We have been getting shellacked in interior norcal with more to come. I have been out sick ugh. We got our kid a rail to slide in the yard and my 48 y/o wife has picked up sliding rails as a part of her repetiore.
NFR 2022-23 ski season. Let's Go!!!!
- Thread starter swimmy
- Start date
Non-fishing related
I've been freeheeling since '95! There are still a few of us left. If I'm not on pins I'm on a snowboard. All of my AT gear is collecting dust.
Hem
Life of the Party
I had a guy on another forum tell me tele skiing was inefficient and obsolete what with the a/t equipment available.
The tele turn has soul.
Awesome footage. Thanks for sharing.
"I’m not skiing to be efficient, I’m skiing to have fun. It feels better for me, for my general mountain travel, to be on tele gear."
Semi-accurate ancient history from Powder magazine
And now I'm upping the inefficiency ante by snowboarding and splitboarding!
Hem
Life of the Party
Sums it up for me^^
Everyone says, well when you can't tele ski anymore you can go back to alpine.
I can't fathom that. If the knees fail, then I stick with x-country. I'm never locking my heel.
Chris Bellows
Steelhead
We all have inefficiencies we deal with in backcountry skiing. Yours might be touring with tele boots. Others might be touring on traditional split board bindings and boots. Mine is lighter touring boots which bring the best performance on the up track but require a bit more finesse on the down. I see people enjoying being out on gear that I couldn’t even fathom dealing with (stiff AT boots, heavy touring bindings) but we’re all out having a blast in our own way enjoying the truth that all turns have “soul”.
I have my gear preferences and I'm not going to judge anyone for their gear preferences if they're different than mine. Funny thing is that I've received plenty of grief from overly entitled tele skiers for using NTN gear ("that's not true tele" as if their T-Races and Axls are somehow more pure?) or not making tele turns all the time.
Once I stopped racing and competing I stopped caring about being judged.
Hem
Life of the Party
Hey, nobody get their undies twisted.
Buddy of mine makes bamboo rods and fishes bamboo exclusively. I guess you could say he is in to it. He claims bamboo rods have more soul than graphite. Can't hardly argue with that.
Still give him grief.
I think the tele turn is magic.
No righteousness....just a preference.
Buddy of mine makes bamboo rods and fishes bamboo exclusively. I guess you could say he is in to it. He claims bamboo rods have more soul than graphite. Can't hardly argue with that.
Still give him grief.
I think the tele turn is magic.
No righteousness....just a preference.
I have no opinion one way or the other aside from I have always found tele skiiers impressive to watch and also been vaguely envious of AT skiers while I was bootpacking my way up with a snowboard on my back.
But I did always love these old K2 stickers...
But I did always love these old K2 stickers...
As mentioned earlier I worked in a backcountry specific shop in Truckee Ca during tele's boom. We sent a lot of those stickers out the door. As the lone alpine skier in a staff of 15-20 tele'ers the 'free your heel free your mind' talk was often directed towards me. The rebuttal was 'fix the heel fix the problem.' I'm not personally invested in one type or the other and for some reason even though I'm a lifeling Nordic skier and racer, I cannot tele for anything. Tele turns are beautiful and surfy fo sho!
I've noticed a few things in my personal journey through the different sports:
Tele: I started here, so it's my baseline. Even though I make probably 90%+ P turns on any given day, the "feel" of a tele turn done in the right snow conditions is super fun. Plus, shuffling/sidestepping around is so much easier. That being said, I've somewhat plateaued in my progression. I'm not going to start learning new tricks or getting extra gnarly because I'm older and don't bend anymore. I will also say that my switch from 75mm to NTN back in 2008 really saved my interest in tele. Better boots (which are now desperately obsolete compared to their AT counterparts) and bindings make for better skiing experiences for me.
Alpine: After a decade or so of freeheeling only, I figured I'd give alpine a shot. Sure, it's faster and more stable but it hurts a lot more when you crash, and I crashed a lot more since I was going faster and seemingly more stable until I was not! Plus, the stiffness was like riding a rigid bike again. While I still keep AT gear around for the rare occasion where super light and efficient is going to be the difference between success or failure, I rarely use it. In my experience, going from tele to alpine/AT made skiing less interesting. I'm never going to be a big trickster or huckster so for the things I do nowadays, I might as well be on tele gear.
Snowboard: This is a new thing for me in the last five seasons. Being based at Baker, there is no shortage of amazing snowboarders to watch and admire. Plus, as a longtime shitty surfer, I wanted to approximate that surfy feeling as best as I could. By my 10th day on a snowboard I could make the turns I've only dreamed of after 20 years of surfing, and I'm only getting better. I'm still ticking off "personal first snowboard descents" of lines I've skied hundreds of times, and there are plenty of lines that I know I'm not quite ready for. On a snowboard I'm seeing the progression that's been lacking in my skiing for a while.
There's a big difference in the way I look at the mountain depending on the gear on my feet. When I'm skiing, my lines are generally more fall line oriented, with terrain features playing less of a factor unless I'm aiming for airs. When I'm snowboarding I tend to draw out my lines much more and actively seek out terrain features to smash and slash.
