The 40th Nato Telemark Festival

Last spring, I got he chance to to to the 40th telemark festival organized by the great Dickie hall, founder of the North AMerican Telemark Organizasion (NATO).

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you know just how much I respect Dickie’s implication for the sport. I mean, 40 years, that’s just insane.

This year is supposed to be the last so I would not miss it for anything.

With a great group of friends we drove to MRG, thanks to Marie-Claude and Phil for organizing everything. The combo of a great telemark community, this great mountain and your best ski buddies is hard to beat.

Here’s a video of the week end

I’d really like to thank Dickie Hall and all his crew for another great festival. I don’t know if someone will take over Dickie’s festival, but regardless, I promised myself I would go back again this next year. I have met so many great person, and the skiing is just incredible.

In the end, the quality of this festival is the proof that the telemark community is not a fad. Telemark is timeless, and I’ll bet that it’ll still be around in 40 years.

Review of the Meidjo Telemark Binding

This is my first impression of the Meidjo Binding.

I wanted to do a review for this equipment but warning. I’m not a pro at doing reviews. I’d like to point to my friend Craig Dostie from EarnYourTurns.com for a true review on this binding or actually any review on telemark gear.

He did a complete review of the binding with clear views of all aspect which this review is not. This is more about giving my impressions

I want to mention that I was also trying a new ski, the Corbon Convert and some new boots, the Scarpa TX Pro.

I had a lot of anticipation for this set up. It’s like whenever you go see a movie that you heard was the best of the year. You will be disapointed if it’s just great.

So first the technology of the Meidjo.

This is binding as all the ingredient to become the next big thing in Telemark.

It’s Step In, releasable, It’s light and it’s suppose to ski great.

Plus it’s got low tech touring capacities. When I first wrote about the preproduction model last spring, I was already in awe.

Like I said, It’s got to be a great movie or I’m going to be disapointed.

I think that every body in the telemark tribe looking at this binding for the first time are like, wo, it looks complicated, How do you go from walk mode to telemark mode, it’s such a different design that I didn’t understand it before I actually tried it.

So behold, let check this beatifull design and put it to test.

So I went in the Chic Chocs backcountry for 3 days with some friends and tested the thing.

First,

I’m no used to low tech and getting in and out, I expected it to be hard. Craig Dostie mentionned to me that it was the best fitting low tech he had seen on the market and he was right, It’s fairly easy to get it on.

I like to have the binding in the touing mode to put it on, so their is nothing in the way to get the insert lined up.

To do so, you have to do these steps, harm the binding up, push down and clip the touring hook.

Then, put it on by aligning the the pins witht the boots inserts and press donw, you can wigle a bit if needed to get it on.

Then, to get in telemark mode, release the touring hook and clip on.

This is not the way Pierre, the inventor explains how to put the binding on, because, by doing it this way, I have to bend down, so it’s not a true step in. So maybe with more experience witht the low tech, I will simply arm the binding and step in. In the end I’m so used to bendind down to put on my skis that I really did preffer to do it like this.

On the down side, I had some icing problem once and it prevented me to properly in the second heel. I simply had to manually snap the binding a few times and it was ok. It only happened once. I have to mention that I don’t know one binding on the market that never ice up.

Telemark is a downhill technique

Everybody so far liked the skiing so I was not so worried. Usually, everybody can’t go wrong. I want to point out that there is two dials to adjust tension and that you have the choice to add a second spring on each side for more tension. My good friend Max form Xalibu skis, mounted the binding and had already added the second set of spring knowing my style. It created a really active feeling very close to HamerHead #4. It did not feel like a NTN binding but it’s neither anything like the mellow 75mm binding Black diamond O1 or Voile.

I will play with the springs tension to see all the possibilities

Note on the skis and Boots:

I had never tried the Carbon Convert and this is a solid charger. It’s not at all a mellow soft playful ski that you can push around. It’s a driver and it contributed to my feeling of having a strong set up.

