Can the visible conversation on free-heel skiing reach a deeper level, or is the discourse on The Turn doomed to dissonance?
“I care that you tele!” said the voice behind me as I waited my turn for the chairlift. Unsure of the comment’s tone with its allusion to an old telemark joke, I peered back to investigate this random occurrence, this oft chance that someone had noticed my bindings in the lift line. Was it an earnest but easily misinterpreted kudos? Or was it another hipster jeer and/or elevation of my preferred method of skiing, like it was an ironic mustache - at once meant to be self-deprecatingly funny, but also look cool (either or both notions equally missing the point)?
Or was it just sarcastic tele-hate?
To my discredit I must have had the most sullen of looks as I turned. The voice behind me, now a person incarnate, oversized goggles worn under their helmet, recoiled. “No dude, I’m being serious! I teleski too!” they said.
The smile on their face and alpine bindings on their feet couldn’t have confused me more. Months have gone by and I still don’t know if I was being made fun of or if someone was trying to bridge a gap.
But this was nothing new. In fact, exchanges like this are commonplace in the world of telemark.
More recently, after amazing, exhausting laps at Silverton, the lone lifty’s only refrain to me was an ancient telemark roast: “your bindings are broken!” I ignored him. But did he want to be engaged? Or was he just throwing shade? I couldn’t tell.
In the broader outdoor world, telemark knows almost nothing but hyperbole. Undoubtedly places exist where the conversation on telemark is sincere and reaches high levels – like the late Telemark Skier Magazine, or Craig Dostie’s now inactive blog EarnYourTurns, and his associated forum BackcountryTalk.com. But beyond places like this, telemark continues to be fodder for oversimplification, misunderstanding and generalization. From within and without.
But it doesn’t have to be subject to such a fate. Telemark skiing is full of not only authenticity, but a depth of narrative and emotion yearning to emerge. But much stands in its way, impeding not only the conversation on The Turn, but also its way forward.
When I first started telemark skiing, bright eyed and simply addicted, my skiing life existed in the purity of a honeymoon state. I had only cursory knowledge of the gear and the culture – those things just didn’t matter at the time. All I wanted to do was link free-heel turns on whatever gear I could borrow.
Soon enough I dove in deeply. First, I found forums and blogs. Then articles and books – almost all old, none of which resided in the mainstream skiing arena. That included works like Paul Parker’s seminal if long-in-the-tooth Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques and the equally aged Total Telemarking by Brad English.
And online, on free-heel backwaters, including the aforementioned EarnYourTurns, I discovered analyses on equipment and cutting-edge discussions on DIY innovations that no ski shop employee was familiar with. All of this thanks to a small but devoted cadre of earnest free-heel enthusiasts.
But I eventually discovered this was far from the main thread in the telemark discussion, whether in long-form, short post, or even face-to-face. Misunderstandings and thin skin abounded on all sides while jokes with expiration dates in the nineties won the day over thoughtful content. Often receiving play in mainstream ski articles, these old gags stirred the proverbial pot, even instigating nasty, unjustifiable reactions from offended telemark skiers. All at the expense of higher thought. Thus the height of the discussion never reached beyond a certain philistine threshold in most places, causing the discussion on telemark to be lost in the weeds instead of ever focusing on the evolution of the culture, gear, and ethos.
And while the trajectory of modern telemark content is undoubtedly improving - more folks are contributing to the visible discussion and the vibe has turned away from abject tele-tease - the level of this discourse remains at a lowly state to this day.
Take the example of prominent SKI contributor Paddy O’Connell, and his March 2021 piece “Telemark Skier, Why Are You The Way You Are?” Though the author proclaimed the piece was not meant to be taken seriously, O’Connell, with little background in telemark, unknowingly traveled down worn paths, sardonically tearing tele skiers an old one, reciting jokes from probably before he was born. Repeating these staid tropes, O’Connell’s conclusion droned: “perhaps it’s time to click in your heel and ski for real. That, or make sure to up your visits to the local dispensary. Because, as the joke goes: What did the tele-skier say when he ran out of weed? ‘Dude, these bindings suck!’”
To O’Connell’s credit his article was intended as farce (though the piece relied heavily on the usage of well-known jokes uttered at telemark’s expense, arguably perpetuating the negative stereotype). And he did acknowledge he had stumbled into the realm of what he called the ‘tease fatigue’ that telemark skiers had long grappled with. Still, for a telemark skier - long subject to derisive humor – it was impossible to gauge how big the kernel of truth might have been in O’Connell’s piece, especially considering his roast lacked the customary closing tribute. As is often the case when teased, telemark skiers were left wondering where the teaser might be coming from.
Having heard these banalities for decades, most free-heelers let out a collective yawn and moved on. But a few on the telemark side of the aisle reacted poorly – in fact, some of their defensive reactions toward O’Connell were appalling. O’Connell was stalked on his Instagram by those who felt moved to act in such a way. Speaking to Josh Madsen on the Freeheel Life podcast, O’Connell related that he was “very shocked that people tracked me down on social media.”
