The bleeding edge in backcountry free-heel skiing innovation has finally permeated the telemark ether. And at last manufacturers have brought some of these modern advents to retail.
After years as a DIY darling, Telemark Tech bindings now have iterations that are retail-ready and can be mounted at the ski shop. And the new Scarpa Tx Pro finally brings to market what tinkerers have been frankensteining in their garages for years – a lightweight, touring-centric model that isn’t old-new-stock; doesn’t require tearing your boots at home apart. A new dawn – no matter how modest – seems at hand for off-the-shelf telemark gear.
But are the desires of regular telemark skiers getting attention? And what does the ordinary telemark skier want out of their gear and subculture?
First, simply defining what constitutes an ordinary telemark skier is fraught. Are they the supposed Luddites oft reviled by the more forward-thinking in telemark, the ones still clinging to their Targas, incredulous when ski shop employees tell them that bindings are no longer made?
Or are they more tuned in, following the new cadre of Instagram influencers, tapping into not only the new school, but also the undercurrent of DIY influence that has brought telemark into the modern gear fold?
As always, it seems to be somewhere in the middle. While anecdotally many in telemark appear unaware of many of the latest innovations the sport has seen, there also seems to be only so many standing behind the old gear.
Sensing a demand existed for replacement parts on long ago discontinued bindings, Freeheel Life’s Josh Madsen offered after-market cables for the G3 Targa last year – the long out of stock binding touted as the best-selling telemark trap of all time.
As one of the most prolific telemark resources the world over, Madsen and Freeheel Life had a unique view on what telemark skiers might be looking for. But the program didn’t see enough preorders for manufacturing to begin. It seemed that the notion that the multitudes of Targa zealots – exemplifying the telemark skier who held the sport back by not doing their part purchasing new gear – was based on only on so much.
But does the average telemark skier know of Michael Bolt-on’s, bellowed F1 and F3 alpine touring boots, and even telemark tech bindings?
As it is the lay telemark skier may be in the process of metamorphosis – evolving from an ethos built on legacy gear – and legacy principles – as the sport sees renewed vitality.
Matt Share, Bishop Telemark’s sales and marketing director sees this change, saying “It seems like [telemark is] still graduating from the old school to the new school, empowered by the tech. The tech now has changed the sport where you really can do everything that you can do on alpine or maybe more.” Share’s unjaded take marks an interesting perspective, made all thought-provoking considering his short few years in the sport. “The new generation is unlocking a new and different style,” he says.
But is that the regular, everyday telemark skier? And if so, what do they want?
They don’t seem to need old cable bindings, and they may also not know about the latest and greatest in the sport.
But maybe what they really want is just gear that works. The lay telemark skier isn't like those of us prone to over-thinking this whole thing. Though we need those in the trenches moving things along, the sport is also defined by the purity of the ordinary telemark skier, who – above all else – just wants to telemark.
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