Photo credit: Chris Troeger
Telemark skiing has a lot going for it right now. Despite the misunderstanding of the outside world, telemark is blessed with a passionate and devoted base. And despite declarations of the sport’s death, telemark seems to be in no danger of extinction. In fact, quite the opposite is true. You could argue that the gear is in extended renaissance. NTN, NTN tech, and TTS all are spearheading a revolution in telemark both for touring and downhill.
Still, there are some issues – one being major holes in the new equipment available. Coupled with low participation, we seem stuck in a chicken and the egg scenario – what comes first, more gear or more tele skiers? It’s no wonder that many in the telemark community are calling for growing the sport. A bigger pool of consumers could get us the products we dream of.
But growing the sport in a big way runs into a long running issue: telemark skiing has an image problem. Mention of the turn still elicits ire on internet forums and eye rolls in ski town bars. The mainstream outdoor media occasionally posts jokey articles about telemark skiing, but does little to take it seriously or spread the word on gear or culture. Regardless of many advocating for thicker skins, the issue remains: if telemark is to grow, it will in spite of its image and status.
The negative perception of telemark is nothing new. At times it’s even come from within. In his forward to Paul Parker’s seminal instructional book Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques, first published in 1988, Yvon Chouinard throws a little shade toward a certain segment of telemark skiers while propping Parker up, saying “not only were these people (Parker et. al) outskiing nearly everyone on the mountain regardless of gear, but theirs was not the Peruvian-hat, double-poling, Al Jolson-mammy-turn technique I had known.” If Chouinard felt that way about some of his fellow free heelers, the alpine skiing public must have felt doubly apathetic.
But the 2000s was where telemark’s current status really bloomed. The biggest boom in telemark skiing yet, brought to you by gear like Terminator plastic boots and Hammerhead bindings on level 5 was brought down to earth with a backlash that still echoes to this day.
AT bindings absolutely had a role in telemark’s demise, stealing away much of the base by rendering backcountry telemark a less practical option (‘practicality’ never being an operative word to diehard free heelers). But the negative reaction many had to telemark culture in that day was what really had staying power. Many a judgmental alpine skier called free heel skiing a “license to suck,” and articles of the time called telemark skiers ‘deranged,’ ‘sick,’ and ‘crappy skiers’ who chose shitty gear on purpose (check out the 2010 article Still Telemarking, Huh? from Unofficial Networks – Funny? Sort of. Mean? Absolutely).
And that sentiment continues to this day. The serious coverage of telemark skiing in big ski magazines from 10-plus years ago has been replaced by seldom-posted pieces playing into the jokes, feeding the longevity of the stereotype and at the expense of spreading information on how far the technology has come or how unculty the telemark experience can be. Even the subreddit on starting telemark skiing is full of hateful trolls. Telemark’s current image and status is a barrier for individuals entering the sport; there’s a lot out there questioning someone’s decision to telemark.
A future where telemark gear is widely available and continuing to innovate needs more skiers than it has now – growing the sport isn’t essential to the continuity of the telemark turn, but it is for a thriving subculture, be it manufacturing, media, and so on.
And the first step to doing that is to change the telemark content that is most consumed by people. Telemark needs to somehow bridge the gap and return to getting regular and serious coverage in outdoor media and being part of regular discussion in the ski world, not just the butt of jokes. There needs to be articles, blurbs, gear snippets in the bigger, mainstream magazines.
We won’t be getting buying guides in Outside or seeing knee dropping in the big movies any time soon, but changing the discussion isn’t impossible. The discussion in mainstream outdoor media can move from just jokes to a discourse that actually matters for the sport: gear, leading figures, skiers that inspire. There is enough in telemark for a wider audience to be interested in. Many outside of telemark know little of NTN, especially what it does to make the skiing easier, or how NTN tech now has essentially no major disadvantages to AT gear. How many more people might give telemark a try after seeing that in a major magazine or review? This can’t happen overnight, but the devoted base can make their voice heard in articles and other media.
The jokes will always be there – we do need to continue to not take things too seriously, and occasionally use our thick skins. But telemark’s opportunity to grow and thrive rests in flipping the script, in changing the tired and robotic clichés that define the sport to the wider outdoor world. When telemark finally makes more inroads to mainstream outdoor culture, and shows that great skiing is possible on telemark, and that this isn’t just a silly way to spend your time, more people will feel inclined to give it the time of day. There’s a reason the tele community is so devoted. Given the opportunity, given the knowledge of the gear revolutions, more people will join us. And we do need them.
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