 Poster: A snowHead
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Im a snowboarder, always have been and have never skied, well maybe once on a dry slope 20 years ago.
As is always the case, so few days per year in the snow, so i have always stuck to what i know. However i would love to learn to ski, mainly for ski mountaineering purposes but since a young age i have been impressed by telemarking. Last year i bought a cheap used set of skis tele bindings and garmont boots, with the intention of teaching myself when we get snow over here. Needless to say they have not been used in anger yet (cornwall).
I was wondering as a complete two plank novice, would i be better learning on alpine bindings or going straight in for tele, How do the two compare in difficulty?
I am toying with the idea of a long weekend in scotland to get some lessons.
Any advice appreciated
cheers
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I was wondering as a complete two plank novice, would i be better learning on alpine bindings or going straight in for tele, How do the two compare in difficulty?
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I can't answer the question of which is more difficult. However, as a long time alpine skier taking a dab on telemark, I don't see much advantage knowing how to alpine first (over boarding).
If you want to tele, learn tele.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Fri 25-01-13 21:58; edited 1 time in total
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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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hooja, Mates with cameras are a valuable learning tool and there are plenty of telemarkers in the forum to advise on the footage.
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haha after never skiing before then being filmed trying tele for the first time, i doubt there will be much technique worth advising on. Should make for some entrainment for you lot though.
thanks anyway 
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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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Tele is more difficult, if you just for practical reasons want to learn to use two planks, go with alpine. But if you want to tele, there's no reason to learn alpine first.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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I'm a tele convert from alpine, knowing how skis behave and how to apply edge pressure was a real help - so I would say learning to alpine first would really help, but then again why bother learning alpine if what you really want to do is tele, just get a lesson the first time you go out - teaching yourself will make learning harder and take you longer to get going...
I also snowboard (badly) but I can't really say how much knowing how to snowboard helped my tele skiing, but I would say not much, but at least if you can board you have an understanding of the terrain and how to use it.
For sure knowing how to alpine will help your tele skiing, I was linking turns and happy on blues and reds after a few hours on Tele's, but then I have been alpine skiing for 30 years...
good luck and enjoy it!
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Go straight to tele - the feeling of a properly executed turn is a bit like snowboarding IMO & you won't have the standing on the inner edge of your outside ski/ inner tip lead hangups from alpine. You might even have a better feel for big toe/little toe if you can snowboard properly and aren't a back foot kicker.
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+1 go straight to tele, i converted from alpine a couple of years back - still learning for sure but at a decent level. I actually found alpine a hindrance as there's a couple of things that are kind of opposite - basically as fatbob mnetions (although possibly subconciously balance was assisted by alpine experience - to that end the surfy feel of a board may help)
good fun, go for it
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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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Tele is (as others have said) harder and you probably need to be fitter; maybe not once you are good at it but, initially at least, tele is both harder technically and harder work. But if you only want to do tele I would just learn that, learning alpine then teles will not get you good on the teles any quicker and probably slower.
However you say you are interested in ski mountaineering. Alpine ski mountaineering kit (hinged binding with lockable heel) gives you some of the best of both worlds. It's not as light as tele for the walking part and you can't use wax but both alpine and tele can use skins with a free heel for the uphill part.
By the way don't expect to be doing telemark turns after a couple of days. A lot of folk don't realise that you can do ploughs, stem and parallel turns on tele's as well as the telemark turn itself and you'll have to learn those first. In traditional ski touring in Scandanavia, The telemark turn was originally used only for dealing with difficult snow conditions. That tele stance with the skis spread out front and back gives great stability in crud, breakable crust, mixed soft and hard etc.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Tue 29-01-13 19:39; edited 1 time in total
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plus, if you're coming north then G2 Outdoors (aviemore & lecht) are the boys for tele instruction and ski-mountaineering. Good point re ski-mountaineering - you'll need to be fairly confident on either alpine or tele to stike out really so it might be a while before you manage far while learning tele (or without alpine ability)
That being said, I would suggest a paralell path of learning to tele and getting a splitboard and skins so you can get out away from the lifts. The G2 boys will take you ski mountaineering on a splitboard (be surprised if they wouldnt). Maybe be a gear cost to you - not sure how prevalent splitboard rental is but I'm sure somewhere will do it. That way you can still pickup tele on the side but start getting out for a bit of ski-mountaineering on a board
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