 Poster: A snowHead
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Just thought we could use this instead of hijacking other threads!
I'm off to Austria on Saturday and plan to spend a week practising, practising, practising.
One of the things that I am confused about is at exactly what stage in a tele turn you switch legs. I've seen people switch just after initiating the turn, whilst facing down the fall line and on their way out of the fall line.
Is there a right answer?
I generally switch quite early on, particularly if its steep and lumpy, but I have this sneaking suspicion that all I am doing is a parallel turn with my legs in a different position.
(a fake-a-mark turn)
Any comments or tips appreciated.
(PS I have Paul Parkers book and Allen and Mikes telemark tips book, but remain equally confused)
Dave
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Dave J, Which is your lead foot at the end of the turn. If it's (still) the outside/downhill foot, then you're fine !
If it's not....1) Remember the lead change happens between, not during the turns. 2) You may not be 'committing' to the tele position enough, try to aim to finish the turn in a tele, and then change your lead......
Hope that helps... 
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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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ski,
Thanks,
Yes, downhill foot leads at the end of the turn.
So, I think you are saying that the sequence goes something like this: Lead change , turn, lead change, turn etc
Rather than: Initiate turn, lead change, finish turn
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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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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Any tips for doing tele turns on
1) steep runs
2)cruddy snow, breakable crust, pistes covered in death cookies.
I can do tele turns down easier runs, but when the snow gets poor or the runs get steep I have to resort to parallel turns. I've been practising recently at Cairngorm and can tele turn down all the greens and blues, was Ok down most of the M1, but failed down the bottom of the Lady and in the Aonach bowl (which was unpisted) or is it just practice practice practice.
My kit may not be ideal as I'm skiing on Nordic touring skis (Fischer Boundless with about the same sidecut as my AT skis) and soft, low plastic touring boots (Crispi CXTs)
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Dave Horsley, Bigger boots, skis and beefy bindings help.
But, with what you've got, try 1) Really pronounced 'up' for your lead change (as in, leave the ground, you'll need to be brave), and 2) Get nice and low through the turm. Thinking about the back ski can help too. How'd you go on the Gunbarrel ?
Oh, and why not try 3-4 turns on the steeper stuff, then stop, collect yourself and try again.
BTW I'm not a tele instructor, and have only read the same books as Dave J, have tele'd the Haute Route tho.
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Hiski,
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How'd you go on the Gunbarrel ?
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I don't know if you've seen the Gunbarrel this year, despite the great snow we've had it never really caught any drifts so wasn't open much. They pisted it early morning Sunday 6th March which covered the burn, but it was very much a natural halfpipe, the bottom a lot lower than the Cas tow track. That day it was nice with soft snow and I skiied down the Cas behind one of the piste patrol who telemarks. He was skiing fast, carving agressive tele turns and I tried to copy him and keep up with him. Which I did reasonably well. I followed him down the gunbarrel and tele'd it all the way to the M1 poma. Last weekend it was hard and icy and the death cookies had appeared and I only managed to tele less than halfway down the gunbarrel before having to resort to parallel turns.
Doesn't look like I'm going to get much practice this weekend though. I'll probably pop over to Cairngorm on Saturday and see how the snow has held out. May go touring if there is more snow over the back.
I've read Paul Parker's book, but not Allen and MIkes tele tips is the later any good?
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| Dave Horsley wrote: |
I've read Paul Parker's book, but not Allen and MIkes tele tips is the later any good? |
I like it and used to carry it skiing!
It is a series of cartoon type drawings illustrating particular telemark points.
That does not sound particularly riveting but I found it as informative as 'Freeheel skiing' and a lot more readable.
There is also an index at the back with common tele problems and a list of the various tips that can be used to solve them.
Amazon have it for just over £6 here
PS Allen and Mikes 'Really cool backcountry ski book' is equally good.