The only odd were the boots. I actually love the Scarpa TX pro, there so comfy, light and warm but I had to adapt to it’s softness.

Conditions were windpack and I had to tighten the boot like mad to get the power I needed.

After a few days, I got used to the boots and it was ok, but I really missed a more powerful boot.

So I would give the Meidjo a strong 10/10 for skiing.

It really delivered in terms of power vs feeling it’s unmatched in my mind except for the HamerHead/Axl and definitely better than the NTN freeride

Release

There is no clear indications on how to set the release tension.

I love the idea that the tension of the release is independent of the tension of the binding activeness. But I would like to know how to adjust the release tension. My tech set it up half way as he didn’t have any more cues.

I had no pre release problem while skiing either on the toe piece or on the second heel, I did not fall either, so really, I did not test this part of the binding.

Touring

For me, this was by far the part that interested me the most.

All the TTS family binding alike like the original TTS, the light moon and the Meidjo uses the low tech advantages of what ATers have had the pleasure of having for years. I have never tried the TTS or the Moonlight so I will consider the Meidjo as my first binding that integrates all the benefits of low tech in telemark gear.

What a pleasure.

The touring hook was changed and this is one aspect I was worried about not being user friendly. It never iced, I was easy to operate and I actually love how easy it is to go from walk mode to telemark mode. To go the other way around you have to remove the binding, which is not my favorite thing, but I can live with that

I had tried Plum, which is a light low tech AT binding many years ago and I don’t remember the low tech to be sooooo efficient.

But with the Meidjo: WOW.

In this, I have to consider the whole package. Boots offered great comfort, movement, skis are very light compared to my Amperage and the Meidjo really delivered. Wow again.

Untill I had a lot of release of the pins, with medium side force. This is wrong. I was missing something. All the people can’t be in Awe if this binding is always releasing in walk mode. But where is the walk mode!

This is a great exemple of a telemark skier not used to a completely new design and being confuse. And Although I feel dumb about not finding how to look the front low tech on the binding at first, I’m sure I’m not the only one that will make this mistake.

I kept trying lifting the red tab from ski to walk like on a Dynafit, or any low tech binding I know, this is not how it is…

In the end, I had to read the instructions (I can hear Craig Dostie laughing at me right now) to find that you have to press a big black bar that simply locks the red tab.

Told you, I’m no expert at all the gear

What I’m good at thought is being out in the mountains and telemark skiing. I do more than a lot and this binding delivered in every aspect except one. the Climbing raisers. The red one sometimes fell without any cause. The second wire one was ok. Maybe I still need to read instructions…

In the end, I did not use and of the two climb riser simply because the efficiency of the low tech is that much more. I could easily climd very steep tracks all the way to the skin holding limit so I never fell the need for the risers.

In the end

I have to say that I’m very impressed. The binding hold to the reputation it already have.

Skiing is very good, a strong 10/10 and that’s number one for me,
Touring is exceptional, and it makes the game radically different in the mountains
By far my biggest surprised is that the overall binding is very user friendly. It all makes sense and I got the hang of it very naturally (Okay! except on how to lock the front pins

Time will now tell if it holds up and until then, for me there’s just no point in going back to another system.

On that note, The Meidjo have already made a few adjustments, adding some screws to better hold up, changing the touring hook, which like I said I found very convenient.

014: Interview with Black Diamond’s staff, the death of the Telemark Boot line up?

Black Diamond R&D guru Doug Heinreich and ski product director Ryan Guess talk about the future of telemark equipment as well as their passion of the mountains. Get to know the behind the scene of the makers of great product like Doug and Ryan, their chalenges and reality.

Although Black Diamond confirms the end of the production of Telemark Boots as reported by Craig Dostie on his blog, Doug opens the doors to new possibilities

Let’s hear about the great story of those two passionate mountain enthusiast in the latest of the Absolute Telemark Tips Podcast.

Links in this Episode

Alex Lowe wiki

Scarpa Terminator

BD Tele Sauvage

Voile CBR

Spaderman binding

013: Andy Parisod, telemark skier, freeskier with style

Check Out this interview with Andy Parisod from The Worst Crew.

