Why are you learning tele?

bWHAHAHAAAAAAAA

Lol!

tjf1967 wrote

I am taking it up so I don't have to shower, cut my hair, and use deodorant.

 POTD and I'm betting it stands up!

tjf1967 wrote

I am taking it up so I don't have to shower, cut my hair, and use deodorant.

I’ve been noodling around on "real" tele gear for a season or two. I still ski alpine with the exception of “tele Sundays”
 Some years ago I did the XC trails at Greek and had a fun workout and picked up a cheapo metal edge XC "BC" setup. It was great fun tooling around the local woods and mtb trails – a great mix of my favorite aspects of both skiing and mountain biking. So much fun I upgraded to some epochs with 3 pins/leathers and started taking them along on trips and expanding my terrain, blowing off friends at Stratton to ski Stratton Pond trail etc. There was a lot of highly entertaining XCD energy on the interwebz back then to add to the stoke.

http://forum.nyskiblog.com/NYS-XCD-tp4040132p4040165.html

I was quickly myself in trouble quickly though on the downs so started taking the XCD setup to the hill to try to get a handle on the turn. The fishscales suck on PA groomed “snow” though threw some 3 pins on an old pair of twin tips and got some used 2 -buckle plastic boots to ease the frustration.

I started breaking them out every Sunday for a few runs just to up my XCD game. As my skill progressed and found “the turn”, I started staying out longer and longer with them. After my hip replacement two years ago I had been limiting my bump skiing to a few runs on the softest days. With tele found I could ski low impact bumps and tele-surfing moguls might even be more fun than alpine?! We’ve got a great tele tribe here at blue and was typically skiing tele all day on Sunday by the end of last season.

I still like the power and speed of alpine and don’t think I’ll ever switch full time. I really like the simplicity, freedom and lightness of the my current tele touring setup and don’t have any plans on upgrading and will just leave it as two different activities to do on the mountain.

Before Mike?’s head blew off we were going to get together with MC to do a tele/XCD day, I think we need to resurrect that!

Harvey wrote

You might think tele would stress your knees, but I actually think it actually helps my knees. I can no longer run since an injury incurred on an expedition to the cataracts on the West Branch of the Sacandaga. But I can tele and I feel like it strengthens the muscles that surround my knees.

My understanding is that the reason Hock switched to tele was because of his knees.  He still runs trails and does advanced rock climbing, as well as XC skiing.

Pretty sure knees are one reason that Marcus, CEO of Alta Lodge, is a tele skier.  His wife grew up at Alta, switched to tele as a young adult because she was bored, but seems to ski alpine more these days (over 55).  They tend to only ski in good conditions.

My daughter thought it was great that there was a tele ski patroller at Sunday River.  She talked to a family at Alta last March, all on tele gear.  Father had talked his wife, and three teen/tween kids into giving tele a try that day.

marznc wrote

My daughter thought it was great that there was a tele ski patroller at Sunday River.

I wouldn't be surprised if more half of patrol at Gore is on tele.  Not sure of that but it is a significant number.

I started out on alpine, switched to tele over ten years ago and now alternate between alpine and tele. There are advantages and disadvantages to both styles. Last year I switched to NTN bindings which in some ways are a kind of tele/alpine hybrid. Sadly, tele skiing seems to be on the decline. My guess is that potential tele skiers are turned off by how difficult tele skiing is relative to alpine skiing and that new advances and innovations in alpine gear especially AT bindings are eclipsing some of the attributes of tele. Adding to this is that most standard tele binding have no release mechanism and tele skiing itself require more physical strength and balance in general than alpine skiing. Truth be told, I have so much more fun on tele gear, even in the bumps, largely because of the added physical challenge.  Tele can be  taken up by anyone at any age. Believe it or not, strong legs and knees, why helpful, are not essential. Just bring a sense of adventure and a willingness to learn and you'll be on the way.

Harvey wrote

marznc wrote

My daughter thought it was great that there was a tele ski patroller at Sunday River.

I wouldn't be surprised if more half of patrol at Gore is on tele.  Not sure of that but it is a significant number.

I'll keep that in mind if there is an opportunity to take her to Gore.  The one day we skied there was before she started learning tele.