I haven't gotten a chance to ride with Dano for a while but this vintage segment kind of sums it up for me. Schmidt is obviously THE MAN, but the lines Dano draws are unquestionably more "soul-y" to me. I can still spot his tuck-knee stance from a long ways away.
And then there's Austen. He's got to be my favorite snowboarder to watch:
As far as skiing goes, Markus Eder may have put together the best ski edit of all time with this:
I don't really have any big tele inspirations these days.
Tele: I started here, so it's my baseline. Even though I make probably 90%+ P turns on any given day, the "feel" of a tele turn done in the right snow conditions is super fun. Plus, shuffling/sidestepping around is so much easier. That being said, I've somewhat plateaued in my progression. I'm not going to start learning new tricks or getting extra gnarly because I'm older and don't bend anymore. I will also say that my switch from 75mm to NTN back in 2008 really saved my interest in tele. Better boots (which are now desperately obsolete compared to their AT counterparts) and bindings make for better skiing experiences for me.
Alpine: After a decade or so of freeheeling only, I figured I'd give alpine a shot. Sure, it's faster and more stable but it hurts a lot more when you crash, and I crashed a lot more since I was going faster and seemingly more stable until I was not! Plus, the stiffness was like riding a rigid bike again. While I still keep AT gear around for the rare occasion where super light and efficient is going to be the difference between success or failure, I rarely use it. In my experience, going from tele to alpine/AT made skiing less interesting. I'm never going to be a big trickster or huckster so for the things I do nowadays, I might as well be on tele gear.
Snowboard: This is a new thing for me in the last five seasons. Being based at Baker, there is no shortage of amazing snowboarders to watch and admire. Plus, as a longtime shitty surfer, I wanted to approximate that surfy feeling as best as I could. By my 10th day on a snowboard I could make the turns I've only dreamed of after 20 years of surfing, and I'm only getting better. I'm still ticking off "personal first snowboard descents" of lines I've skied hundreds of times, and there are plenty of lines that I know I'm not quite ready for. On a snowboard I'm seeing the progression that's been lacking in my skiing for a while.
There's a big difference in the way I look at the mountain depending on the gear on my feet. When I'm skiing, my lines are generally more fall line oriented, with terrain features playing less of a factor unless I'm aiming for airs. When I'm snowboarding I tend to draw out my lines much more and actively seek out terrain features to smash and slash.
I haven't gotten a chance to ride with Dano for a while but this vintage segment kind of sums it up for me. Schmidt is obviously THE MAN, but the lines Dano draws are unquestionably more "soul-y" to me. I can still spot his tuck-knee stance from a long ways away.
And then there's Austen. He's got to be my favorite snowboarder to watch:
As far as skiing goes, Markus Eder may have put together the best ski edit of all time with this:
I don't really have any big tele inspirations these days.
Groove requiem and Blizzard of aahs came out when i was in middle school. They altered my life trajectory.
What’s cool is my son is in middle school now and quality time is skiing or hanging out watching ski videos. Marcus Eder’s Ulitmate run for the 50000 the time, knuckle hucks, all the way to Cody Townshend’s The Fifty. Because of the 50 he wants to hike Shasta together.
What’s cool is my son is in middle school now and quality time is skiing or hanging out watching ski videos. Marcus Eder’s Ulitmate run for the 50000 the time, knuckle hucks, all the way to Cody Townshend’s The Fifty. Because of the 50 he wants to hike Shasta together.
"Drop the knee, squat to pee."
Holy shit, you weren't kidding.
We keep passes at Sugar Bowl as it works best for us with traffic. There are a few regulars that pin. Alpine was kinda always the tele hill in our area. Not sure if it still is as the IKON pass made traffic going that way crazy! I bet there is still a crew. Truckee's mayor a few mayors ago was a full-on tele ripper.
I respect those who are still carrying the torch. I started tele-ing in 1980, and did it for 30+ years. I spent a bunch of time ripping, er, trying to keep up with my ski industry contemporaries who were on Alpine gear. It dawned on me one day skiing first tracks with a buddy at Aspen mountain as we were flying down spar gulch, if he crashes, while it will be dramatic, with some bumps and bruises, he'll be fine. If I go down, my skis won't release, and I'll have a twisting and turning crash resulting in serious physical harm. After that I tried some skiing AT gear at the resorts, and that was pretty cool until I blew out the toe piece of my binding at speed on Regulator at the Bird. I have resigned myself to Alpine gear at the resorts, and AT gear in the side or Backcountry. Safer now, but I do miss the tele days of old.
roger stephens
Steelhead
![P1010618[1].JPG](https://pnwflyfishing.com/forum/data/attachments/34/34322-48b218d9d0f253d4c84835239a3d8f98.jpg "P1010618[1].JPG")
Tele turns made on Mt. Rainier many years ago on the west side of Mazama Ridge east of Paradise parking lot. I used Black Diamond tele skis. It was a memorable day with deep, fluffy snow. I skied that slope many winters.
In the past I tele skied every month for six years. In the summer it on Mt. Rainier( Spray Park above Echo Rock, Camp Muir to Paradise), Mt Adams, and Mt. Saint Helens. In the Fall it was lower Cowilitz Glacier.
Roger