He is a avid Telemark Skier that just rips in the terrain park and on the rest of the mountain. It’s really great to see this crew getting telemark to the next level, in an area not many people push Telemark with this much style

Show Notes

TheWorstCrew.com

their Facebook

Videos

Overall just FUN times with the crew

And this edit is by far the best style I’ve seen a telemark skier show

Great film with TelemarCoeur. You can check the Worst Crew’s interview at 16:00 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHndlsGhU4

Andy’s sponsor:

The next Step: Organizing a Festival

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My 3 step plan for developing the Telemark community

With the development of Absolute Telemark last year, I questioned myself about how it could have a stronger impact on the community.

My plan was a three part action:

First develop a personalized online tutorial that many of you have seen with he 7 Flaws. (you can register here)

Second was to get new people to the sport: last week was the second edition of Elle Telemark and was a blast. 40 girls getting stoke on telemark. WOW

The third part was to do something for the actual community around my area. Last year, we had a BBQ at Le Massif and 30 people showed up which was really great. But I wanted something of a greater impact. For the last two years the Telemark Festival is no more at my home mountain, ironically, since the arrival of our new CEO which is a Telemark Skier. And last year I organized this as a plan B. We even had a little unofficial race on the mountain called the Le Derby de la 42. So much fun!

But this year, I went to a greater length and organized a new Festival.

In a backcountry location I have talked about in this blog, the Jacques-Cartier National Park were I also work. This is important for me because backcountry is getting so popular for snowboarders and skiers. The amount of new ATers is just phenomenal around me. It’s important to create places for the community and also to get together and create a great ambiance.

I want to be able to share this with every one, going out in the backcountry is the main thing. And giving people the opportunity to have a dedicated place is great. Telemark is just the best way in my mind, but I know it will probably never be mainstream (hope I’m wrong). But by being part of the backcountry community in my area, I also want telemark to keep it’s place, to show others the possibilities, the ease, the FUN of it.

Here is the Festivals add:

There’s two parts I’m really looking forward.

We have a GoPro contest with Video Editors that will create short movies and Avalanche Quebec will be here to talk to people about avalanches. And there is no avalanche in our off-piste areas.

The Go-Pro event is a real challenge for a new event because we have no fan base. I can’t wait to see the end result and I’m very nervous about the response of the community. But it’s a great risk that I love in organizing an event.

As for the presence of Avalanche Quebec, It’s like having a Pro hockey coach coming to an event in Florida. People here are so unaware about the risks around here.Chances are, these new adept will one day be in avalanche terrain. I want this festival to be the perfect place to learn about all the components of backcountry.

This is a festival for experience inbound skiers looking for an escape, out of the ressorts and out of rules. But at the same time it’s a mean of learning about all that comes with being in a public land. No security, no patrol, no rescue, that’s the price of no rule in the backcountry.

The challenge of a new area, a new philosophy

The other day a friend of mine was addressing a rightful issue.

– There should be a sign that tell people about the dangers and the responsibility of each individual, he said. I see people coming here so unprepared, not knowing about anything

– We have 3 signs.

– Ah!

– With all those new comers, many are careless and someone will get hurt. The park should have someone at the entrance talking to people.

– We have someone.

– Ah!

I told him that it’s okay to be worried. It’s ok to talk to people if they are mislead, but in the end, wherever you do, people will always assume for the best. It’s the blessing of being unaware of the danger, it’s Yhprum’s law (the opposite of Murphy’s law), the Fate in optimism.

And there right, the vast majority will be just fine.

And then, my friend’s also right, someone will get injured and will not be prepared for it. His Friends won’t be ready for it, and the public won’t be ready for it.

And then it’s the media game that will start. Where the mesures in place ok, where the park rules clear enough…

We need to find someone to be guilty.

Sorry I got carried away.

