Adam Jewell - Search & Affiliate Marketing

After just a day of telemark skiing at the 2009 PSIA National Academy, I got hooked on it. It’s still skiing but a TOTALLY different set of movements and balance requirements than regular downhill (alpine) skiing.

The off-season is always the best time to buy anything. Buy shorts in September, leather jackets in April and buy your ski equipment when there is no snow on the ground!

A while back the K2 World Piste telemark skis showed up on TrackDock.com and I was able to claim a pair of those. Telemark boots must be in relatively short supply since it is still a rather niche sport so it was a bit harder to find those. It was impossible to find anything to try on locally. After searching and searching, I finally came across a company I never heard of before - MountainShop.net based out in Portland, Oregon. They have a simple site, doesn’t look like much effort has been put into promoting it and I managed to find it on page 10 or so of search results.

Since it was impossible to find any boots to try on locally, I emailed them and got a few very helpful responses and just ordered the Garmont Syner-G tele boots.

They were on clearance, ship free and can be returned if they don’t fit. They are the same ones I used out at the 2009 PSIA National Academy so they should, just can’t remember the size I used out there. Now that the boots are taken care of (hopefully) that just leaves the bindings which are much easier to come by.

Many thanks to Al at MountainShop.net for the help in picking boots! Here’s hoping they fit and we get tons of snow on which to use the tele gear this season!

The 2009 PSIA National Academy was my first experience on telemark skiingcarrier to noise ratio and I got hooked pretty quickly. Not only is telemark skiing a lot fo fun in and of itself but the balance required in telemark skiing will help tremendously to improve form and technique in downhill (alpine) skiing.

Out at the PSIA Academy, Earl Saline was the instructor for those of us who had never ventured onto telemark skis in the past. He did a great job of introducing us to the art and science of telemark and successfully got us down from the top of the Snowbird tram at the peak of Snowbird in Utah.

The skis I used out there were the K2 World Piste telemark skis:

which it turns out are some of the best all around telemark skis for just about anything but deep powder. They’ve gotten great review almost everywhere and were a great ski to start out on. After getting back home with the ski seeason over, it seemed like it would be a great time to pick up some used World Piste demos or get a great deal on new ones.

There were a few pairs on Ebay that showed up from time to time but the going rate for used demos with bindings and with shipping was about $400.00 - to much for demos. BackCountryOutlet had some new ones without bindings for around $300 and REI came in at about $350 with free shipping to an REI store.

The folks at BackCountry.com also run Tramdock.com where they throw up deals for 15 minutes at a time. It’s a pain in the ass to try to buy from there if there is something specific you want to buy cause you have to watch the site all the time. It’s great if you are not really looking for anything in particular but are open to snapping up a great deal that might appear there.

After a few days of waiting for the World Piste boards to show up on Tramdock.com, I was about ready to give up and wait till later in the summer for more to show up on Ebay. Then twice in one day when I happened to visit Tramdock.com, the World Piste’s showed up. In a few days, they’ll be here for a total price of about $220 including shipping. That is step one of gearing up for telemark skiing for next year. Next up will be bindings and boots. The boots will probably be the hardest thing to come by at a decent price unless I can find them locally during the summer in a size that fits. In any case, there are only about six more months to go till the snow flies here in PA and it will be time to get back on the hill with telemark gear!