The Relevance of Telemark Forums - Then and Now

[Matt J]

Relevance is tricky. Relevant to whom?

At its height I think Ttips was having a very small influence on the telemark ski culture. I don’t think any of the forums now are relevant.

A handful of very early “influencers” such as Mitch had a small influence on some of the R&D and release of gear, but as chez stated we’ve clearly never had any influence on Scarpa, the biggest player in the space.

Telemark gatherings in the 2000’s such as the Corn Harvest at Loveland in Colorado or I’m sure similar events in other places like Mammoth might find 5, 10, maybe 15 Ttips members meeting up and skiing together, but we would have never made of more than 5 or 10% of the attendance.

None of the forums have ever been relevant in the Tele Freeride space, tele racing, skimo, or tele film world.

[lowangle al]

So far so good as far as that goes.




Now you've lost me. Where would you be doing telemark turns if not while skiing down a hill?

I think you feel a need to reflexively defend that site because you continue to embarrass yourself by posting there.

ha ha ha, that's pretty funny coming from you Willy. You've been embarrassing yourself for at least as far back to when you disrespected Mitch by bringing your nagetivity and drama to his site.

[bastardsonoffhw]

Somewhere, Mitch rolls his eyes.

That's pretty rich coming from a guy who appears to be one of the more prolific posters on a site that sullies Mitch's memory every second it remains up.

[Allan Fici]

I’m sorry but Mitch as influential as he was was not an early adopter, not even close. Early adopters preaching and spreading the telemark gospel were doing tele demos and events long before Mitch even had his TTips site up and running.

[bastardsonoffhw]

I’m sorry but Mitch as influential as he was was not an early adopter, not even close. Early adopters preaching and spreading the telemark gospel were doing tele demos and events long before Mitch even had his TTips site up and running.

So what?

[Allan Fici]

So what?

So WTF? Do you not understand what early adopter means?

[Todd Eastman]

Want more influence on the sub-sport of telemark skiing?

Find ripping tele skiers, give them great gear (pennies on the dollar for ski companies) and tell them to ski like their gear depends on it!

We see fewer and fewer exciting to watch tele skiers at the resorts, and most of the tele skiers we do see look like they need a lesson.

[bastardsonoffhw]

So WTF? Do you not understand what early adopter means?

I mean who cares that someone said or implied he was an "early adopter" and you disagree? What's the big Fing deal?

[bauerb]

we are not talking about iPhones here. no one alive today could be considered an early adopter of telemark skiing.

[Danno]

I think it's absolutely correct to call Mitch an early adopter of NTN and probably correct to say the same more generally re modern tele gear, which is all I saw implied, not that he was an early adopter of "telemark". It's not like calling him an early adopter sullies the good name of people running demo days in the 90s or whatever.

[bastardsonoffhw]

Question: I see a lot of reference to telemark "culture". What is that? (Maybe this question should be its own thread.)

[JackO]

Want more influence on the sub-sport of telemark skiing?

Find ripping tele skiers, give them great gear (pennies on the dollar for ski companies) and tell them to ski like their gear depends on it!

We see fewer and fewer exciting to watch tele skiers at the resorts, and most of the tele skiers we do see look like they need a lesson.

I agree here, hard to disagree. I would add that this is ubiquitous in all of skiing, just more noticeable with how rare telemark skiers are in the wild - and this unfortunately reinforces the ignorant thought that tele=****ty skiing.

Question: I see a lot of reference to telemark "culture". What is that? (Maybe this question should be its own thread.)

We've been here before...

@JackO: I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. There's no shared "culture" in any of this. Stick a fork in the whole damn thing.

You may have already made up your mind, but I see it as a very soft culture - it's not like telemark skiers as a whole are one cohesive cohort. And it's mostly the same as wider mountain town/ski culture.

But I think there is at least a loose ethos that binds telemark together in a small way - it is certainly around the gear and the technique and discussion therein, but there's also shared figures (Mitch, Dostal, Bard, Hall etc.). And there's the places where these discussions happen - mostly places like this, but sometimes certain tele-leaning shops, or wherever telemark skiers can relate to each other. There's at least an iota of shared experience binding this together in my opinion.

I think many still imagine telemark culture as revolving around attending Panic/Phish/String Cheese shows, wearing Birkenstocks, smoking ganja, being heady ski bums. That may have been the case to a degree in the past; I also think that is just what being a young person in a ski town circa 1998 was about for many - sounds fun right? Though many find it so passe now. Don't get me wrong, I'm still into (most) of the above list, but telemark gets cast as never moving forward so the perception is that all who free-heel ski still do that.

All that to say that the stereotype/old image has more legs than the current subculture.

[bastardsonoffhw]

Nice find! did you reply the1st time? I don't remember. Anyway, I like your response this time. Yeah your 3rd paragraph just describes the scene in that era. And I'm surprised that really unoriginal stereotype still rings true to some. Your 2nd paragraph got me thinking I need to sharpen my query: What's the difference between telemark culture and just plain "ski culture " writ large THESE days.

[Todd Eastman]

"Question: I see a lot of reference to telemark "culture". What is that? (Maybe this question should be its own thread.)"

It's a type of goat cheese found in the high pastures of Telemark usually served with flat bread!

[Allan Fici]

we are not talking about iPhones here. no one alive today could be considered an early adopter of telemark skiing.

This is my point exactly and just so you know there were folks re-inventing the tele turn most likely before you even thought of trying to execute this turn on your own. I have to ask you if you claim to be a tele skier and a rando racer how is it you don’t know how to make a p-turn efficiently? It’s as easy as skiing gets to make p-turns and if you don’t have them in your turn quiver than it’s kind of hard to call yourself an accomplished skier.

I think it's absolutely correct to call Mitch an early adopter of NTN and probably correct to say the same more generally re modern tele gear, which is all I saw implied, not that he was an early adopter of "telemark". It's not like calling him an early adopter sullies the good name of people running demo days in the 90s or whatever.

Not even close. Mitch just had a podium and a small audience. Though, he did add value to the tele turn movement

I mean who cares that someone said or implied he was an "early adopter" and you disagree? What's the big Fing deal?

So, what’s the deal with you getting your panties in a bunch over my comment on the early adopter mis-recognition. Why does that bother you? Is it because I don’t agree with your misguided contrary comments? Mitch was not an early adopter of anything. He was an opportunist and capitalized on a telemark resurgence during that mid 2000’s period. Overall he did a pretty good job rallying tele troupes to get after it and maybe even helped to influence some gear progression. Also what was with your comment about your unquestionable (or whatever you wrote and deleted comment) influence on the subject of a telemark turn being no more difficult than a parallel turn at any point in the history of skiing? It’s these misguided thoughts and comments of yours that lead me to believe that you are just a poser skier interjecting DA contrary info on forums like this just for the sake of the reaction. Look dude, I don’t think you could even carry my skis let alone suggest how to ski them. I’m sure you’d soil yourself if you were positioned above stuff I’ve skied both on tele gear and AT gear. So please spare me (and everyone here) your pathetic comments about your knowledge on the subject of skiing. Deal?

Also how many aliases do you have? What’s up with that. Are you afraid of something? Who TF are you really? M….I’m done with you for now at least.