But it’s true, risk management is a no faults game. I used to patrol for a small resort in Eastern Quebec called Mount Glen. One year it was shot down and sold. The new owners wanted to change it to a residential area. But people kept going to ski and hike. Until one day, a guy got injured. He couldn’t work for a while so he turned to his insurance company who sued the new ownership. You can be sure that nobody ever skied again on Mount Glen.

The Heritage

So back to the festival, oh right I was telling you that my goal was to create a nice ambiance. The good news is that I have chosen a place with moderate terrain, 20 to 34 degree angle, in an open birch tree forest with minimal to no avalanche risk (risk 0 doesn’t exist). The perfect place for advanced riders to come and try a new experience.

The local community is great and a lot of people are really exited about this project. The local shops all jumped in to sponsor the event, the newspapers already covered the project, there is a general interest. Time will tell if we can move from the all organized Mountain resorts to places like the Off Piste in the Jacques-Cartier National Park.

Funny thing is that exactly where this sport as started, 80 years ago.

The Province of Quebec have the honour of being the birth place of skiing in North America (we can debate that in the comments and the story of Jack Rabbit Johansson is about the birth of cross country skiing. But to many here, he was all about skiing, their was no cross country vs downhill and Jack Rabbit could do it all. check out the story here.

http://www.onf.ca/film/jack_rabbit

Welcome to the Jacques-Cartier National Park

Check out this nice short film about the new area I just opened this year. Here’s a nice video with my boss, Mathieu Brunet, a real Tele Ripper

So I dream of this place becoming the center of the local community to come and ski in the backcountry, it’s only 30 minutes from the city. I also hope to become the place for newbies to come and chalenges there skills before going to the regionally famous Chic-Chocs where terrain becomes complex.

And you can be sure that I also want to create a place for people to learn about BC, about there responsibility and about there privilege. You can do anything you want, but you have to stand by those choices.

Welcome to my East coast universe.

episode 11: Get your gear for Beginner Telemark skiers

This episode is powered by:

Follow me on the path to finding your first gear set for telemark skiing. Where to start and what to look for is what this episode is all about

Links to this show:

shop for used gear in

Craig’s list

Ebay

Mountain Equipment Coop’s gear swap

Kijiji

Check your local shop for rentals

Check your local telemark ski club

Check for your gear review on: Earn Your Turns

Episode 10: Paul Kimbrough, Big Mountain Telemark Skier

A self proclaimed “Professional Ski Bum,” Paul has been skiing since he was two and freeheeling since 2005.

He has competed in big mountain telemark competitions from Crested Butte Colorado to Alyeska Alaska and won a couple of them.

A mainstay in Powderwhore films, Paul is feartured in “Flakes,” “Breaking Trail,” “Television”, “Elevation,” and their newest film, “Some Thing Else.”

He is excited about coaching and skiing with the youth of telemark as much as possible and fostering a future for the sport.

Talked in this Episode:

Partnering with Jake Sakson, Paul started the Beartooth Basin Telemark Camp that offers two sessions of freeride telemark instruction in June.

Check out telemarkfreeridecamps.com

for more info and register before January 15th for a $200 discount.

Paul’s Sponsors

Episode 009: Shaun Raskin, Big Mountain Telemark Skier

Subscribe on ITUNES HERE – Absolute Telemark Tips Podcast

Shaun Raksin is a rad telemark skier.

She is considered one of the best Big Mountain telemark skier on the planet. Let’s dive in her life as a pro telemark skier. Let’s see exactly how she became one of the top telemark female athlete on the planet. Listen up to the story of Shaun Raskin

shaun link:

The life Unbound

http://thelifeunbound.com/

Shaun Raskin

http://shaunraskin.com/

Inspired Summit, Guiding with Shaun

http://www.inspiredsummit.com/

Megan Michelson

http://www.meganmichelson.com/

Crested butte

http://www.skicb.com/

Favorite skier:

Weston Deutschlander >>see his website here<<

Shaun’s Sponsors

I’m Pumped, Here’s Why

Hey Telemark Tribe

This is it.

