What Does Telemark Need Next? Part II: The Great Free-Heel Knowledge Gap

A coming new gear paradigm gives reason to think that telemark could be well positioned for the future. But is it - and telemark as a whole- destined to obscurity regardless?

My friend Pete is one of those quintessential telemark guys I've always looked up to. Even before I freed my heel, he embodied something I now know long resided in my subconscious. Pete's penchant for live music, adventure, and strong, aggressive telemark turns marks his approach to life. And it doesn't hurt that he mixes the best Manhattan you've ever had in the backcountry (or frontcountry for that matter). Not only a close friend, his lifestyle is in many ways what I strive (well, lunge) to emulate.

So I was elated when Pete wanted to plan a spring trip to ski somewhere in between our homes in opposite corners of the state. We were both in the midst of the sublime yet confusing adjustment of early fatherhood, and this meeting - impossible now without the requisite weeks of planning time - was a threading of so many needles. But an opening emerged in May - we knew we had to take advantage of it. I packed my car meticulously for what I planned to be a mellow ski and fun camp with a friend I too seldom saw.

No one else could make the trip, so to Pete and me this would be a telemark journey, through and through.

But I have to admit the truth about Pete, the model telemark skier - while he didn't use it on this trip, he indeed owns an AT setup. Prior to his daughter's emergence, during the archetypical pre-birth spending spree dads-to-be in ski towns take part in, he checked an uber-light touring rig off of his to-buy list. Phew. Only the infinitesimal bindings had a ridiculously small alpine heel. And his boots had no bellows. At the time it seemed that Pete had turned the page on his telemark days, something I personally lamented.

But Pete didn't so much Abandon Tele as he made his gear decision based on the information at hand. Knowledge of what modern telemark gear offers evaded him; a classic example of the knowledge gap The Turn currently fights against. Unknown to many outside and inside of the scene, the latest crop of telemark gear has achieved weight parity with all but the lightest alpine touring equipment, is capable of tech-toe touring, and enables amazing (and improved!) downhill skiing. Pete didn't know that he could have gotten all this in a light, feature-laden, free-heel setup.

The fact that the telemark information machine missed Pete is baffling. I've met few people as gear-savvy (and gear obsessed), and I know precious few others who have been to as many Outdoor Retailer trade shows - the absolute center of the outdoor gear world. And Pete loves telemark with a most earnest purity. He loves tele like he adores The Dead; his desire to lunge when he skis is only matched by his devotion to drinking beers in his Tacoma when the road turns to dirt. Pete is the quintessential telemark skier. But when the time came to buy a touring setup - new boots, bindings, and skis all - he mounted his fresh Voile planks with Black Diamond Helio bindings and mated them with Scarpa F1 AT boots.

Why in God's name didn't he buy Meidjo's and Tx-Pros?? Why didn't he track down old bellowed F1s or F3s and put together a light TTS rig? What does it mean if information on the cutting-edge of telemark gear can miss a person like Pete?

We weren't thinking about the direction of telemark right here - Photo credit Pete

There still seems to be a disconnect between what is currently available in telemark gear and what the regular telemark skier knows is available. Tele skiers are often blamed to some degree for the stagnation of free-heel business because of their dirtbag tendencies. We've probably all seen guys coming into the local ski shop with broken Targa's getting read the Riot Act. But the latest information just doesn't always make it to the lay telemark skier. Not to mention that there is nothing wrong with skiing on Targas. But that's another topic...

...though maybe it isn't. Telemark still trudges through the NTN vs. 75mm gear wars, which has contributed to an equipment ignorance amongst some of the faithful. Many swore off NTN in its infancy some 15 years ago as too rigid, too like alpine skiing. Others who couldn't conceive of the telemark without a cable didn't even give the new platform a second look. Nowadays, with the advent of futuristic NTN tech bindings like the Lynx and Meidjo, many can't even fathom how the bindings even operate. I remember first seeing banner ads online for Meidjo some time ago and having little idea what kind of binding I was looking at or how it operated. More common still is a beautiful ignorance amongst many a tele skier - they're just out there skiing, not worrying about the direction of the sport or the evolution of the gear. For whatever reason, the information is simply not getting to them or making a difference in their approach. And their T1s and Hammerheads are doing just fine. Just like they are.

But a soon-to-be available trap on a not-so-new telemark binding norm may yet bridge the ignorance gap and unite the gear for The Turn under one modern yet traditionally featured platform: Voile's second generation telemark tech system, the Transit. Though this new development represents a subtle change in offerings, it could have consequences for how telemark and its gear is positioned and perceived going forward. But that realty largely depends if the information can get to the right consumers.

