Category Archives: "Telemark Lessons"

Fast track to telemark

Still Fast Track Alpime_Fotor 1000px

Telemark Lessons Fast Track to learn Telmark skiing for alpine skiers and snowboarders HD

here is a new trailer for our web tutorial series:

This tutorial is for intermediate alpine skiers or advanced snowboarders that are transitioning to Telemark.

Our experience have showed that the knowledge developed skiing or snowboarding is  going to make a positive difference in learning Telemark.

This comprehensive course will enable you to progress faster and better. We will go from beginner to intermediate skills  and even how to get started in moguls.
This is a step by step tutorial, with drills for every skills shown along the way .
This is also THE tutorial for telemark skiers that are stock in their progression with an Alpine like position. It will unlock the skills to go in harder terrain such  as steeps, powder or moguls. Note that this is NOT a tutorial on moguls, steeps nor powder. We develop here the skills that will enable with to approach this types of terrain.
Never before a tutorial as been set up like that. We skip the classic approach and give you the best for your buck package.

This tutorial will be available November 8th 2013. Preorder your copy now in our Telemark Lessons section

This tutorial is part of our tutorial video series. If you would like to learn specific thing about telemark technique, leave us a comment below.

Big news, follow us, subscribe to our mailing list, a special Webinar event will take place for our November 8th launch. Sign up below

where to look

faceshoot on where t look

Where to look when we telemark is crucial in our ability to analyze the terrain and react.

Simply said, looking in front is a good start, of course. But there is more to it. Not only is it one of the most important skill to develop but one advance skier can become an expert by changing the way he looks at his surroundings.

Continue reading »

Telemark stance: high or low

tree2

Telemark skiing is a fluid a dynamic movement.

I often related to it as dancing down the mountain. I like the flow and the freedom freeheel telemark gives me. And it’s all about that feeling.

Different styles can be seen and two skiers can easily approach the same terrain differently. One big question remain: Should I go down all the way or should I stay high in my telemark stance ?

Moguls telemark competitionMt Edouard-4

Above: high stance and low stance in moguls.

There’s no easy answer to that. It is generally said that a higher stance limits your efforts and gives you a quicker response should you lose balance. So telemark instructors have preached with a higher stance. Good reasoning. And that’s what I tend to do.

But a lower stance also have lots of advantages:

  1. it’s fun;
  2. it lowers your center of gravity, making balance easier;
  3. it enable you to stay in movement for a longer period during your turn. I call this dynamic balance. If you are moving, dancing, you can stay with the rhythm of the song more easily. The analogy relates to the terrain dictating the technique. We have to adapt to it. If, on the contrary, you pause and change rhythm constantly, making short movements, it will be much harder to stay balanced, especially if there is an unforseen obstacle that creates an unbalance. The slope is not constant, other people around you are not constant, the snow is not constant. Keeping your body in motion is one key to staying balanced and in control. Telemark skiing offers that freedom more than alpine skiing or snowboarding because of the equipment, because of the freeheel. Momentum is an advantage. Getting low sometimes gives you the extra motion you may need.

Getting low, staying high, both have advantages. There is no one way. I teach to stay as high as possible when you can and to get as low as possible when you need. Also, a common mistake is that people will try to stay high all the time and have never experienced to go low. You need both in your tool box.

Finally, telemark skiing is a lot about feeling. Stay up to save energy, respond quickly and get down in technical, unpredictable terrain.

And get some style for the show…

Oh by the way, the guy with the green pants is by far the fastest telemark skier I’ve ever seen in moguls :)

What’s your approach? Leave us a comment below

Newschool telemark

telemark NEWSCHOOL 2.3

Telemark skiing is an art form that peacefully integrates you with your surroundings. You eat granola, drink herbal tea and good craft beer, and bearded men and strong women are the norm. If your backpack has a name and you can’t go skiing without your dog, you’re a telemark skier.

True but there is another side of telemark: Newschool telemark.

These youngsters are all about jumping and grinding in the park. They look the same as the rest of the park rats and spend hours perfecting their spins.  At first it looks like a completely different sport.  They don’t appear to be turning, but seem to be simply jumping around. Don’t be fooled. These young skiers are just as passionate about our sport, and are as dedicated as most of the traditional crowd. Best of all they call themselves telemark skiers.

Check out this link to see what I mean.

Progression has no limits. Be open minded

Mike Douglas, known to many as the godfather of Freesking has raised the bar for skiers. He and other free-spirited skiers have changed the look of skiing by taking what the snowboarders were proving was possible and adapted their styles to skiing. Telemark skiing is already seeing a similar make over.

