What was your biggest help in learning telemark?

[mariusshobo]

It was the videos. Watching them and trying to copy the moves: that was the firs step. I guess that my brain reacted better to images about the whole process of skiing than written materials (and here I mean posts on this forum).
Posts were helpful when I have become interested in fine detailes that can not be seen on images, like how much presure on the each ski, etc.

But, there is no advice for teleskiing better than a faceplant. Well, maybe two .

[montrealer]

Gotta say that practicing at a ski area sped things up a lot for me, despite the less than ideal snow. I could spend a reasonable amount of time focussing on one aspect without having to break the learning into 30 second chunks followed by a climb.

After spending a day on groomed snow at a hill, when I went touring the next day I was able to pull off some turns in the much easier conditions there (3-4 inches of fresh powder on a hard base).

[MikeK]

Well the great news is my wife finally decided she would give going to a resort a try... she's been to them before but had some bad experiences. I don't want to make it a normal thing but it will help build our skills. I'm going to try to find the slowest lift, zero crowd place I can so she won't feel like people are mowing her down.

What's your thoughts about technique building? She knows wedge turns, that's it. I figure getting her down some green runs with those first will build her confidence to try something new.

Should I have her go wedge turn to tele-traversing or have her try to go directly to tele initiation i.e. striding forward and big-toe little-toe?

I could also have her try to get the feel for a stem Christie, parallel upright traversing...

I have an idea what I think is easiest based on how I learned to dh ski, but it seems to be in complete contrast to what is most useful for XCD. So I'm not sure how to proceed with her.

I can definitely show her all those techniques because I can execute them on flat snow. What I cannot do is quick, short radius tele's and similar radius parallels. My large radius turns need work but I can get them. I feel a bit hacky with the parallel skiing because I was never a tight stance, boot-to-boot alpine skier. I've always been a shoulder width skier and that was a technique that actually helped on modern carving skis. It seems to me long skis respond better to the tighter stance, but I lose balance that way or wind up banging my skis together.

Anyway, that might give a more honest insight of where we are. Any suggestions on what to work on would be cool.

[montrealer]

I'm by no means a ski instructor, so I can only describe what worked for me.

I would suggest being comfortable with wedge turns and parallel turns. They're not as fun but they're an easy way to stop if you need to. When I started gaining speed when trying to telemark, knowing I could fall back on those helped.

lilcliffy recommended being able to balance on each ski. I agree with that. Maybe try it on a traverse first.

For me the first steps were spending a lot of time going in a straight line across a traverse while getting in and out of the stance, making sure that I was flexing at the ball of my foot on the rear ski. Then I started "garlands", i.e. edging and coming to a stop uphill, with my body facing downhill.

When I was ready to link some turns, I picked a good pitch where the speed wouldn't increase too quickly. One of my mistakes at first was trying to edge too much, thinking that I had to carve all the time. While I think that's the goal, it's very hard to jump right into it without having a good feel of the turn, imo.

So at first I focussed on "big toe little toe" + body facing downhill. It should feel unusually "twisty" for an alpine skier.

I also concentrated on even weighting of front and back skis, and applying enough edge pressure to where I felt like I had *some* control, but not trying to force it as if I had a heavier setup that could really "bite" into the harder snow. In order words, it was somewhere along the Carve <--------> Skid spectrum, in the middle somewhere.

[MikeK]

Thanks. It's pretty useful to get info from people learning and how they learned.

How is your stance for parallel turns? Are you using old style feet close or modern style feet apart?

I have no issue skiing on one ski. It's how I feel you have to turn stiffly cambered skis too. I dunno, sure feels like you need to use your entire body weight. I'll try to get my wife to try, but she may be a little reserved on that one. I'm also not going to have her go to her leather boots until she feels real comfortable with her plastic boots.

Her skis are pretty much traditional length for her height (5'-7" and she has a 200, 195 and 185), except her Epochs, which are a little shorter, but still longer than you'd use for beginner Alpine.

I figure shortest skis and stiffest boots will be best to start her. Feels more like Alpine.

[montrealer]

How is your stance for parallel turns? Are you using old style feet close or modern style feet apart?

I have no issue skiing on one ski. It's how I feel you have to turn stiffly cambered skis too. I dunno, sure feels like you need to use your entire body weight. I'll try to get my wife to try, but she may be a little reserved on that one. I'm also not going to have her go to her leather boots until she feels real comfortable with her plastic boots.

On XC (both super skinny + Eons) it's about hip width apart. it's functional, not beautiful

The other day I tried a new XC trail that was basically a skate path that climbs a few hundred feet and then snakes back down. It was a great opportunity to work on my XC parallel. You really have to focus on the stepping and weighting at first. Something like: Lift outer ski and position into new direction, Weight it heavily while lifting the inner ski and placing it parallel.

I would also then do little "jump turns" but without leaving the snow, just unweighting both and changing direction simultaneously and then weighting. Always hip width apart, with both skis skidding to scrub speed. Keep in mind this is on ~45mm underfoot skis with no metal edges and double cambered.

[MikeK]

Yeah that's the only way I can parallel XC skis - lift the inside a bit. I can never seem to get that inner ski to go where I want.

I think technically that's a stem Christie... or at least I thought it was. I'm good with those techniques, I need to work more on tight stance parallel (see below) and tight radius telemarks.

I've seen people crank true parallels on skinny sticks, but they were tight-stanced and using a lot of skid and hip swing.

Anyway, that clears some terms up. I kinda of want my wife to get that point at least. It's not much harder than a wedge and I think she actually understands that bit and the mechanics. I think I might need to get her some more professional advice on the telemark though.

[montrealer]

Yeah that's the only way I can parallel XC skis - lift the inside a bit. I can never seem to get that inner ski to go where I want.

I think technically that's a stem Christie... or at least I thought it was. I'm good with those techniques, I need to work more on tight stance parallel (see below) and tight radius telemarks.

I've seen people crank true parallels on skinny sticks, but they were tight-stanced and using a lot of skid and hip swing.
.

I'm always confused about those turn names, which is why I didn't try using them. I know what parallel and telemark mean though...

I might try tightening my XC parallel stance next time I think of it.

[MikeK]

I would also then do little "jump turns" but without leaving the snow, just unweighting both and changing direction simultaneously and then weighting. Always hip width apart, with both skis skidding to scrub speed. Keep in mind this is on ~45mm underfoot skis with no metal edges and double cambered.

Yeah like Gamme does in his second Fjellskiskolen vid. I'm not crazy about doing that. It's not very stable and not very practical for the BC except maybe if you are on hard, icy, spring refrozen. I'd almost rather just wedge or sideslip though.

[MikeK]

I might try tightening my XC parallel stance next time I think of it.

I've been trying to focus on that a lot. Seems to help a lot with telemark IMO to have a tighter stance. I just don't feel as stable laterally... but I'm probably leaning my whole body instead of keeping my trunk straight and just angling my legs. From what I can tell that seems to be a key to a tight stance. Watch Telehiro's vids. His upper body is almost completely vertical and his legs get tons of angle.