....seems the skis build a rounded wall of snow which then can be used to angulate the bottoms and sling shot you around....Pretty nice! TM

[Teleman]

Hope the snow in the Highlands have not gone over to hardpack but thinking the powder is still there....Up by a place named Porcupine Junction there is a sweet ridge....about 2 miles out....really good for arcing....From there down to Dead Moose Pond a delight of low angle high speed virgin skiing...See ya! TM

[Teleman]

CC and DH are different tribes form the happy Clan of kingdom Tele Boys.....We are TELEMARKERS, real simple....While cc and dh are distant relatives....include Heavy Tele in this.....and we will sometimes motivate, suck it up, so to speak and play in their sandbox.....we are always seeking the greatest ARC on earth....The curvature of the Moon should give anyone the idea....We are NOT interested in skiing on the surface of snow.....we love being down and IN, slicing....blowing it up.....Most of our collective energy goes into getting out in NATURE and finding the TELEMARK goods.....That can be just off the road or a days slog....But the search is for TELEMARK....not cc.....not cc dh.....not dh....We sure have done those activities and probably will again but Telemark in the raw....out in nowhere is our goal....The style of our skiing is not generally understood or seen nowadays.....You get some idea from pictures at Ron's site or Telemarkeast......or not.....Will see on that....We TELEMARK on boiler crust as was done yesterday...We love powder and soft speedy corn....but will ski about anything to achieve the goal....Telemark.....Most patterened bottoms don't do well when compared with waxable skis but that's just babble....We like pins because where we ski they are needed for the up and down....Rarely do we need Kick and Glide because we rarely frequent roads....trails....We ski in conjunction with what Nature allows us....Lite equipment is our go to equipment.....but....cc equipment won't get the job of getting there done....nor....will heavy tele downhill stuff....Equipment we want does not exist....However leather boots of varying kinds are pretty close to what we want, and the Merrill Ultra? possibly the best boot ever produced...Skis come in many different forms and many are pretty good.....Take your pick but we like slicers.....Double camber generally gives a ski energy....Stomp them down ski up a lip and they explode with energy coming off the lip and if your a jumper....Springs....So far pins work real good....mechanical problems don't generally exist....they help on the up...(Jam the outside of the pins into the snow and they are or can be anchored).....They also give plenty of power for finesse skiers.....For us TELEMARK is....as said before, the goal.....All else is to obtain that.....I have NO doubt that one and all love being out in NATURE......That's a given....It's OUR TEMPLE and TELEMARK is our religion....TELEMAN

[connyro]

Serious question TM: What do you mean when you say:

.they help on the up...(Jam the outside of the pins into the snow and they are or can be anchored).....

Granted, I'm not as clever as you but are you suggesting that the wings on 3-pin bindings help you grip? I've scrambled this idea around in my head for all of 3 seconds and cannot for the life of me understand how this would work, unless you climb in sheer ice tracks. Otherwise, I just can't wrap my head around the physics of your statement. I just can't understand how a little fluffy snow under the bindings will hold back a ski from slipping, unless you have VERY dense snow that somehow falls back into the track while you ski, allowing the wings of the bindings to engage, except the snow's been plowed out of the track from the wings. It seems like angulating your edges at the sides of the track would be much more effective.

Also, you mention that double camber helps you cross streams. I try and try to figure this one out too, but no luck. Does the camber help you leap across the streams like a gazelle? If not, then these streams you cross must be very very narrow if you can just stride across them...we usually side-step across streams and that does not require double camber.

[MikeK]

The problem is Teleman is all feel, and no reasoning.

He thinks he feels the wings ratcheting him to the top of the hills, so to him, they do. In reality I've never been able to figure that one out either. When I'm applying pressure to the wax pocket of the skis, my boot is covering the void there... only the thickness of the binding plate metal sticks out, and like you say, the snow has been pushed out the way as I strode forward.

I can definitely cross streams better with long skis. If you get lucky you can zip right over them and not sink down in... maybe the camber helps keep you higher over the water? Sometimes your tail will get a little wet because it inevitably snaps down as you remove it from the previous side you were on and put weight on the ski on the opposing side. If you are lucky it won't hit the water. On really measly little dribbles it works... kinda. But then again I can turn sideways and sidestep easier with short skis... maybe it's a wash. I usually look for the most frozen spot where there are a couple logs or rocks and try to ski over it... sometimes it works, sometimes not. Has nothing to do with what ski I have on though.

But anyway, Teleman felt it. He didn't question it. He didn't worry if another ski could have done it as well. It just was.

[lowangle al]

I think what T-man is saying is that you can roll your ankles over while sidestepping and get the bindings to grab, preventing you from sliding back. It isn't something I do anymore but it sounds familiar.

[MikeK]

I think what T-man is saying is that you can roll your ankles over while sidestepping and get the bindings to grab, preventing you from sliding back. It isn't something I do anymore but it sounds familiar.

I'd like to see you do that with your T2s