My Ski History by anemic

[MikeK]

PS I find this an excellent reference. It's written as if to an instructor telling you what to have students work on, but you can infer a lot about it from the text.

http://ski.itrundle.com/techniques/xcd1.html

You'll notice telemark and parallel turning aren't even mentioned until advanced techniques. Everyone wants to seem to get there right away but Nordic skiing isn't one of those things that you pick up overnight, probably why people shy away from it.

It takes work. It's hard to practice in all the conditions you will encounter. It's hard to adapt. There are many techniques and ways to do any one thing. Even if you make small improvement the next time you may feel like a total failure. You really have to love to ski this way. And to me, you really have to love to tour, because that should be a big part of it and perhaps less frustrating.

If you keep going in like you are going to go from zero to 100 with this I think you are going to get frustrated and give up. I can find dozens of references and point you to other people who say you are wasting your time doing what you are doing. You can listen to them, or you can go slow and work your way into it.

Good luck!

[Cannatonic]

>>>Stay tuned knee droppers! The adventures and misadventures shall continue.

I'm right there with you man! I wasted a couple prime powder outings last year just floundering around in deep pow trying to tele. After some effort I did master making the turns on consolidated corn, still flailing on more difficult snow. I took Mike's approach as well - focused on XC touring stuff, which I can do, and getting the legs stronger. Going to a ski area is tough, you just take a beating. If you gradually mix in some tele'ing with touring you're not getting beat up 100% of the time. I like to XC tour places with some open hills, if things are working good, you take some tele runs, if not, you just keep touring.

It takes time to adjust to the soft leather boots. It's almost "no-boarding". You can't do the same things you do with stiff plastic boots. Suddenly it will "click" and your legs will start turning the skis.

[anemic]

I can tele!!! Blowing over 40 mph. Temp rose to 61. Local ski hill can't run chairlifts in this breeze so they closed. And I headed out on the corn! I grabbed my wife's Epochs 176cm & more side cut than Eon. And crowns. I was in XCD heaven!! I went up everything but the true black slope. Great skis. I'm very pleased. Thanks for that link MikeM. The tip about starting the turn with the lead leg then shifting to the rear leg to turn that ski spoke to me.



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[anemic]

I mounted up some skis today! The rock skis from LoveJohnny and the BD monsters for mountain XCD duty. Can't wait till tmrw!


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[lilcliffy]

The tip about starting the turn with the lead leg then shifting to the rear leg to turn that ski spoke to me.

Yes- at least in my experience this is critical- especially with soft, flexible boots...

And don't be "afraid" to pick up your trailing ski to put it in place before you weight it. It may not look as pretty as a fluid, fully-steered telemark, but you will quickly lose your balance if you try and force that rear ski into position with a soft boot.

And experiment- a lot- with weight transfer between each leg, especially in turn transitions.

[Woodserson]

anemic, where are you?

DISREGARD I remember now.

[anemic]

Mrs anemic & I bought lift tix Sunday evening for a few runs. She loves it!!! And she looks like a tele instructor. She is amazing. She loves her Epoch skis and new Garmont leather boots. My BD Stigmas w/cable bindings perform as hoped. It was warm corn snow and they were right home. Handled a little bit more speed. I felt the leathers and cables were a great package on the Stigma. When things began to setup the feeling changed for both of us and the skis were not as happy, as can be expected.


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[anemic]

My ski history development continues. Would you like to read about it?

Last night we had a high school ski meet so I purchased a lift ticket and watched the racing from my leather boots, latched with cable bindings onto the BD Stigmas. I have heard the question raised around here, what is the most ski that a leather on 3pins could drive? I may be playing with the upper limits with the Stigmas (174 cm, 123 79 108, zero tip rocker). I believe this geometry is a long time classic AT ski category shared with many older Dynafit skis, except it has a slightly wider tip. Dynafit skis only quite recently embraced the 95 to 100 and up width underfoot. Now BD and Dynafit only make 95 & up. I'm glad I found these skis in great condition. I don't know anything about tele but I feel that these were made for tele (because they were!). It's a nice ride. It's not a "resort" ski though, meaning it's not for icy old hard snow of the type we find under chairlifts. It's a backcountry ski. A good match for my light gear but not for Michigan ice and I am fine with that compromise because I am only using the chairlifts to advance my tele learning curve. I am pretty sure, based on the past performance of my BD Drift skis (the big brother of these Stigmas) that they also would very much hate set up snow conditions even with heavy full Alpine or AT gear.

Mid afternoon air temps were around 50 F and the skies were clear. After sunset, air temps dropped into the mid 30s and the snow began to setup. Prior to that, I'd describe the snow type as corn snow piles hiding scattered ice terror, and in most areas it was not icy and was fun skiing. Somehow there was setup (a la Sierra Cement) snow conditions in the afternoon shadows despite the warm air. Challenging variable conditions for any skier on any equipment, and certainly proved to be most challenging for me as a tele newbie.

I am actually experiencing some legit tele turns. I have probably made dozens of them now. It feels very good to roll thru a turn then slide the rear leg into the next turn. I also spent time unwinding myself after a spill, several times. I'm good at falling. Must roll it out and not fight it too hard.

There was a fellow knee dropper (on plastic boots, hammerheads and large new BD skis with powder rocker). He was poetic on his skis. He dropped both knees equally, giving him great fore & aft balance; a good role model to emulate. He made medium to long radius turns. He told me that conditions were such that if one could simply get down the hill, one was doing well. Unusually difficult conditions. There was actually no discussion of my lighter gear.

One of the kid's coaches is a tele expert and he told me my rear leg was sliding too far aft. Indeed in this position I felt I was actually in good control of neither ski. He said I am lunging needlessly when I need to think more of a dip. I spent the remainder of the evening attempting to pull this off. I think what he has in mind for me is more like what we see with the talented CIMA and his fellow Japanese XCD Tele Ninjas.

So, I am excited that my tele legs are now up to 3 hours of chair lift riding (the legs easily could have continued had the snow been decent) and I was able to harvest many good turns on fun spring snow before it set up. After it set up I was in pure survival mode. I seem to do best still going relatively slowly although the ski handles speed with much more confidence than the Eons and Epochs. The forecast is good and weekend plans include more chairlifts up north with more vertical and hopefully some good uphill training. Thanks for the tips and virtual tele.friendship.

[Woodserson]

anemic, look for the book "Allen and Mike's Really Cool Telemark Tips" it's great bathroom reading with good visualization exercises that are easy to summon while you're skiing down your icy trail.

[anemic]

Thanks man I just ordered it. In fact last night I was wondering where The book was. MikeK shared an informative website, an Australian ski instructor type format. But a book will be great. Thanks again.