The Transit TTS binding marks Voile's fully mature entrance into telemark tech , first pioneered by Mark Lengel with his Olympus Mountain Gear TTS binding, developed in 2011. The concept is simple: pair a Dynafit-style two-pin tech toe with a traditional cable/cartridge heel throw. The binding is the ultimate marriage of new-age touring efficiency with the telemark retention system many are accustomed to. And not only does the Dynafit frankenbinding give tele skiers the best in touring efficiency, the two-pin attachment improves energy transmission to the edge for more confident turns.

But the most compelling attribute of the Transit TTS may be its accessibility. What the new binding offers is a fully evolved, plug-and-play TTS option (the original Voile TTS was essentially cobbled together from existing Voile parts). Before, putting together a setup on the norm required at least some DIY. The Transit is absolutely a take-it-to-the-shop binding. On top with this, Scarpa NA CEO Kim Miller recently teased that the premier telemark boot company will finally be releasing their long-awaited next-generation boot next season or the year after (note: continue to not hold your breath).

What the Transit binding and a modern Scarpa telemark boot could bring to free-heel skiing is unassailable, marketable proof of telemark's modernity. NTN bindings are polarizing within telemark, and often times confuse non-telemark skiers. Throw in a tech-toe on an NTN binding and opinion and confusion reigns all the more. But people inside and out of telemark understand what a cable means: free-heel skiing. A tech toe with a heel throw, merchandized with a late-coming, modern telemark boot from Scarpa creates understandable, no-DIY-required evidence of the sport's entrance into the contemporary skiing world. This could have ramifications for those in telemark who haven't yet updated their gear, and could even help create outside interest.

But the success of the platform will rest on how well this knowledge circulates. Everything from shop guys to SEO has to be dialed in to get the word out, or the new interface will fall on many deaf ears, like new gear has for decades in telemark.

Pete engaging in a little SEO (Ski Experience Optimization)

How can telemark do more to get the word out on new gear? The current landscape of tele-info dissemination is certainly pretty bleak. Ski shops that have historically been free-heel havens may still carry the gear, but save for a few core stores are far from modern arbiters of the tele sphere. Guys at our local tele-leaning shop have lied to me that they don't have the jig for free-heel bindings they sell on their floor. Alas this sort of behavior is not isolated - these shops are often full of employees who dismiss The Turn. Perhaps much of that ire comes from the repeated attempts by those not in the know to have old gear repaired. Maybe some of these shop guys are bandwagoners - their only experience with tele are the jokes in articles and hearsay.

Regardless, even the shops that carry telemark gear often have few if any employees who can pass along decent information. Telemark could stand to have a stronger ground game in these ski shops, but the reality remains that the manufacturers for the sport have precious little marketing money. Not to mention that the sales reps who push the gear and run the clinics would be foolish to prioritize tele gear when they make their bacon on other brands for other outdoor pursuits.

What about telemark's online presence? The discussion of tele on the World Wide Web has to start with Josh Madsen and his Freeheel Life entities. Between the YouTube content for Madsen's ski shop and his ownership of the fully online Telemark Skier Magazine, no one has done more to put free-heel info on the web.

But how far does the tele word get in cyberspace? Maybe more accurately, how many are listening to the telemark gospel through Madsen? Though relaunched to some fanfare in 2021 - complete with online discussions and a modern subscriber-based revenue model - Madsen's Telemark Skier was unable to find much traction after about a year of new articles. Precious few spoke up when the content dried up, speaking to low subscriber numbers. Madsen's shop content certainly flows during the season, but while retailer-associated marketing is feasible in a business sense, the viability of subscriber-propelled telemark material has proved to be a fraught venture.

The online tele sphere has certainly shrunk outside of Madsen's Freeheel Life YouTube channel. Rene-Martin Trudel's Absolute Telemark, a lesson-based free-heel blog, does still come to life every so often, but his cadence has ebbed in recent years. And the most core of all telemark sites, Craig Dosite's Earn Your Turns, hasn't seen a new article in several years. The telemark world owes these content creators much, and we have little room to criticize their recent output - the real problem is that no one has picked up where they left off. The closest thing to a torch-carrier is the roughly 150 TelemarkTips refugees on several free-heel forums who still discuss The Turn and the gear online, though the conversation is driven by only a few dozen voices, and represents a self-described 'dark corner of the web.' Most telemark skiers are blissfully unaware.

