 Poster: A snowHead
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It all started with a post a few weeks back, and me thinking that I’d drop in if I was at home that weekend, offering to try Telemark under the watchful eye of some coaches with loan equipment available.
All that was forgotten until a chance call to Andyman, who on Saturday said he was going to drive a good couple of hours to get there, and I should come along. 7am beckoned, despite Hemel being round the corner I still managed to get a bit lost driving there with a bit of a sore head after the rugby the night before, but I soon found the Telemarkers and was very quickly signed up. Note I have never even been near telemark gear before, but I'm pretty comfortable on alpine kit.
The first thing was the boots. I must have spent something like two seasons gradually dialling in my alpine boots to be a perfect fit absolutely everywhere without being too tight anywhere, yet Ben from http://www.telemarktracks.com/ hands me a pair of boots that immediately fit nicely, are comfortable and I skied in them all morning without any pain at all. Telemark 1, Alpine 0 before we even start.
Pretty soon we were kitted up and ready to have a go. Being a complete beginner again is quite good fun, you have to follow simple instructions, try and avoid assuming things, and see if you can be brave enough to just go for it. Your intuitive guess with telemark doesn't seem to often be the right thing to do, so you do have to just trust the instructions you are given.
After three hours of seriously just going for it, and aching thighs, calves, and weirdly arms, we got to a point where in any given run we managed two, maybe three turns which felt right. I have no idea if they looked right, but the feedback was pretty good from the more experienced users and coaches so it seemed like things were clicking a bit.
Previously I really hadn’t understood the point of telemark. It seemed like a more complicated way to ski, which required a fair bit of completely different equipment, and certainly at even a fairly decent intermediate level it looked pretty awkward. But once you’ve tried it, you suddenly understand that it is a new challenge. It tests your balance, your confidence, and the guys who are really good at it frankly look badass. It is definitely going to improve my alpine skiing too, you feel like if you can do this you can do anything.
So next time you see a post on Snowheads offering a telemark taster session, especially any opportunity in resort where you will have a bit more room to go for it a bit, go for it. I did, and I am very glad I did.
Thanks to BASI for providing the coaching, Telemark Tracks for sorting the loan equipment, Simon and his team from the British Telemark Ski Team. http://gbtelemark.co.uk/ and Andyman for pushing me to actually get out of bed and give it a go.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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It was brilliant! Thanks to all involved, especially ski for organising and making us feel so welcome. Lovely to see some familiar faces and make some new friends too.
Definitely keen to have another go. Have been looking at kit but it's a little bit pricey so I'll have to wait a bit.
I am so tired now...
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Maireadoconnor, will Telemark Tracks rent gear out? Might be worth considering for a trip.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@Mistress Panda, yep, looks like you can rent their gear in tignes and val. Was already considering tignes for new year so will prob do that.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Maireadoconnor, @Mistress Panda, Thank you for coming. Was great to watch your progress. We'll be getting some regular events sorted an Hemel in the coming weeks. Thanks to Ben for the kit. TeleTracks can be found at http://www.telemarktracks.com
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@ski, thanks for letting me gate judge too on Saturday too 
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