The moment a lot of you have been waiting for.
I’m so so excited.
Here are a few example of people emailing me about it

This years Telemark Foundation is going to be out of this league
I’ve been working VERY HARD and I know you’ll LOVE IT.

But more on that in a little bit.

A little bit about me:

When I started telemark skiing, I got hook instantly.

But it took me a couple of years to become comfortable on my telemark. I was not instantly at the same level that I was alpine skiing but I was out there doing it full time. At that point I had left the ski instructor position and moved out west in the Canadian Rockies. That first year, I had a hard a time on my tele.

Yes I enjoyed every moment, but I also struggle to ski the things I wanted to ski.
I can’t count how many times I cart wheeled down the slope or how many times I fell head first for memorable face plants.

Looking back, this was the most dangerous time in my progression.

I wanted to improve but I didn’t know how.

And I now realize I could have seriously injured a knee, my back or a shoulder.

I had a few people around to show me but it was always the “just do like me” technique.

Today people usually do not believe that I have no real talent for telemark.

But it’s true. If you look at my progression, I was not different than the average skier.

But I skied a lot. That’s really all I did.
More than 100 days a year for 15 years.

I’ve built a shack, camped, lived in trailers to work as little as possible and to ski as much as possible.

The best season was 1999-2000 in Whistler. I got a job at the ski school. In those days, if you told them you had a place to stay, they would hire you.
But on the first day when I told them I did not have a pair of alpine skis, they were dumb founded. They put me with the 3-4 years old and told me I could keep my winter boots. Perfect.

I worked 2 days a week, lived in a shack I built literally between two runs, and I skied every day I could. That year, I met a lot of really good telemark skiers, and skied with them. They showed me around but also, I got to watch them and try to execute.

If I’m not the fastest learner, my real talent is to analyse others.

How they do it, what they do that’s different, and I started to analyse every part of their skiing.

I remember one guy name Simon, a local that could do anything from jumping of 90 foot cliff to ski 65 degree slope to carve on ice. He was and still is today, the best telemark skier I’ve meet. And he was dedicated to being out there, in the mountains, day in and day out. I immediately hit it off with Simon.

Me on Whistler Peak

Me and Simon heading to the Fissile’s North face

Simon dropping in the North Face couloir

I also skied with a lot of other telemark skiers.

From looking at Simon and other great telemark skiers. I realize something.

That something became the basic element of how I teach telemark, how I analyse people’s main problem or flaw as I like to call it.

This is so powerful yet so simple.

Here’s why:

There’s only ONE THING that separates very good telemark skiers and the average telemark skier I was.
Only one thing.

Can you guess what it is?

It’s not talent

(When someone tells me they can’t progress it has nothing to do with pure talent. Even at high competitive levels, talent comes second).

It’s not equipment.

(The average telemark skier can spend 1000 to 3000$ a year on equipment, some way more. Good equipment is fun to have and it has improved greatly in the past decade but there were awesome telemark skiers before that).

It’s not where you ski or who you ski with

(Too many telemark skier focus on looking around to see who’s doing it and not)

So what is it?

It’s knowing what is killing your telemark right NOW

It’s having the ability to understand the steps to get where you want to be.

Not just being good,

Because, like Henry Ford said: Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re RIGHT

Here’s why:

Telemark is unique. The flow is unique.

Remember when you first got to link a few turns and just got that Haha moment.

And as you progress, it only gets better. The feeling of a great flowy powder run, or carving so much that your uphill leg touhs the snow is hard to beat.

And that’s often leading to not knowing what to focus on, what to do next in order to get that feeling

And we all know the reward: the feeling of the FREE HEEL, the energy created from those turns…

The best part?

Imagine you could know for sure what is killing your telemark skiing.

Know exactly the steps you need to do to improve like never before.

Once you start on this path, it become addictive.

But the truth is, the path to becoming a great telemark skier is not that complicated.

You only need to focus on the keys that will get you to the next step.

