Telemark Has Been Isolated - But It Also Isolates Itself

Photo credit: Ryan Connelly

When Telemark Skier, the oft resurrected tele-specific magazine, relaunched in the spring of 2021, there was a palpable excitement that a resurgence of The Turn may be nigh. Some of that feeling was surely the result of the marketing campaign geared toward a strong relaunch –owner Josh Madsen did much to promote the restored publication. But the feeling remained regardless. And the renewed magazine got off to a good start. But after a year or so, things slowed down. A strong cadence gave way to a focus on shorter gear reviews, and as of writing this, the magazine has only seen two articles posted in the last ten months, with six months since the last. Though no announcement has been made, it seems that Telemark Skier has unceremoniously entered hibernation again.

Though every telemark skier hopes for the sport’s one magazine to do well, its recent – and repeated – burnout shows that something is amiss. Perhaps readers want more contributors, or maybe more varied content from more angles. And the fact that most people don’t want to pay for content in this internet age cannot be ignored. Whatever it is, the telemark-specific magazine hasn’t been able to achieve longevity since its inception. Its narrow focus – a specific ski technique, its gear, and the subculture around that – may be too insular for wide consumption.

And in that lies a major problem telemark currently faces – it is woefully isolated, and often that is self-inflicted. There is such an emphasis on things telemark-specific that the sport finds itself speaking in tongues that are indiscernible to the wider ski world, about new gear most can’t quite understand, leading to further seclusion and continued cult status. Telemark needs a change in the discussion, toward approachability.

Increasing participation has certainly been a focus in the mini-industry that telemark inhabits – growing telemark even takes on an existential element considering how much gear has been discontinued over the last half-decade or so. Targa bindings from G3, Black Diamond’s entire stable of tele gear; boots, bindings, even kneepads, now Scarpa’s T-Race and T1. All are gone. The concern is not new, and it is certainly valid. If demand for telemark equipment doesn’t increase, there is a real possibility that large swaths of users won’t be able to buy the gear they want in the future.

Many feel that streamlining what gear is available will alleviate the constant demise of options – toward a future where all boots are compatible with all bindings, leaving 75mm out to pasture, and giving users boots and bindings with parity to alpine gear. The thought is that this will make the sport more marketable with gear that is essentially analogous to the popular forms of alpine skiing – especially in touring and weight capabilities, not to mention easier to merchandise at retail with one universal norm.

That future could make the transition to telemark easier for newcomers by taking the 75mm vs. NTN question out of the mix and would surely make selling telemark gear less convoluted at retail with one norm. But that only fixes an internal issue in the sport and does little to bridge the gap to the wider ski world, where most skiers’ only connection with telemark culture is through old jokes. And the only attention telemark gets in the wider ski media, if it gets it at all, is usually from repeating these jokes in articles to bait reactions. That coupled with the constant declaration of the sports death, like Powder’s 2017 article, and we have the world we live in now: telemark’s role is to be joked at by the wider ski world as irrelevant and an incomprehensible choice, an incredibly oversimplified view of the sport. And gear innovation hasn’t changed that, like the advent of NTN bindings with tech toes. The sport needs something more to break out.

We need big glossy photos of people ripping telemark next to images of strong alpine skiing. The sport needs articles about figures and achievements in free-heel skiing with pieces on the wider ski culture. If telemark is to grow – and it needs to – it needs to be part of the wider discussion on skiing. It sits so apart from the main pulse of skiing that telemark is easy to ignore, easy to cast off as superfluous, easy to make fun of. If strong content on telemark can be amongst ‘regular’ ski content, the sport will get the exposure it needs to continue on and the relevancy it deserves. And telemark doesn’t need more articles in SKI that continue to make it the butt of the joke, or videos of the Blister Review crew telemarking as a prank, comparing it to snowblading. The sport needs content that goes above that. That may seem like a tall order given telemark’s cult status, but good writers, good videographers, taking a wider approach to the telemark message can absolutely do that. And we have to take the isolation out of our language and philosophy to help that along – telemark does sit separately from other forms of snow sliding, but it has more in common with those sports than not. Focusing on that, that telemark is approachable, and not on telemark as different, is necessary to change the dialogue.

This writer has to acknowledge that I, too, have contributed to the continued life of the telemark-as-joke in ski media. My piece in SKI, ‘A Free-Heel Skier Takes a Long Look In The Mirror,’ was a baiting piece attempting to flip the script on the ‘excuse to suck’ cliché that many a free-heel skier has dealt with over the years. I used that in the hopes of sparking conversation and making people rethink the tired stereotype weaponized against telemark. Still, the piece was heavy on the labels and jokes, regardless of how those were used as a literary device. Hopefully that is just the beginning of my pieces on telemark that find their way into the mainstream publications. And hopefully they will be more content-rich and become part of a solution to the problem.

My hope is that Telemark Skier can find a balance and keep publishing. And I hope to see telemark slowly make its way out of the shadows, be part of the wider discussion in skiing – at least to a degree. And away from being known just for the jokes and stereotypes, toward a future where pieces on the turn – whether gear, culture, or actual skiing – have their place again amongst the rest of the snow sports world. Telemark sits alone, isolated from the rest of that world. We don’t need to change telemark as much as we need to bring telemark to the wider sports world, in a way that grants the turn respect and interest. If we want to continue to have any sort of subculture, if we care about having any sort of gear options, telemark must find a way into a few more people’s minds.