I have tried and tested dozens of skis with the years.

I’ve been sponsored by Black Diamond the past 13 years, but I’ve still tried a lot of other brands.

In this article I want to talk about what you should look for/ avoid in your quest for the right telemark ski, whatever the brand.

In the last 5 years, more and more skis have early rise tips like shown. These tips can be great on big powder skis but don’t translate well to piste, all around skis.

RMT00615

I think the design is popular on alpine setup because it reduces ski vibration that they call chatter.

For us telemark skiers, the back ski gets a lot of pressure transferred to the tip when we flex in a telemark turn. From this, if the tip curvature is not big enough, like we see on all-around skis (95mm and less), I have found a lot of tip dive.

Telemark modern ski guide

Here are the ski categories I like and the use I make of it.

All Around skis (80mm to 95mm) For inbound, usually ski patrolling

I will look for:

90mm underfoot
15m-16m radius
reduced rocker
traditional tip shape
underfoot camber
Don’t take them short even if you want to play in the trees

Weight is often not important. I will mount these skis with a full frame binding like the BMF from Bishop or the Outlaw X from 22Designs.

I use these skis to rail turns on groomers, ski trees, bumps, all inbounds, with some quick outbound laps.

It’s been a couple of years I have skied a perfect ski in this category.

In the last two years, I’ve tried the Salomon QST 90, the Nordica EnRgy 90, the Nordica Enforcer, Atomic Backland 95, Black Diamond Helio 95, Black Diamond Route 88, Bishop Gonzo.

My favourites were the Salomon QST and the Bishop Gonzo.

My all-time favourites were the Black Diamond Warrant (2013) and the Black Diamond Aspect (2012). See the Philosophy section to learn why

Backcountry Telemark, Touring skis (100mm to 120mm)

I will look for:

110-115mm underfoot
lots of rocker (350mm+) soft shovel. I don’t mind the early rise tips for big powder skis.
some camber underfoot, avoid full rockered ski (banana shaped ski are not the best for telemark)
tail: not a lot of rocker and stiffer . If you lose balance and end up in the back seat, it will be harder to bring back.
radius is absolutely not important but it is usually around 18m- 22m
Weight is definitely important and I will aim for around 3 kg per pair.
Don’t hesitate to go longer than you are used to. 5 to 10cm longer is my general reference. The big rocker will still make the skis quick. In the end, it’s all about the float you need in the deep days.

My favourite all-time in this category are the new BD Helio 115. The old version called the 116 was already my favourites but the new 2020 version is just a notch better in variable snow conditions, the Achilles heel of big light skis.

Philosophy of modern skis, and the telemark turn

These are just the guide lines I found in the last years.

On piste All-Mountain experience.

We see more and more telemark skiers on piste with wide skis. I’m one of them.

Going back to old set up last year, I realized that we are going too wide.

Reducing the ski width for inbound skiing has enabled me to ski with ease, in moguls, carving, even in powder. Yes, I went slower in some conditions but in general, it was the opposite, I could go a lot faster, especially on hard pack and in moguls.

I fell in love with a pair of Salomon Slalom ski, with 67mm underfoot and 13m radius for carving. I had the best feeling in years on piste with these. Of course they didn’t allow for variable terrain shred, so this is not the solution for an all-around ski. Still, I found feelings I had forgotten, carving each turn like crazy.

I will be looking for a true all mountain, good for the condition we get in the East. Carving, moguls, trees. The Icelantic Sabre 89 would be a ski I’d like to try.

Touring Experience

I tried 2 versions of BD Helio 105. These skis are great. They are good in all conditions, jack of all trade, quiver ski for snowy condition. But I really like the wider skis. 115 is so much more fun.

I will still try some 105 skis in the next few years because I can, but if I had one backcountry ski to get, I would go 110-115mm underfoot, light skis.

Some exceptions.

Ski shapes and intended use vary so much. There is one for everyone.

I ski manly East of North America with one occasional trip out West for the big mountains.

If I was out West year round, I would have a 100-105mm ski for inbound and the same 110-115mm for off piste

Also, I have a Bishop Chedi I really like. this ski doesn’t fit in any of the categories I explained above.

It’s not light,
It’s not wide
It’s a 100mm ski, full camber,
with a long radius.

In short, it’s a boring ski.

But it just works. A bit like the BD Warrant I mentioned above. Those kinds of skis seem to work really well for telemark. (Or at least, my style of telemark)

Last word about lenght.

Skis lateral stiffness has increased in the last few years and people are tempted to try shorter, wider skis. For me, this has never produced positive results.

For reference here are my skis lengths. I’m 6’01” / 200 lbs or 185cm / 90 kg. The ski lenght will vary depending on the ski category

slalom racing carving skis: 163cm

GS racing carving skis: 170cm

All mountain skis: 178 to 180cm

Powder, touring skis: 184 to 188 cm

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.