If you’ve have been telemark skiing for a couple of years, it becomes harder and harder to improve.

That’s a big problem.

Because when the good times comes, you want to enjoy every turn.

Whether is that trip that you have been planing or when the conditions are heaven like:

… I want to feel like I’m surfing down the hill.

… I want to carve that groomer,

… I want to float through powder and get those face shoots

… In the spring, I want to enjoy that perfect corn snow just soft enough that I can rail those turns, just hard enough that I can blast at high speed.

When the good times come (and there’s only a few a year) I certainly don’t want to feel insecure
(Am I going to break my leg and miss three weeks of work?)

I want to be on my A game and enjoy that flow so unique to the telemark turn.

The BIG question is:

How can you make this season the best in your life.

… without loosing the fun of the free heel turn

… without waisting days being burnt by noon

… without being frustrated spending time on tips that won’t work for you.

That’s where my project comes in.

I’m dubbing December “Biggest Change in your Telemark Month.”

And beginning on December 7th, I’ll share my recipe on how to create dedication, improve dramatically and find that light bulb moment you had that day. There will be HD videos, all-new webinars, and more.

More specifically, here’s what to expect:

This tutorials are based on the 7 flaws of telemark.

Through out my 17 years of teaching … I’ve discovered theses flaws kept coming back.

The 7 flaws are so powerful because they focus on what is not working NOW

Telemark is a complexe synchronization of movement.

Your main flaw is looking you down, whatever you try to improve, it’s not going to be easy.

Sometimes, focusing on the wrong problem can even get you in the wrong direction and do even more arm than good.

I’ve developed this method to rapidly and efficiently solve people’s main flaw.

Yeah that’s right.

We all have a main flaw that is really killing our telemark technique, and by simply eliminating that flaw, you will improve dramatically.

In this three video series, I will show you all the flaws.

I’ll also take you behind the scenes of two people that have followed this method.
Plus, you will get access to the exact sequence I use to improve year after year and how to effectively apply it to you.

This all means that I’m going to send you a lot of email over the next few weeks. And there will be work for you to do.

Right NOW?

You see, we’re starting the 2014-15 season, and if you’d like to CRUSH it on telemark from day 1, you’re going to LOVE the material I prepared for you.

But if you feel like you’re already skiing great, and you don’t need to know how really fast forward your path to improvement, feel free to click the unsubscribe button at the bottom of this email. No hard feelings.

Still here?

Great.

As I said, I will begin sending this material to you starting on December the 7th. In the mean time, I want you to do two things:

Thing #1

If you are not on my Newsletter, you need to subscribe to get all the content.

Here’s the link.

If you already receive my emails, great you’re all set

Thing #2

Are you going to join me (and the rest of the Telemark Tribe) on this journey towards passion and dedication ?

Leave a comment BELOW

In that comment, I want you to do one simple thing: tell us what is your greatest challenge on telemark. That’s it!

I’m still putting the finishing touches on this material, and this will be your chance to get your question answered by me personally.

Go leave a comment now.

Talk soon,
Rene-Martin

P.S. Look, if you are interested in improving massively this winter, don’t miss this. Over the next few days, I’m going to send you a TON of FREE training on how to telemark

Episode 008: Josh Madsen Telemark Skier Magasine

TELEMARK TUTORIALS

VIDEO LESSONS that will change your skiing

Click here to Subscrire Rate and Review to the Absolute Telemark Tips Podcast

Today we meet with Josh Madsen.

He’s been exclusively a telemark skier since 1992. Loving it. He’s been a sponsored athlete since 2002. In 2004, he started a webzine called FreeheelLife.com that ran until 2008. He’s appeared in several movie productions including Warren Miller’s Higher Ground (2005) as well as many independent telemark movies. He’s produced, filmed, edited and toured internationally 5 of my own telemark movies. He was the Editor of Telemark Skier Magazine 2009-12. He then purchased Telemark Skier Magazine in 2012. He’s just opened Freeheel Life Telemark Ski Shop in 2014.