These angry telemark skiers, virtual torches in hand, had gone as far as direct-messaging O’Connell and disparaging him on unrelated posts he was tagged in. The scene had undoubtedly shown an underbelly that was of the nastiest kind.
Though the reactionaries themselves seemed unwilling and unable to elevate the conversation, many of the telemark faithful do yearn to end not so much the jokes - decent ones and above have their place - but to put to rest the derivative cacophony that lacks a thoughtful counterweight, and create a space where the gear and the ethos can be openly discussed in a manner the sport deserves, letting telemark enjoy an approachability the jokes have stolen from it.
In this light, this author even jumped into the fray. My piece “A Telemark Skier Takes a Long Look In The Mirror” attempted to flip the script – in large part in reaction to O'Connell. Seemingly a treatise about a free-heel skier who questions if the jokes and tropes might be on to something, my article then set a trap, goading in conclusion: “but if telemark’s detractors say, ‘Lock the heel, ski for real,’ what’s their excuse?”
While the piece received reactions and comments on Facebook (where SKI has posted it on four separate occasions to ever-waning fanfare) it didn’t create the conversation I hoped for: a reexamination of how stale telemark hate had become. Some called the article drivel; others nostalgically waxed - somewhat ironically now - that the writing was of the poorest standard compared to the content that appeared in the earlier iterations of Powder. They may very well have been right.
There were a few ‘likes,’ too. But instead of picking up on the conversation most comments were off topic and visceral. And I may indeed be to blame for that dissonance.
I questioned then – and still do – if I had moved the conversation forward, or simply contributed to the noise.
Things do seem to be improving in telemark. But it remains that the discussion on free-heel skiing is stuck in a cycle of unclever humor, poor reactions, and even online bickering amongst free-heel lovers that leaves an experience as beautiful and fulfilling as telemark skiing unfairly marooned and cast aside. It’s difficult to see the path out of this pattern as the low level of discussion continues, leaving participation depressed and gear innovation moving along only as much as it’s demanded. The lowly mainstream discourse on the sport contributes greatly to this reality.
But telemark moves on. Amidst this discordance of jokes and arguments, and out of sight of the mainstream, the turn forges ahead. And after years relegated to the shadows, new, strong telemark content is again seeing the light of day. Standing on the shoulders of the giants who shepherded the turn through darker times - like Josh Madsen and Craig Dostie - as well as René-Martin Trudel’s Absolute Telemark - a new corps has emerged.
CJ Coccia’s TELE COLO has captured the growing modern vibe in telemark with his film tours and companion magazines. And Adam X Sauerwein’s Pursuit Podcast has brought telemark a fresh, modern, even at times contrarian take. These figures bring a refreshing counterpoint to the monotony, and offer a refuge where telemark can be discussed and exemplified in a positive space.
Still, thoughtful telemark content struggles against the ever-present current of stale jokes - like Matt Lyon’s recent telemark-teasing Instagram reel that picked the lowest-hanging fruit to fanfare. This and pieces like Paddy O’Connell’s – who ironically tried telemark skiing - continue to impact the perception of telemark and the discussion about it, no matter how in jest. O’Connell’s first piece, sarcasm, slapstick and all, has long been amongst the leading results in a Google query of “telemark skiing.”
This top-read telemark piece - one of only five SKI has run on the topic in the ensuing 36 months - reaches its highest buffoonery of free-heel skiing in these less than glowing terms:
“It should be noted that I have never tele-ed, which may cause you to think that my confused response to the genuflected turn holds no sand. But it should also be noted that I have never tried a dog turd casserole either, and yet, I still just know it ain’t for me.”
Perhaps what deserves an admission of ignorance and a sarcastic comparison to an undesired fecal hotdish isn’t so much telemark skiing as it’s the way the wider outdoor world tends to converse about it – humorously or not.
These articles - which contribute to the longevity of the negative telemark stereotype - do much to keep people away from trying the sport, affecting the participation, culture and innovation of a serene and valid endeavor.
By comparison, in the bygone 1990s, when things were a little different for skiers and the wider world, telemarkers had the elegant and idealistic prose of the likes of Allan Bard, who poetically mused long ago in Couloir Magazine that “maybe world peace is just a few telemark turns away? Maybe it’s worthy of being a movement? With bumper stickers ‘Telemarking is Peace – Ski the Backside of Beyond.’ Why not? I know of little else like a good day in the backcountry that gives me such incredible tranquility.”
What other beautiful, modern perspectives does telemark hold that are hidden from view while the tropes and jokes instead see wide circulation? How does the perpetuation of these stereotypes not only keep people from indulging in the transcendence that is telemark skiing, but also from sharing it?
There are great dialogues that happen in telemark, they’re just so often off the radar. It may be that the visible conversation on the sport will always be something a little less than palatable for many in the scene, with the core of telemark endeavoring where it always has – not always near the top of a Google search; off the mainstream.
And away from the wider discussion on telemark.
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