photo credit: Alain Blanchette

Wow, This is great. I have had SO many great answers.

Your message has been heard. The responses have not only been really abundant, they were well thought.

And we have a winner for the Black Diamond Dirt Bag Gloves,but first, let me tell you about my weekend I’m back from a great weekend of skiing.

Our home mountain, Le Massif, had great snow and it was only my boy and my girl friend as the girls where at their winter scout camp. For those of you wondering, the kids are not on tele gear. I was asked why this weekend. For my girl friend and I, the goal is to have a great winter outdoor activity that we can all enjoy. Ski, telemark or snowboard, but be outside and enjoy it. That’ll do it for now

Anyway.

After going through your answer, I understand that the most painful, frustrating part of your telemark skiing are:

• the challenge of some expert terrain like moguls, Powder and Tree Skiing, steep skiing, carving…
• the difficulty of having advices about your technique, correcting your bad habits
• learn telemark in a safe environment
• having the time and money to go to festivals and events
• making the best of your day out on the mountains, focusing on fun and not on technique

Am I right?

The challenge of creating a tool to really help the community remains but it confirms my idea. This is going to be a great project. I can’t tell you all about it right now, but I can tell you that I have to check with my Videographer Bejamin Gagnon if it’s at all feasible.

What if I told you that I will create something that solves your greatest pain, just for you. What if this this something contained exactly one of the key to improve your telemark skills dramatically. In fact, it will be adapted especially for you.

I’m really forward to making this for you, but only if this is exactly what you NEED. Anyway, If I spend 3-4  days making this and you don’t want this, then I’m going to feel like an total idiot So here’s what I’m going to do: If you feel like the idea of the video I’m making is what you want, but most importantly need.

click below and subscibre

[ois skin=”presell”]

Also, in the comments below, be sure to let me know WHY and HOW this information will help you out. If enough people want it… then I will create it. If this is not what you want, tell me what you would need.

Thank you so much, This is so exiting

Rene-Martin

You are amazing, I’ve got so many great answers.

Not only this is gold to me, it really confirms what we have been doing together fro the last two weeks. Sharing our stories and ideas on the telemark culture.We are going forward.

I’m exhausted tonight. We skied today in a beautiful -10°C (15°F) in light fresh snow. The girls where at their winter scout camp so it was only the 3 of us. We skied some really gnarly stuff, which I can’t say happens a lot with my family usually. And it’s not because the girls were not there, but because the conditions were so great…

So I’m exhausted. But I’m stoke. Stoke to read all your answers, comments, ideas. This is better than I never thought it would be.

The other day, I asked you to answer a survey of three questions to better understand your needs and challenges about telemark skiing. I’ve got a lot , but I mean I lot of comments, It took me a couple of hours to read it all.
And because of you, Absolute Telemark has never been so vibrant as it is today. Because of all the people who stood up and participated to this blog and even more because of the people who participate to the newsletter, I really feel like WE are creating something unique. I’m incredibly inspired to create the most important content of my life.
Thank you

After going through your answers, I understand that the most painful, frustrating part of your telemark skiing is not exactly what I taught, good thing we talked.

Here are a few of top fears, problems, challenges you mentioned:

a- the challenge of some expert terrain like moguls, Tree Skiing, steep skiing, carving…
b- starting telemark skiing in a safe environment and not getting injured
c- getting some direct critique over your technique
d- skiing with other telemark skiers

AM I RIGHT ?

Rest assured, I’m going to make something that answers your concerns. But this is a somewhat different than what I had expected. In fact, It’s even better. A good thing we talked.

I’m wishing myself Good LUCK:

First because It’s a bigger endeavor than I thought

Second because this is really something I feel will enable my to reach my goal: Making a significant difference in your telemark skiing

For this project to work, I need to hit the ball hard,

Anyway, If I spend a couple  days making this and you don’t want this, then I’m going to feel like an total idiot
So here’s what I’m going to do: If you feel like the thing I’m making is what you want, but most importantly need, then let me know (and be sure to let me kmow WHY and HOW this information will help you out.)

If enough people want it… then I will personally send it to you. If this is not what you want, tell me what you’d rather have.

click Below to let me know

Your answers and the Winner

I got so many great answers and I told you that I would pick according to the quality and how detailled your answers would be.

They were more that great.

