The Telemark History Ep2: The Evolution of skis and Bindings

This is my Telemark challenge for the season, going back in time with set ups from four different eras.

We will go from the 80s super long skis to today’s wide boards.

Telemark skiing has evolved so much and I’ve kept updating my gear all along.

I want to go back in time and see the advantages we might have lost along the way, or the benefits I get from the modern set ups we enjoy today.

For the 80s set up, we have the Atomic 210 cm ski, with a lot of camber, mounted with the Chili binding from Rottofella. Then, I found my original telemark skis and binding. It is the Karhu Hardbody 203 cm mounted with Rottofella 412, a front-loading binding. I will ride both skis with a Vasque leather boot.

For 90s setup, I have the X-scream from Salomon, a parabolic ski, with the very popular Voile release plate. I also have the Rossignol Big Bang, mounted on the Rainey SuperLoop binding. This ski/binding combo is mine and I have skied it 5-6-7 years, can’t remember. I will ride the Garmon Veloce with these skis.

For the 2000 setup, I have found the Karhu Kodiak, mounted on the 22designs Hammerhead. This is a short ski for me, but it should edge and carve very well. Not in the video, I will also add a Black Diamond AMP ski mounted on a Black Diamond O1 binding. This is a fat ski, very good for powder. I feel that this is the era where people started to buy more than one set up, and choose according to conditions. I will ride both skis with the super-powerful Crispi XR boot.

For the 2010 to today setups are all NTN based setup. We have the Black Diamond Route 88 mounted on the Bishop BMF-R binding. This is my day-to-day patrol ski. I also chose the Helio 105 from Black Diamond mounted with the 22designs Lynx. This is my setup for backcountry telemark and the one I use telemarking in the Chic-Chocs. I might also show you a few other setups I have that are different for that era, plus a surprise. I will ride those with the Crispi Evo WC telemark boot check out the full series for more fun on the telemark history gear review.

 

GEAR Talk: What skis should you get

via the National museum of Australia

In the twenty plus years I’ve been telemark skiing, I’ve tried quite a bit of skis. I generally try about 5 to 10 every season. Some years, it’s been 15. One season, I got to try DOZENS.

This was a ski test for a magazine. The funny thing is that almost all the tester found the same ski to be the best.

More on this in a bit…

In this blog post I want to answer one of the most asked question I get, mainly through my email newsletter which you can join here.

Today, Lloyd wrote and asked me that really hard question. (thanks Lloyd):

I would love to have an all-mountain ski with an NTN setup that I could use in the tight east coast bumps and trees while also using in the deeper stuff.

This question is really hard to answer.

First there is no ski that is perfect. There is always some compromise.

And most people I know have 2 pairs or more.

But, it’s still possible to get only one and have fun every day…

The Best Quiver All-Around Ski

Before I can answer, and give you my best tip when choosing your next all around skis, let me tell you about why this is a difficult question

I like to compare this to cars.

Do you want an all around car:

  • for the family, like a minivan,
  • for the off-road and city, like a Subaru,
  • a SUV so you can bring all you gear, go on long drives and tow your trailer
  • a pickup truck so you can work and still pick up your little girl at the day care

You get the point, not every body’s all around is the same and gear has changed so much over time. If you change your skis every 5 to 10 years, this post will help you even more.

Skis are described with different metrics.

In the 90’s, we liked to talk about the turning radius. It was the birth of the carving era

In the early 2000’s, we liked to talk the ski waist width size as a starting point, it was the birth of the Fat skis era

in this decade, we were introduce to rocker vs camber. The waist size have gone back down, and the rocker replaces super wide fat skis

Other metrics are the tip width, tail width, length, build material and the weight. There is more, but let’s keep it to that.

Wow, that makes for a lot of talk.

I will keep it simple and start the quest of the perfect ski with one metric.

Ski width

This metric is the most important for one reason, your feet

Most foot are between 98mm and 102mm wide

From this metric you have to choose your skis to be narrower or wider than your foot.

Because everybody’s feet are unique (some are more than 106mm) and that I want to make a general rule, let’s average  a foot’s width to be at 100mm.

Under 100mm

When you are edging, your knees and hips are making a leverage of the ski to tip on it’s edge. A narrow ski will require less force to edge and to maintain the edging. An exaggeration of this is ice skates which are so easy to go from edge to edge that the challenge is to stay straight on the tiny blade.

