For a time, telemark seemed to disappear altogether from the outdoor media landscape. While Craig Dostie’s EarnYourTurns always kept the lights on for telemark writing, and Josh Madsen’s late all-online magazine Telemark Skier occasionally came to life, The Turn rarely found itself covered for the better part of a decade.
Notwithstanding a few mentions by Lou Dawson at the old WildSnow, and the historical feature in Backcountry’s November 2018 issue – an expansive and interesting piece called “The Turn Returns” - telemark skiing went mostly quiet, especially in the mainstream.
Not long ago, an online search of Outside’s telemark articles brought forth mostly pieces from the late aughts and before, with a short 2012 piece entitled “The Three Best Telemark Bindings of 2013,” which included the long extinct G3 Enzo, being the most recent.
But telemark skiing has slowly turned the corner and has finally reemerged – albeit quietly – back into the wider conversation. WildSnow began covering telemark skiing again – mostly through the pieces by Aaron Mattix - as tech gear came to prominence.
And lately the big mainstream players have even come back to the fold.
SKI has begun covering the sport anew, with writer Jakob Schiller contributing articles, and Powder has rejoined the conversation, bringing me on with a weekly telemark column. Regardless of their SEO and affiliate-link bound goals - something telemark coverage does little to contribute to - the fact that these entities are carrying these stories again is telling and speaks to the sport’s renewed relevance. Telemark's manufacturers have brought modern gear to the retail realm, and free-heel skiers themselves represent a small but viable buying force these publications are striving to capture. Exemplified in Scarpa’s decision to revamp the Tx Pro, and the wider ski media’s attempts to capture telemark skiers again, the micro-mainstreaming of free-heel skiing seems to say something.
What that truly is is yet to be seen. And while it doesn't change my thought that telemark needs to foster its own, independent media, it nonetheless points to tantalizing questions. Is telemark set to grow? Can the new Tx Pro (not to mention the now turnkey retail availability of telemark tech bindings with Voile’s TTS Transit) spur growth in the sport?
The renewed interest in telemark from the mainstream ski media is an interesting moment for the sport. Still, free-heel skiing remains more committing, esoteric, and still seen by some as the realm of the insufferable. Renewed interest is one thing; a larger, more robust telemark populace is quite another. But something is happening, and the interest from the mainstream ski media – no matter how small – means our little sport is again on the radar.
Might we even look back on this moment as the beginning of that long awaited Third Wave of American telemark skiing?
We shall see.
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