 Poster: A snowHead
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I've been thinking about it for a while now. Anyone got any good recommendations for a good ski school etc?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Kramer, Tele-masters (WWW.tele-masters.co.uk) do lessons at the snowdomes. Elsewhere the Telemarkskico will do packages. Most ski schools in France/Italy (don't know about Austria,Switz) have telemark instructors. Even the SnowsportEngland do a package !
Or you can do what I did - buy the kit and get on with it ! All you need are some boots, bindings and a old pair of alpine skis....
Www.telemarktips.com is a useful website. Two books worth buying are Paul Parkers' one (can remember the name - but search on Paul Parker and telemark and you'll soon find it) and 'Keith and Allens 101 Telemark Tips'.
Two questions - 1) What's you shoe size and 2) Where do you live ?
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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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Its easy  I just bought the kit and went for it. One thing is just because your heels are free doesn't stop you doing parallel turns. I often end up doing parallels when things get steep, icy or there are bumps. I'm getting better with practice though and am doing teles on steeper stuff. Still can't ski as fast doing teles as doing parallels on the same kit and my linking of turns in harder conditions isn't as smooth as I would like yet. I second the recomendations for Paul Parkers 'Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques for All Conditions (Mountaineers Outdoor Expert Series) ' and Allen and Mike's Really Cool Telemark Tips they are both great books.
I'm afraid I'm not a great one for lessons, had some coaching from the club coach at HNSC and I've followed this lot http://www.g2outdoor.co.uk/ down the West Wall at Cairngorm and they seemed pretty good, but it wasn't me who was having lessons with them.
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I just hired the skis and gave it a bash. At first had no idea what I was doing but as you get the hang of the balance it starts to feel alright.
Most ski schools should offer telemark lessons anyway, probably a case of asking around.
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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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Agree all the above recommendations - Telemasters lessons at MK really help, they run a weekend festival at the end of the summer too plus various European courses. The most difficult thing I found was using the "wrong" rear ski to edge out of a turn as alpine dominance made me keep transferring onto my downhill forward ski.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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The Telemasters thing sounds like a good idea.
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Alistair Pink's your man - when I met him at Tamworth he was telemarking. It struck me that I'd need a much larger, flatter, space to try it, but he made it look rather easy.
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he made it look rather easy
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Yeah but Ski Sunday makes all skiing look easy 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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maggi, was Alistair on Ski Sunday, too!?
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i'll toss in my $00.02 with a hearty.......take a few lessons. for the past few years i jumped on tele gear at the end of the ski season and "gave it a go" for a few hours. my initial reaction was a sense of "i don't get the attraction".
i have a friend who is a PSIA level III (full cert in USA) in nordic (tele) and asked him for a little help. once i was given a few tips it suddenly became much easier and hence, great fun.
it isn't easy to do well and it is tough to make the leap to difficult terrain or to less than ideal snow conditions.
the biggest reason that i plan to start to tele more often is that it is clear it has improved my alpine skiing. IMHO the bane of every skier is "levering" their alpine boots. in part it is a vestigial movement from technique espoused years ago.
one obviously cannot lever a tele boot. the day after i tele'ed i was skiing in really lousy snow conditions and i felt far more able to stand on the middle of my skis and the result was far more accurate steering of my skis.
i'm hooked on tele. the damn gear (kit in your parlance) is so doggone expensive
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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big jumps and 360's hmmmmmmm.....indeed........i see
yea that was the downside for me. just can't huck those cliffs like i can on alpine gear.
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You know it makes sense.
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For anyone interested provisional dates for the Big Fridge mini tele festivals are 9/10 September at MK, 23/4 September at Cas. Run by telemaster with guest coaches.
A good laugh, all standards including beginners welcome and a chance to get shown up by the marines who do it for a living.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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fatbob,
We have telemarker in our crew... we can't catch him .. The only chance we have is to adopt those big turns so he had better watch out next season...hopefully. Mind you, it doesn't appear to be a game for dodgy knees
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Poster: A snowHead
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Telemarking.... it's a beautiful thing! And there's nothing like the sensation of a perfectly carved teleturn!
If you are already a strong alpine skiier, there's only 2 things you need to know about tele'ing:
1.) (This ones the big secret). It's easier, much easier, than it looks.
2.) Big toe, little toe. In every turn concentrate on feeling the weight of your front foot on the big toe, and your back foot on the little toe. When I learnt to tele 'big toe little toe' was my mantra. My one and only tele lesson was from two random kiwi's. The lesson lasted the length of the chairlift at Treble Cone (NZ) and all it consisted of was 'Big toe, little toe. Just remember the big toe, little toe and you'll be fine dude!'
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Telemarking is great and I do agree its much easier technically then it looks but it is much more physically demanding then regular sking. This is good because if your at an easier resort with friends you can get alot out of it.
First tip NO POLES FOR YOU!!!
Seriously ride without poles for the first day. Important is to find the ballance on the tellies and to not cheat using the poles for ballance. Poles are for rythem not ballance. It will feel strange and you will most likely take a few falls but it will help ALOT.
Tex
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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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Kramer the instructor I use in Les Gets, a guy called Joe Beer, is one of the BASI telemark trainers. A good guy to try if you want private lessons - www.alpinelearningcurves.co.uk
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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TexMurphy,
I agree with the no poles - tried it by default last season when I snapped one on the daylodge run last year. Another tip I was given last season was to shorten my poles compared to when I use them for downhill and this seemed to help aswell.
Dave
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FAQ
I was just doing a sort of free heel parallel. Doing a proper Tele proved a bit more difficult. 
- really boosted my ego, but bear in mind it was only an indoor slope - I would only rate myself as low intermediate standard 
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