Under 100mm, your ski will be:

  • easier to edge,
  • nimble and quick turning,
  • best for hard packed snow, moguls, carving, couloirs…

Above 100mm

The great gain above 100m is the floattability in powder. This has changed the game and made skiing in powder effortless.

Above 100, your ski will be:

  • good in soft snow, floating easily
  • create more momentum force in the ski, making it efficient in hard snow conditions like crud, chopped snow, wind packed, heavy spring snow and so on

Rule #1

If you want an all around ski, aim for a ski close to 100. the most popular will sit from 95mm to 105mm

New Metrics

The Rocker:

One of the newest metric was invented by Shane McConkey and Peter Turnerrocker

Rocker is the way the tip or tail of the ski raise to create a banana look. It’s also called reverse-camber.

Camber is the the opposite. Camber is the amount of bounce a ski have under foot.

Rocker is always in the conversation but is overrated if you ask me.

It is not the most important metric  as most skis nowadays have both rocker and camber to some degree. And the ratio rocker-camber is more and more constant from brand to brand within the given kind of ski. It’s like if the compagnies had tried a lot of combinations and found the same recipe to be the best. This is highly debatable since every one have their opinion on rocker.

Here’s mine:camber Don’t worry about rocket too much.

I will advise against full rocker ski, a ski without any camber.

Carbon skis

The other metrics I pay attention to is the construction of the ski, mainly a popular option, carbon. A few years back, the trend was to put titanium plates called Titanial. (It’s still very popular but it’s added with other materials)

Carbon is more and more used to save weight in ski construction and it gives great rigidity. One of the challenge for telemark skiers is to have a ski not so rigid at the tip so that the back ski doesn’t sink too much under the snow.

The tip tendency to dig under is accentuated by the NTN system bindings, which are very active. Combined with a stiff tip, it can really become unskiable.

Rule #3

If you go carbon just make sure the flex is still smooth at the tip. I have had great experience with carbon skis and bad ones. For example the Black Diamond Verdict 100mm ski had a super rigid design (because of Titanial, the point is the same here), and the tip part was also very rigid. This was great if you alpined ski. But for Telemark, it was just too stiff and face plants were more than frequent.

Tip curve

This is a new metric for me. There is a trend to have really shallow tips raise. They only rise a few cm off the ground. I’ve never ask a rep but I think this is to better control spatula vibrations.

Be careful not to get a ski that has barely no curve in the tip.

Again, the back ski will tend to dig under the snow. In a mogul run, it gets really hard to get the back ski over the bump.

I’ve had this problem with the Helios 95 from Black Diamond. But I did not have that problem with the Helios 105 or 116.

FYI: I had the Helios 95 in a shorter than usual length for me. I usually choose around 178-182cm and I tried to go 173cm. This combo of short ski and shallow tip raise made it hard to telemark in variable conditions and bumps.

 

The ski that all testers liked

It was 2005. The telemark tribe was at it’s height and a magazine had us try all the telemark skis on the market. K2, G3, Black Diamond, Rossignol…

All the best telemark skiers of my province were gathered to try and evaluate the skis.

I found it really hard to put in words the feeling proper to every skis. Even more interesting, some testers express the same feeling in completely different words than mine.

But in the end, there was one ski that everybody ranked #1 or #2. It was the clear winner. Great, let’s buy that ski.

If you look at the metrics of that ski today, it would not fit in the all around quiver that Lloyd is looking for.

It was the K2 World Piste if I remember correctly.

This is the description K2 had put up:

The K2 World Piste is a all-around mid-fat ski. A 78mm waist and 114mm shovel let this ski perform in Bridger cold smoke or Baker wet cement. Titanal construction and lightweight wood core make the ski nimble and responsive. If you can only afford one pair of skis check out the World Piste Tele ski.

78mm waist!

Performs well in wet cement!

What, this is crazy. Compagnies don’t make all around skis so narrow anymore.

But this is not the best part. Although the K2 WP were a favorite, it’s the rest of the skis evaluation that got me thinking a lot.

All the skis were OKAY.

There was no real bad ski. No lemon. And skis today looks nothing like the ones in 2005-2006.

The point I’m making here is that skis evolve so much over time. They really improve. What if I skied a 78mm ski today? Would I be able to do the same stuff? Moguls and carving for sure. But Powder and Wet cement?

