Telemark Skiing - A painful experience
About a month or so ago, I had this crazy idea in my head that I was going to take up Telemark skiing. Now to give you an idea I snowboard and when I snowboard, I usually snow slide with those 2 planker wanker skiers and the banter and trash talk about the entire skier/snowboard ideology is always rampant. I have been on my snowboard for about 13 years now, and the last time I was on skis was about 15 years ago. 15 years ago, I wasn’t a really good skier anyhow.
So I had this idea that I was going from one extreme of snowboarding to the other extreme of Telemark skiing with no real knowledge of alpine skiing in-between. With an idea, requires action. If you have ever considered Telemark skiing or are a Telemark skier, you know that Telemark gear is not cheap. Luckily a good friend of mine was selling his 1 season used 2006 Scarpa T1 boots. I bought them and he helped me “bake” the thermal fit liners to my feet. As for the skis and bindings, I am still looking for gear. The few times I have tried this sport I have rented equipment.
I try to keep in pretty good shape by doing a variety of different sports and activates in my spare time. This Telemark thing is an entirely new ball of wax. I have only attempted Telemarking about 3 times.
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The first time was a dismal failure, talk about a gong show all over the hill. The 2nd time somewhat of a failure and still an unsuccessful event. The third time I sort of ended up in the ball park of taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back.
This Telemark sport has to be one of the hardest things I have ever tried to do. On top of being an extremely difficult challenge, my legs and the rest on my muscles in my body are screaming in pain. I can only attempt to Telemark ski for about 2.5-3.5 hours and then the leg muscles just shut down.
My friends think I am sort of nuts, and they think I should have maybe started out on normal skis before taking on the Telemark thing. I just learned how to hold my poles properly, now if I could figure out what to do with these poles that would be another step in the right direction! I just hope that maybe one day in the ever so distant future, I can ride the Telemark like The Mt. Tremblant Blue Angels ski patrol. Check this clip out. They make Mt. Tremblant look like a fun place with no snow and they really really make Telemark skiing look really easy. No other mountain I have been to has a ski patrol that can ride like these guys!
This should be an instructional video! Enjoy…
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