So what's left is word of mouth, long telemark's chief disseminator. Pete was one of two people I went to for advice when I first joined the telemarkers. His input was instrumental - I had no where else to turn for nuanced info on any of the gear. And word of mouth continued to be important as I became a full-fledged telemark skier. My first real brush with NTN was from a short, scrappy, hard drinking friend of a friend who may still be the best telemark skier I've ever met. His praise of NTN was the first acclaim of the new norm I heard, often in rambling, late-evening phone calls after he had had a few stiff ones.

But this conduit is far from a perfect one. While I've been wowed waiting in line for coffee by a stranger's knowledge of Michael Bolt-on duck butts and bellowed F1s, I've also bitten my lip at speculative info, like a ski shop manager claiming Scarpa's European telemark boots have tech fittings at the toe and heel. I've even heard his rumor spew from the mouths of others in town. Without much 'official' information in fact-checked magazines and other journalistic sources, tele's main body of info resides in the faithful - which is typically full of good information - but weak insights remain. Moreover, this creates a situation of uncertainty for marketers and manufacturers; telemark remains a small, disjointed place for information transmission, and that creates a barren landscape in terms of go-to-market strategy.

After all, maybe it isn't that surprising that the telemark information system missed Pete.

What does this mean for telemark skiing? Perhaps there's a silver lining in telemark's retrograde. In a 2018 blog post entitled 7 UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF SKI TOURING, Lou Dawson ruminated on the current telemark landscape, saying "Free heel skiing is very much alive and well, albeit in numbers at a mere fraction of the 'revival' that peaked decades ago," continuing "In my view, the positive aspect of this is that the skiers I see telemarking are the hardest of the hardcore. No more linked fall amusement. Instead, these guys and gals have it down. They’re fun to watch, fun to ski with."

While telemark is surely not as popular as it once was - and it suffers from stagnating gear availability because of that - The Turn benefits from having a stronger nucleus; a smaller but robust contingent keeping free-heel skiing alive. Perhaps the vibe is closer to the core than ever, regardless of the gear stagnation - maybe even because of it.

Still, the fact remains: if the telemark information conduit can miss Pete, it can miss anyone. And for anyone wishing for new gear - or whose business depends on the consumption of telemark equipment - that's a spooky reality.

At least they can't kick rocks on us from here - Pete closing in on the top

Pete and I made our way up the firm gully, kicking steps as the wind howled. I was shaken from my rhythmic trance by a nearby group that was talking so loudly I could hear them over the gale. Finally looking up to see how someone could possibly speak so deafeningly, I came to find they were yelling at me - their word of choice: "ROCK!" The large stones kicked down upon us barely missed while we were in the meat of the steepest part of the ascent. I certainly owe those verbose fellow climbers.

Against our wishes - and the forecasted weather - clouds rolled in with the wind, spoiling any hopes of soft snow. Still, we pointed our way up. Spring cumulous clouds raced over the ridgeline, moving overhead at an increasing clip. In futile hope the sun would come back out and corn things up, we waited just ten minutes at the top of the line as the wind grew stronger. We then transitioned and skied down on a shifting maelstrom of wind and snow that swirled atop the firm pack, our perfect corn harvest dashed.

But the skiing was sublime - our mellow buddy trip turning into a sporty ski. Pete made righteous 75mm turns down the entirety of the slope with a familiar power and poise I was always happy to see. All the while I skidded down the frozen gully in genuflected, NTN-tech assisted turns. The elements threw unforeseen challenges at us, and we persevered, making the trip all the sweeter.

My ski with Pete reminded me that the telemark vibe is indeed alive and well, regardless of the gear we choose. The Turn survives on, even if the supply of new gear and the dissemination of its modern specs is a little more fraught than we might all like. Either way, new boots aren't going to make the beers at the end of a big day of skiing taste that much colder; more marketing dollars and Instagram hits for the sport won't make that powder day you work so hard for any grander. We're covered on that end of things.

Because the gear landscape and the vibe aren't one and the same, and free-heel skiing is still as sweet as ever. But at some point the business has to make sense and the marketing has to have reach - the current path is enough to wonder what the future holds for free-heel gear. Opportunity does exist though, and modern, approachable equipment could be part of revitalizing participation in telemark. If the word can reach the right people - and if the right people are ready to hear what modern telemark offers - perhaps a telemark reinvigoration is close at hand. Without that, we'll just keep moving along, telemarking on what gear we can; the few of us remaining, still making The Turn.