Maybe 10 years from now, my tips on buying an all around ski will be completely wrong, given new metrics. Maybe not. But from a one year pool, skis do look alike in the same categories.

Final Thoughts

Lloyd, if you ski on hard pack, Eastern snow, I would go for under 100mm. If you ski out West and ski mainly in good snow, I would go just above 100mm.

My choice would be something like the Black Diamond Route 95 or the Helios 105 (mounting telemark binding is not recommended  on the Helios but I do it anyway. If you choose to do so, remember that you have been warned not to)

In your case, a 95mm to 100mm ski would be perfect if you only want one ski.

I will also strongly advice you buy your skis from a dedicated telemark shop like Telemark Down, Freeheel Life or one close to your location.

The advice these shops will give you go way beyond just the skis, factoring in tips on binding (types, mounting…) and boot (fitting, type of liners, height of cuffs…)

I always says that we have to think about equipment as a combo, not just individual piece. This explains why 80mm skis where good all around 15 years ago. The boot, binding, ski combo went all together.

As a small community, we have super passionate people involved in our sport. These shops cannot afford to have a bad reputation just to make a sale.

Note:

Telemark is a technique first, you can do it in a variety of equipment, places, style. I take the liberty of talking of the branch I know best and that I get the most questions about. But by no means, I wish to deter the other styles, from cross-country to leather nordic skiing, all the way to the big mountain freeride… Telemark is awesome

 

Telemark Ski Gear 2018 – Part 1

Telemark gear 2018

Here Is My Gear for This Season

Notice: I’m sponsored and don’t pay much for the gear I use. BUT I can get pretty much all the gear I want so this is really the gear I wish to have, and I can still tell you my honest opinion. This is my gear choice, that fits my need. Take what you need from it, leave what you don’t.

 

For all of you telemark tribe gear freaks, here is what I have chosen for this season

 

 

My ski gear (skis, boots, bindings, skins, poles)

 

Boots:

 

Crispy Evo WC

These boots as got it all. Powerful, that’s my #1 concern in all my boots. They have plenty of power

They’re obviously not the lightest but the touring mode is very impressive when all buckles are open and they are durable. They are not the easiest to boot fit but if they fit you well from the start, you should have no problem.

 

 

2017-crispy world-cup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skis

Helios 117 and Helios 95

I use the Helios 117mm and 95mm from Black Diamond.

I’ve been using BD skis for over a decade now and this Helios series is in my top 2 most liked ever.

They’re light but they ski big. I didn’t think this could be.

The build quality is unparalleled and I’ve skied the 117mm for a season now with very little wear and tear, so durability is there too.

Simply put, they ski big, feel quick underfoot and are crazy light. Now that’s a triple combo hard to beat.

WARNING: BD does NOT recommend mounting telemark binding on their Helios series. Do it at your own risk.

115101_Helio_116_camber_web2

115103_Helio_95_camber_web2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bindings

The Meidjo

The Meidjo binding from The M Equipment has been my dream binding for 4 seasons now.

They are light, the touring mode is just phenomenal and they ski really great.

I’ve had a few problems here and there with different parts of the binding over the years but nothing more than my old Black Diamond  O1.

And I like the fact that they are always improving the design we are now on version 2.1

The addition of the alpine heelset makes it an absolute backcountry combo

0-Meidjo-2-1

 

 

 

 

 

The Outlaw X

The Outlaw X from Twenty Designs is a fantastic binding that is better than Rottefella NTN binding in every way.

The ski better, with less limitation, are as powerful, have an incredibly better touring mode that the NTT Freedom.

Plus, they are super solid.

This is a no brainer

outlawx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poles

I like to have a fix length aluminum for inbounds or side country. Just lighter and feels better. Choose any GOOD fix length aluminum and had a powder basket.

I also use an adjustable pole for touring and I adjust to different lengths to adapt to the terrain. This can really save energy during the day.

I use BD Boundary poles which will also fit my snow saw for cutting nice snow blocks for my avalanche assessment snow pits.

 

1313957_601_main1314080_408_main

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skins

Climbing skins is not the sexiest subject but it really makes a huge difference.

Trim them perfect, sell your old pair with the old skis and (bis) trim them perfectly.

I use the BD mix Mohair nowadays manly for the great durability of the glue, plus the placability of the Mix mohair.

The difference is HUGE for me.

 

mix mohair skins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What do you use?

Put your gear in the comments