Two last winters, I have also learned tele on XC-BC fjellskis. The fjellskis are 200 cm Gammes, which have the stiffness of intermediate skill level track skis, yet also moderate downhill features like 14 mm sidecut and nordic rocker.
I just read through the exercises I collected back then (link below). It seems that what I did with a front ski, telehiro does with a rear ski. Doing that with the rear ski seems slightly challenging balancewise for a tele-b beginner like me, especially on stiff double camber skis.
https://www.telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=5649
On the Gammes, I learned a kind of an a-tele for XCd skis, based on old school skinny ski technique (á la Paul Parker). Telehiro’s modern b-tele XCD technique seems to have similarities with that type of an a-tele technique. Still it remains for me to be seen, how well telehiro’s tele-b works with double camber skis.
For this season, I am going to install a pair of 196 cm Åsnes Falketind Xplores NNN-BC. When learning tele-b, I am planning to use the FTX’s first.
By the way, it would be interesting to make a transcript of the turns telehiro uses in the following video where he skis old school, vintage XCd skis. Those 205 cm Rossignol Chamois AR’s are even skinnier than my Gammes and have less sidecut, and also lack nordic rocker I guess, like skis of that era do. Otherwise the Chamois AR’s and Gammes seem quite similar.
https://youtu.be/ihYUXD_ijwI?si=5l8mLP6EnRWlM6qG
So, in many ways the Chamois AR’s are for sure more challenging to ski downhill than Gammes. Yet the Rossignols may have softer cambers, though. At least what is possible for him with the vintage Rossignols, should be possible for me with Åsnes FTX’s.
By the way, on the video, isn’t telehiro skiing tele-b mainly until ~00:40? Even with the XCd skis. To get started with the transcript.
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