It’s hard to belive it is already day 3 of the 2009 PSIA National Academy but what a great time it has been so far. TONS of snow (on the ground, not fresh stuff), crystal clear deep blue skies and radiant sunlight all day. Temps have been in the 60’s during the day and today was no different.
Telemark skiing was the challenge of they day. You’ve probably seen people telemarking if you’ve been to any decent sized ski resort. Instead of wearing boots that are more like casts and lock firmly into the bindings, telemark boots are softer and only hook into and lock down to the bindings at the toe. When you start out downhill skiing, it seems aukward and seems like quite a challenge at times. Once you step into telemark eqipment you realize how lazy you can be with downhill ski equipment.
Kudos to the PSIA national organization for offering a day of telemark skiing and free rental equipment to the attendees of the 2009 PSIA National Academy Last night I got fitted for the equipment for the day of telemark skiing. The skis were K2’s and I’m not sure what the bindings and boots were. The boots are more comfortable than downhill boots. They also seem warmer but it wasn’t cold outside so that wasn’t an issue either way. You can much more easily walk in tele boots than downhill boots and the tele boots even have a little lever to flip in order to make it even easier to walk in them.
The hardest thing about tele skiing at least initially was just getting the second ski on. Unlike downhill boots where you can just step into the bindings, with tele equipment you have to reach down and manualy pull up the bindings to lock them onto the boots. I ended up rolling around on the ground trying to get the second ski on and eventually managed to get it locked on.
I got to go through this routine twice right off the bat, once to get from the Cliff lodge down to the tram and once to go back out to the Chickadee beginner lift where we spent the entire morning getting the hang of telemark skiing down. It is a great compliment to downhill skiing and really makes one focus on balance. On tele equipment you can lean back and get support from the boots and bindings but since the boots are only attached at the toes, if you lean the body forward you’ll do a face plant rather quickly and still have your skis attached to your feet.
We started out doing downhill skiing with the tele skis to get used to the equipment and realize that if you get spooked or get in an uncomfortable situation on tele skis you can simply revert to downhill mode and get back under control.
Earl Saline, PSIA education manager was the clinic leader for the tele group. This was the beginner group and Earl was the perfect person for the job! He’s fully certified in EVERYTHING and has a great teaching style and plenty of patience for working with beginners.
After a couple hours on the Chickadee run, we were starting to ge the hang of telemarking a little bit. It was more fakemarking than anything else. In other words the group was bending one knee down but not getting the full extension of a real telemark turn. By doing this, you start to get the feel for telemark turns but your weight is still on the downhill ski. This feels more stable because you really haven’t committed to doing tele but you start to at least get the motions down.
Lunch was early and the grop debated between heading over to the Wilbere lift area vs. taking the Snowbird tram all the way to the top of the mountain. After a little discussion we decided to go for broke and head all the way up to the top of the Snowbird Tram. Earl convinced us we could handle it and he was right! The usual ritual of rolling around in the snow to get the second ski on was the first step as we got off the tram.
Once the skis were securely attached to the boots the group headed down from the top of the mountain. This first run from the top of the mountain was full of downhill turns and fakemark turns as the group struggled to get the hand of telemark skiing. Though the boots are more comfortable than downhill boots, my feet started to scream at me about 3/4 of the way down the mountain. At this point I just let loose, split from the group and flew down to the Snowbird tram to get a few minutes to get the boots off for a few minutes while the rest of the group took their time to get down the mountain.
Once Earl and the rest of the group got to the bottom, the group shrank to about 4 people as the others were feeling muscles they didn’t know they had due to the different movements associated with telemark skiing. Once the remaining group was all gathered together, we headed back to the Snowbird tram and went back to the top of the mountain.
At this point, the remaining group members were feeling more comfortable and more confident on the telemark ski equipment. Most of the turns were still fakemark turns with a few group members getting close to real telemark turns.
If you are a downhill skier, telemark skiing can help you improve your technique and make you a better skier if you stick with telemark skiing. When you tele ski, you have to be centered on your skis and cna’t rely on the equipment to hold you up or make up for a sloppy or lazy stance. The balance on tele skis is much different from alpine skis as well. On downhill (alpine) skis since your feet are fimly attached to the skis you have more control or it is at least easier to control the skis with less precise movements.
All in all, the day of telemark skiing in the clinic led by Earl Saline was a a real treat. It was amazing just how much fun could be had on a slope like Chickadee that was essentially flat. All it took was a change in equipment to make a very basic beginner hill an exciting challenge.
The evening consisted of a great buffet dinner put on by PSIA, some hot tub time, a little Comedy Central and an early night to bed. It’s amazing how skiing hard at high altitude day after day can wear you out and turn even a hard core night owl into a “wimp” who passes out from exhaustion by 10pm or 11pm each night.
Next up is day 4 of the 2009 PSIA National Academy. Only two more days of the Academy to go and then two days of free sking before heading back to the daily grind staring at a computer screen all day.