Continue reading »

Telemark skiing: weight distribution

weight distribution

The telemark stance define the sport. This split squat creates the turn and stabilize the skier.

 A lot of the modern telemark technique and equipment is influence by the alpine ski technique. Balance and weight distribution are no exceptions._X7A5648

How much weight should you put on your back ski?

It use to be really clear: 50% on each skis. At all time. When parabolic skis came on the market, that’s what the alpine world did too. Get both skis to carve is more efficient. For the past few years, alpine has come back to 80% on the outside ski. They say that it reduces the chance of falling on the inside ski. And people are winning world cup with that technique.

What about telemark weight distribution? Continue reading »

Telemark skiing, Elvis style

Elvis Style Telemark.001

Telemark is a fluid movement, renowned for its style.

While we do it for the pure pleasure it brings, the technique is quite a challenge to master.
Out the many things, short turns AND upper body position are not easy at first.

Rhythm is key to moving fast from one turn to the other. And keeping the torso oriented in the fall line is the absolute criteria to make it happen. Everyone’s heard about having the shoulders facing the fall line or having your hands up in front of you, here is an exercise to really make it all happen AND making you ski short turns.

To do this, you should be a confident intermediate skier, able to ski groomed blue (difficult) runs in a medium radius turn.

Imagine Elvis, saluting the thousand in the crowd in front of him.

Now it’s your turn. Imagine you are Elvis and the thousands are at the base of the ski run. Every turn, to keep your audience, you have to salute them just as seen above, both hands forward. Here’s how you do it.

1. Select a blue run that as a constant pitch. Make sure it’s a run you feel comfortable skiing as you are about to try something new, something that can put you off balance.

2. While you make a turn, rapidly squat down in a telemark turn. As you do so, bring both hands forward, high, right in front of your face. Look at Elvis, elbows are bent, do the same. (There is no pole plant in this exercise.)

3. Salute the crowd of thousands saying: «Yeah» (This is where your speed should be the slowest, your skis should be across the fall line)

4. Stand up from your squat, lower your hands at about hip height. Keep your elbows bent. It’s important that your hands don’t go too low or backwards. (Your skis should be in the fall line, this is where you should gain some speed.)

5. Repeat step 1, turning the other way. You should feel the rhythm after 2 or 3 turns and that’s where this exercise really pays of.

Bonus tip #1: For the upper body, only your shoulders are in motion, elbows and wrists are not moving. Although you don’t need your poles for this exercise, you can keep them and rely on them to balance yourself if you were to lose control.

Bonus tip #2: If you feel that you gain too much speed over a few turns, practice each turn as a stop turn, bringing your skis to halt at each turn. It won’t be as easy to feel the rhythm but it will allow you to master this weird movement on both sides.

Bonus tip #3: Like any exercise, this only to get you to feel something different, to experiment. Make sure you try normal, short turn, with a pole plant, make sure you have fun.

Finally practice regularly, but don’t over practice. Practice to a point that you feel that you gave it a try (one run or two) but stop before you feel exasperated. Repeat later in the day or another time.

Telemark tutorials

Absolute telemark3_16-12-12

Absolute Telemark is in the process of making a tutorial on telemark skiing.

HD quality, well conceive by more than 15 years of teaching experience, each lesson will be 12-20 minutes long and available for pc/mac, Ipod/Ipad, Android tablets and phones

These tutorials will cover subject like:

  • Basic telemark; a series of 3 tutorials will cover everything a beginner needs to know to get started. It even include a fast forward method for alpine skiers or snowboarders, eager to get rippin’ fast.
  • Telemark freestyle; a series of 2 tutorials will cover the new style telemark: switch telemark, snowpark jumps and modules.
  • Mogul telemark, a series of 2 tutorials will cover all the know how from the fundamental to all the advance stuff.
  • Powder telemark, a series of 3 tutorials will cover how to travel the backcountry, tree skiing, and of course powder turnspowder 1

These tutorials will be release for the 2013-14 season.

Just register to our free email updates below. And make sure to visit our telemark tutorial page

Telemark in the trees

Telemark skiing in the trees is

  1. So much fun
  2. Always as fresh track left somewhere
  3. Less prone to avalanche (still subject to and one should always evaluate risk accordingly)
  4. Less wind packed, less windy, warmer, just great place to be in a stormy day (like in the video below)
  5. Tight (trees hurt, I know from experience)

Here is what I mean in this old edit

 

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