Telemark And/Or Alpine touring

[Quadzilla]

Seems to be pretty obvious that the forum has a telemark slant due to the fact that lots of TTips users have found a new home, but I think there will be a influx of AT skiers and maybe Splitters come aboard too. So, the interest here will be more the "tour" than the "turn". WTBS, probably a fair number of skiers will be jumping from Resort Alpine into AT skiing, maybe some into Tele, Tele into AT skiing, Nordic into both, et et. The forum should be a good place to get beta on how do the transition, gear and basic technical advise.

Anyway, disclosure is tough, but does anybody want to share maybe their background what they are doing skiing wise and plans to move on or have moved from one method of turning to another. Plus reasons. Personally, I don't mind a little disclosure but since it is my thread going to wait to see if it has any response before I throw down myself. Add pics too..................

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I recently switched to AT from telegear as my main gear of touring, but I always had a bit of an alpine style of skiing on free heel gear anyway. I will keep my telegear and perhaps even upgrade a bit, I still find tele gear the best for certain types of touring. My only real gripe when I'm on my Dynafits is the inability to switch to touring mode without removing skis. I'm a backcounty skier, primarily in the Wasatch and only ride lifts about once a season.

[bobs]

I'm mostly free-heel, but I've been using AT at least sometimes for decades (my first set had Emery Altitude Plus's, a good general design with some serious flaws). I'm more interested in just getting out into backcountry than I am in ripping hard lines, and so backcountry-weight tele is what I consider the sweet-spot in my quiver. I'd rather stride and glide than go klunk-klunk-klunk. And on most hills I'm on, tele turns can be wonderful, whereas fixed-heel is more like taking the elevator down. But if something is truly steep, and doesn't involve a lot of rolling terrain to get to, I'd rather be on my AT gear.

[aqua toque]

Too early. Let's addresz this when the membership is 400.000 strong.

[Ddog]

fixed-heel is more like taking the elevator down

awesome!

[cesare]

I make alpine turns on tele gear and tele turns on AT gear... just to be contrary.

[MattB]

Tele turns on AT gear is hard!

My light meadowskipping setup is my only currently used tele setup. I have gone to the dark side for ski area and more ambitious touring. It's all fun.

[Nick D]

Well I’m going to be total contrarian and go back full time to tele this year with a new NTN set-up. Two years ago I switched to AT after a diagnosis of arthritis in my left knee but, after the diagnosis I took a course of physio and kept one pair of tele skis, and next season I found I could still bend a knee, thanks I assume to the exercises.

The first day out on the AT gear in challenging BC snow was an utter s*it show. After 30 years of free heel I felt so confined with a locked heel. It got easier as time went on, but I never really enjoyed the AT gear for touring, although the light Dynafit binding was a joy and it was kind of fun at the lifts on a hard pack day going mach shnell.

A reflection of the trend is the response to my ad selling my AT gear. About a dozen responses to the ad for the skis, three for the AT boots and one response to the ad for my old 75 mm boots.

[meadowskipper]

originally a snowboarder from 85/86. freeheel from 93-2005. AT since 05/06. still make tele turns every now and then (parallel most often) on the rugged touring gear, but honestly have no use for the turn. tele's cute, but the parallel turn is a much more efficient turn/tool, provides a better floatation platform in pow, and uses less energy overall. imo.

once 75mm boots went plastic, the heel may as well have been on lockdown. now ntn, don't get me started

[Quadzilla]

Ive come full circle on pretty much everything ski wise. I started Alpine skiing in college in the mid 60's when I went to school at Nevada. Stayed with it for a long time on a recreational level but with teaching school and coaching didn't have alot of time. Took a big break from the resort in the mid 80's and started Nordic XC with friends and got introduced to teleskiing in the BC on skinny gear. Started plugging away at teleskiing and started moving up to more performance gear in the 90's. Met my current wife who was a very good skier and she jumped on the tele bandwagon as well. As time moved on stayed with tele and moved toward "bigger, faster, stronger" telegear and more resort time. I also became addicted to teleskiing on fatter and fatter skis which created a weight problem as we like to ski 50 50 resort/BC. Not so much the resort but climbing in the BC. So, made the decision to do "more with less" tele wise and fishscale tele in the BC and move on with AT gear for the more serious terrain and lighter weight for the up. Also moved on to Alpine resort skiing too for a number of reasons, mainly the ability of modern resort gear, releasability and just being able to ski alpine fixed heel with our friends.
Anyway, we probably ski 70/30 Fixed heel/Tele. My goal initially was to be instinctive and to easially ski whatever gear that were on my feet. Not that good at that, takes me a while to go from days on fixed back to tele with any resembelance of good tech. Lynn could probably ski with a tele ski on one foot and fixed on another and look good. Bottomline, we like it all..........

Couple of pics on Lynn doing both in the BC, we never post resort pics on the website. Usually when I post pic it will be of her or friends, She isn't good at taking pics.......

[cesare]

Tele 2013:


AT 1984:

[aqua toque]

I make alpine turns on tele gear and tele turns on AT gear... just to be contrary.

Wait. Isn't that more trouble than it's worth?

[WoW]

I only tele on a snowboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23cZDK_sNEY

[cesare]

3456789

[Dostie]

The thing I love about lockin' the heel is how flippin' fast I can go without losing control. I tend to reserve that for cruising under the lifts. I'd snowboard again if I wasn't afraid of tweaking my knees again, but I am, so I don't. After nearly going under the knife for ligament damage caused by not canting my snowboard bindings, and doing my own rehab program (a combination of swimming and telemarking) I'm a tried and true pinhead. I can lock 'em down, but would rather keep my feet in comfortable boots and free heels.

Need I repeat? I don't care how you slide back down, only whether or not you earn your turns.