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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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Hi Dave J,
It appears in my Amazon Shopping Basket in the 'saved to purchase later' section from when I was looking for touring and telemark books at the end of last year, perhaps I should bring into the buy now section and see if I can improve my skiing.
I wonder if you can practice telemarking on dryski slope?
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Dave Horsley,
Sounds potentially painful - faceplants on plastic ? 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Dave Horsley, Dave J, Yes you can tele on plastic. Knee pads are a must ! 
Dave Horsley, Haven't seen the gunbarrel since the early ninetees. We used to laugh about setting up a Stop and Go board at the top after 3 - so only instructors would be allowed to play (White Lady, M1 and West Wall all closed). Sounds like you are doing well, just keep practising. If you are used to Alpine turns, then you'll probably want to start your turns really fast, which is why a lot of up and down will help. For me Tele turns seem (as much as anything) to be a head thing, the start of the turn is slower, and you are doing all kinds of complicated things with you feet, and your heels are floppy !
Hope that helps ! I'm off to the Vanoise national park touring tomorrow.. enjoy the rest of the snow up north ! 
Mike and Allens book is well worth it..goes well with Paal Parkers. Anyone got Paul's revised edition ?
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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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Anyone got Paul's revised edition ?
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I had a copy, gave it away as a Christmas pressy. Flicked through it before hand and decided I prefered the 2nd edition that I have. The third ediition doesn't have the deep powder head plant picture at the front. The main difference is of course the equipment section which is a lot more upto date.
Will have to have a go teleing at the aberdeen dryslope - bound to cause amusement 
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You know it makes sense.
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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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Only just noticed this thread - Excellent idea!
Dave J, Have fun in Austria, and stay off the Alpine skis!
and I agree with ski on this. Lead change effectively initiates the next turn. Make it quick, keep the stance tight (not too spread out) get on your new edges early and point the rear knee into the turn. All this is probably too much information to try all at once so concentrate on one bit at a time. Quick lead change, Tight stance, Pointy rear knee, edges early.
Slow lead changes into a turn on dificult terrain tends to mean you trail the rear ski and end up with most of the weight on the front leg (Braced front leg).
hope this helps
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Poster: A snowHead
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Yep,
this is the place the Teleheads get together for a gossip. Better not make it too exclusive though. Don't want to be banished to our own seperate forum !
Its odd but the week before last in Zermatt I only saw two other tele skiers all week. In Kitzbuhel several years before that I only saw one.
Compare that to last weekend in the Pennines when we had three Telemarkers at our local ski tow or Scotland where I would expect to see quite a lot of Telemarkers. I've noticed this with snow boarding too.
It does seem to be the case that the British are keen to embrace snow sports in all its varied forms. In the Alps the proportion of telemarkers and snowboarders is much smaller than the UK. The proportion of snowboarders to skiers in Scotland is now approaching 50% in some centres. Carn't think that there are many Alpine resorts with anywhere near that level of diversity. Chamonix is about the highest I've seen.
Is this because we are more highly influenced by the United States, where the proportion of telemarkers and snowboarders is also (presumeably) much higher than the Alps. ?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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As you say, nice powder tele skiing  . It's good that there seem to be a few more free heelers on Snowheads now. Some of you may not have seen this old thread from the first weeks of Snowheads. You will see that Alan Craggs kindly hosted 2 telemark clips on his website (which are still there if you follow his link).
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I was surprised how few telemarkers I saw in Alpe d'Huez in February. I saw only three all week. One of these was disappearing offpiste from the Sarrenne black, so the rest of her party who I didn't see may have been telemarking aswell. I was telemarking afternoons only, but even then got a few comments, one ESF instructor pointed me out to his class, (was probably telling them how badly I was skiing ) and another queried me about my bindings in a lift queue as he didn't recognise them - fairly standard Voile release cable bindings.
Whereas in Scotland there always seem to be several telemarkers on piste and a lot more skinning up on either tele or AT kit. Frischiti AT bindings are also very much more common in Scotland than I've seen in the alps.
