More about the endangered turn...via Powder Mag.

[TheWheel]

http://www.powdermag.com/stories/endangered-tele-skiers/

[Matt J]

I can't believe they published that. The writing is pathetic even for a rag like Powder. Piss poor, D-.

[Dostie]

I can't believe they published that. The writing is pathetic even for a rag like Powder. Piss poor, D-.

Disagree. Thought Matt did a good job of summarizing things in a short piece. I particularly liked his ending where he spun the whole thing from disparagement to celebration for those who can. But then, the author does know how to rip a tele turn or three.

My fave quote from the article....

They hounded The Turn’s followers with degrading comments such as “Drop the knee, squat to pee,” “Fix the heel, fix the problem,” and everyone’s favorite, “Nobody cares that you tele.” Which was true, except for the people who cared enough to make stickers about not caring.

I would submit, however, that telemark's golden age occurred before the old millenium rolled into the present. It lingered for a few years, but it's demise from popularity was predicted, nay, even engineered, well before.

[TheWheel]

"Stand up and ski like a man." Coined by one of my tail jammer middle aged wanna be park rat friends.

[tele.skier]

As I read it I thought to myself,.... Here's another guy who's gonna tell me that I could cover twice as much terrain with half the work.... ugh...


.... then I got to the last sentence and the author showed a clear understanding of why anyone tele's...

Then you see them explode down the hill with the mastery and grace of a ninja, and the truth comes out: They really don’t care what you think.

good article.

[LightRanger]

Agree with Craig. I thought it was a nice piece.

Seems to me that the tele resurgence peaked around 2005ish. At least that seems to be the high point in terms of the number of people I'd see on tele gear. Lots of ripping tele skiers. It seems that the places that I primarily ski (Alpine, Squaw, Sugar Bowl, Kirkwood, and Tahoe area BC) there are fewer and fewer tele skiers in general, and even fewer of those are actually good. Just my personal observations.

[wayne]

I particularly liked his ending where he spun the whole thing from disparagement to celebration for those who can.

yup!

plus some more characters to meet the minimum requirement.

[Baaahb]

Nobody cares about the article.

The tele turn is the canary in the coal mine. The world is going to sh*t. You can't find a true news channel on TV, you can't find a politician with a conscience, learning is denigrated as elitist, nothing is anybody's fault, everyone's on dynafits.

[bergbryce]

Nothing new here. I think this same piece gets written every 2-3 years, this year the author got to add that ntn hasn't been the mass game changer some were thinking telemark needed. Nothing new here.
There is no shortage of people sucking up skintracks both up and riding them down on splitboards, pre-releasing due to poor usage of tech bindings and other manner of poor technique in the bc these days. I'd venture to say that the guys (and gals) who are on teles, who are still earning their turns probably have their $hit the best dialed when compared to the other groups who have "benefitted" from the growth in their preferred activity. The author does allude to this. I see these types of skiers in the bc a fair amount (midweek more so).

$hitty tele skiers at the resort? Here's a newsflash, as a ski turn it is exponentially more difficult than an apline turn to do and doing it well (at least it used to) took years to learn and then people like me still don't get it right. Put on some unreleasable bindings on your alpine rig and see how fast you rip.

[NoPin]

My fave quote from the article....



Originally Posted by Matt Hansen in Powder Mag
They hounded The Turn’s followers with degrading comments such as “Drop the knee, squat to pee,” “Fix the heel, fix the problem,” and everyone’s favorite, “Nobody cares that you tele.” Which was true, except for the people who cared enough to make stickers about not caring.

I found the article well-written and amusing. However, let's keep in mind that the above "hounding" quotes were in reply to those holier-than-though self-righteous telemarkers that loved to tell everyone "Free your heel and free your mind.", suggesting that they were more enlightened than the ignorant fixed-heel masses.

I always took all the trash talking to be in jest... after all nobody ever took telemarking serious, right? ;-)

[Valdez Telehead]

Actually I think telemarking is pretty fun.

[stevesliva]

Hey, if splitboards continue to exist, tele has nothing to worry about in terms of being bypassed by more popular, practical means of going up or down.

[Valdez Telehead]

Kite skiing is a small market also but looks like fun. Same with mono-boards. Niches are good and not for everyone…..not "more impractical".

[stevesliva]

Hey now, splitboards are the most impractical, cause global warming, and kill baby seals.

[Valdez Telehead]

I didn't know that. That's worse than AT skiers who make a habit of kicking porcupines to de-ice tech bindings, an action I wholeheartedly oppose. This has got to stop, all this backcountry madness. I have my dark tele secrets also.