Here is the kind of answer that caught my eye

As a crossover from snowboard 4 years ago (plus some alpine skiing many years before) I had the most problem with equal weighting – getting enough weight onto the inside ski. This issue always resurfaces when I start to get tired, and I can see/feel my inside ski flapping about. I now know that when I feel this instability on the inside, I need to focus on pressing on that little toe but it took me a long time to work this out. The second biggest issue I had was ‘poodling’ – all the pictures from my first winter show a 3′ gap between my feet – seeing pictures and videos of myself helped fix that one. My biggest fear was non-releasability. This was realised at the end of my first season when I tore the ligaments in my foot/ankle in deep heavy spring snow – I switched to 7tm for the next season and now to NTN. There is no way I would push so hard riding fast switch or jumping without release bindings now. I have only ever released 3 times in over 100 days of skiing since I switched, but each time I was very glad I did, even if I spent a half hour digging for my skis.

And for the winner of the Black Diamond Dirt Bag gloves…

… was really hard to pick. Out the 53 people that answered the survey, the Winner is Bruce Easton.

Congrats to all and thanks again

So I got up really early this morning.
Actually, I couldn’t really sleep after one of our daughters came around at three Am. After half an hour of turning around in bed, I just couldn’t wait anymore.
I had to write to you about this “something” (more on this in a second).

I have a passion in life outside telemark skiing and the community of great people I meet all the time, it’s my family. Even if our three kids are my girlfriends (I’m not the dad), I have been around them long enough now that I really consider them to be my family. Our oldest son is missing on the picture.  So really, the best moments in my life is going skiing on weekends with them.

Anyway.

I started creating this “something” I talked to you about.

But then, I was really wondering if this would interest anybody but me.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO

If you support the spirit of this blog and have gained anything from my writing and videos…
…them I’d really appreciate you giving me an opinion on something.

It will take less then 3 minutes.
The first question is: “What free product would you LOVE for me to create *just* for
you?”

Because I know your time is precious and because I really want a lot of people to participate, I will give away a pair of Black Diamond Dirt Bag gloves. If you follow my newsletter, you know just how much I love these. Simply answer these questions and I will pick the best answer to win the gloves. You have until  Saturday midnight to answer. Winner will be announced on Monday.

Anyway, if you wax these questions then Ullr, the gods of snow, will shower benevolence upon you for all eternity.

>> Answer the Three Questions here <<

Thanks a ton. I’m so grateful.
Rene-Martin

WHY I ALMOST SHUT DOWN ABSOLUTE TELEMARK

Since the beginning of the Absolute Telemark project, I always felt like I was not giving as much as I first intended.

This has been a great adventure so far, but over the last weeks, I really thought of shutting down the website and all.

I’m really proud of the tutorials created so far and the answer has been great. The people on our mailing list knows just how much this is important to me. Telemark is my life.

But for me, learning Telemark is more then watching a few videos.

Around me, the Telemark scene is not as alive as it used to be. And it’s not because there are no Telemark skiers. It just seems that we are more diluted, that more alpine skiers are going in the backcountry. That the old guard, the first generation of tele bums, are not as implicated as they used to be…

I’d really like to know your opinion on this. What could be done to get the community to be more dynamic?

Still, I went to a really great telemark festival last weekend at La Reserve. Over 300 telemark skiers present, 170 took a lessons, 120 borrowed equipment and 22 raced. For me, the real interesting stat here is that more people took lessons than borrowed equipment! The interest is on the sport, the interest is about skiing and free heeling.

This reflexion has gotten me to think that Absolute Telemark is still a great way to reach people. And that we can do better…

Over the last two weeks, I’ve really been thinking about how I could do my share, how Absolute Telemark could really help the community. I’ve been working on “something”, a big project. I will share it with you shortly.

In the meantime, if you could tell me what you think about all this (It only have to be a short answer) in the comments below. (The big box right below)

I’ve got a few nice clips of the work I do as a ski patrol I thought I would share with you, the Absolute Telemark Community (you can subscribe below). And this will give you an idea of the quality of snow we get up North.

How is this related to a telemark blog?

Well first, most of what I have learned about how to telemark comes from working on my skis. In the clip L’Ancrage, I ski with a few signs and some bamboo poles. Although this may look easy, It’s quite a challenge at first in powder. I learned from carrying stuff how my upper body have a huge influence and how my skis are reacting, especially my hands. You obviously don’t need to be carrying stuff around. You can start by skiing taking your poles at half the shaft or without poles. Try to move your hands in different directions and see what happens

Again, Telemark skiing is an ongoing learning process. At the start of the season, my confidence is not always really high. This will cause mistakes that I wouldn’t normally do. Sitting backward or unweighting my front leg like shown in this picture give me a confidence that I will not trip over some hidden rocks. The draw back is a more physical ride, greater chance of falling, and so on.

[ois skin=”Middle page”]

And some fun along the way

LIKE the music: http://bernadettemusique.bandcamp.com/

I really like working on my Telemarks. It really helps getting around the mountain easily, It’s always fun, it can be a challenge if I want to, or it can be just as easy going, linking a few Alpine turn.