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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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Dave Horsley, we saw one telemarker in Obergurgl last week - although there were a number of people trudging purposefully uphill (with free heels). But am I right in thinking this is not necessarily telemarking?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Dave Horsley, Was that half term week ? If so the telemarkers were from La Grave. We were skiing in the same group (Alpine, Mrs Ski is way too fast on her Phat Luvs).
The girl was skiing on Pink TeleDaddys, looked fantastic (her skiing and the skis).
Voile releasables are much more popular in Scotland then Europe, it's rare to see any bindings (other than the 7TM), with release.
If you go back a (long) way you can (perhaps) understand why tele is less popular in Europe. The two styles of skiing, Nordic and Alpine, developed in Scandinavia and the Alps in response to the terrain being skied on. Fixed heel is more suitable for the steeper Alps, rather than the more rolling hills of Norway.
And to come up to date, comparing Mrs Ski's touring kit (Fritschis, Denalis) which have custom made ski crampons, easy to fit boot crampons, which doesn't break, with my combination of Superloops, G3 risers, Rottefella heel plates etc etc you have to say that Randonee equipment is better !
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Hi, ski,
It was half term week for my friends from Cambridge, but probably not up here in Scotland (12th-20th feb 05). Weather had been foul at the beginning of the week, Saturday we arrived it rained, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday was snowy and windy so not much open high up. Wednesday was the first day Pic Blanc opened and we did the Sarrene black both morning and afternoon. I'm afraid I was on my AT skis as during the week in Alpe D' huez I did my 4 to 7th part days telemarking and didn't trust myself to get down Sarenne on my touring kit even paralleling. It probably wouldn't have been a problem, particularly wednesday morning when the whole run had been nicely pisted. I got dragged down a couple of other blacks on my tele kit and had no problems carving parallel turns down them, but again they'd been nicely pisted.
So I may have almost met my first Snowhead on/off piste.
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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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Dave Horsley, Yep - we were there most of the week. Over from La Grave were there was not so much snow. So a definate nearly !
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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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This is odd - I can now play the first clip without trouble, but Windows Media Player refuses to play the second one. Both play happily from a local disk, and Real Player will play them both from the site. Anyone else having this problem
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I did a bit of water tele skiing or should that be tele water skiing at Cairngorm on Saturday and tried the pointing my back knee into the turn tip which helped. Couldn't practice anything steep as there was no snow on anything steep in resort. Should have gone over the back and done some touring as it turns out the snow was better in Corrie Raibert and Corrie Mhaerid (sp?) than any where on piste. By the afternoon I was skiing in a Tshirt it was so warm. Best run was probably the Cas - nice spring snow, but it was a pain having to take skiis off and walk to the tow as the Zig Zags are broken.
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You know it makes sense.
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Just back from Austria - water tele'd 5 days out of 6 until knees could stand it no longer.
I found pointing the back knee a big help as well, and whilst I can make the lead changes fairly quickly find I'm not as quick getting from edge to edge. More practise I guess.
I only saw 1 other tele skier the whole week, but loads of people out on AT kit.
Alan Craggs
If you are still having problems you could try downloading them from telemark tips here
There are a load of short films and clips there. The 'Powder Whores' one is near the bottom of the page.
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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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Dave J, Great - glad you enjoyed the Telemarking and managed 5 days.
By the way thanks for the pointer to the Telemark Vids at telemarktips - I've downloaded a load of them and burnt them onto VCD to watch - most inspiring 
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Poster: A snowHead
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telemarkZero, Just back too ! Remember you gave me some advise before Christmas 'bout soft snow ? Well, it worked !
Mostly I found the things that helped were, 1) Lots of extension/flexion, and 2) Do things S L O W L Y, 'specially lead and edge changes.
Thanks !
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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ski, Not sure it was me, as I only found Snowheads in Feb !!! Still I'm glad the advice worked!!!
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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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FAQ
