Tele Isn't dead?

PacificRimJob

PacificRimJob

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Staff member
So I've got back into Tele this year, mostly because I'm pretty over getting hurt in the park. It's actually the most fun I've ever had sucking at something that involves sliding on snow. Plus, it's allowed me to screw around with friends who are pretty passive and slow. Anyone else out there freeing the heel these days?
 
13876046:IsitWinterYet17 said:
What is the point of Tele skiing?
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freeing the heel is the best way to free your soul... MAN.

HAHAHA. I have a set of G3 targas mounted on an old set of solly1080's, but havent had them out in a year or two. If this lack of snow in Colorado keeps up, I'll def bust them out for a weekends worth of entertainment.

Q: How many tele skiers does it take to change a light bulb???

A: 5! 1 to screw it in & 4 more to yell "SICK TURNS BRO"
 
That feeling when you've been touring a while and you lock back in to ski down and your like, wtf is this?!
 
If I wanted to get into it, what would I want for gear? There aren't many who do it at my local hills. I only see one or two a year but I have always loved the style.
 
13876183:FishChowder said:
If I wanted to get into it, what would I want for gear? There aren't many who do it at my local hills. I only see one or two a year but I have always loved the style.
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It's kind of tempting there are burned out hippies offloading their gear on Craigslist all the time for dirt cheap.
 
same same but different. I have been getting out of the park and out touring with my pup, and man what a better mood sometimes watching the dude romp around while I am sweating my ass off to get the non existent snow in colorado of the gores. going winter camping is really the bees knees.
 
I have recently gotten into tele because I wanted a touring setup for cheap and you can find used tele touring gear for super cheap. Learning was harder than I was expecting but once you get the hang of it dropping your knee feels amazing and similar to drifting a car. Plus you get a cheap and light touring setup with comfortable boots.
 
Yeah dude been Teleing for the past 4 years, freaking loving it. If anything the reason to get good at tele is it will make you an astronomically better alpine Skier, after you get back onto a pair of alpine bindings it's so fucking easy.
 
13876126:DingoSean said:
Drop the knee, sit to pee.
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Fix the heel, fix the problem.

TBH I have no issues with tele skiers, but I only know one person who actually teles and i make fun of him all the time.
 
13876183:FishChowder said:
If I wanted to get into it, what would I want for gear? There aren't many who do it at my local hills. I only see one or two a year but I have always loved the style.
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Get any old pair of skis, it doesn't really matter.

Then get a pair of boots. Remember there are 2 different options, NTN, and 75mm. 75 probably would be the easiest to find bindings for. Size them the same as you'd size alpine boots. Craigslist is full of options.

Then get a pair of bindings. I recommend something like the Black DIamond 01 with a 6 hole pattern, or 22 designs Axl if you're doing 75mm. NTN has fewer options, so just get whatever you can find.
 
shit's boring. there is a private school in my village that teaches tele skiing. it is apparently one of the best in the world, but all of them suck dick at tele skiing. they all talk shit about me skiing in the park, saying it isn't the way you should ski. they just trying to convert me to tele skiing. fuck no.
 
Trying to get into it eventually...Its still pretty big, at least at Brundage Mt. In Idaho... My buddy kills it on them...you can still carve big arcing turns, crush the pow and drops fat cliffs in the backcountry...

Drop knees not bombs!
 
In Colorado at Loveland there's still a pretty bug tele scene. I like to break out tele skis maybe once or twice a season just for something different and a it's a good time for sure...also, you can find tele gear on CL for unreasonably cheap prices nowadays
 
telemarking is indestructible. Unless it goes through some insane popularity boost, it will probably stay half dead, done by 5 people at a given resort and always prompting those hilarious reactions. Here on the east coast (especially MRG), its very much alive and doing well, I personally love it bc it makes skiing fun for me again once the east coast ceased to be hard enough. TBH more people should try it, and this always sounds like such bs but it really is like a completely new way of skiing, #freetheheelandthemindwillfollow
 
I'd probably try it when im old and too broken to do anything in the park anymore. There is a guy I see at my local hill that's like 60 with long grey hair that teles, but instead of poles he uses a long ass stick/cane like a kayak. Pretty much like if Gandolf the grey were to tele, minus the robe. its rad.
 
13877618:Casey said:
Will normal ski boots fit into telemark bindings? Stupid question I know
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not bindings that are specific for tele. i mean you could improvise with touring skis and use reg ski boots, but you would probably ruin the bindings and pull the bindings off the skis. u can buy used tele boots in a used sports store for like 20 bucks. so no point ruining good bindings.
 
13877621:broccoliraabe said:
not bindings that are specific for tele. i mean you could improvise with touring skis and use reg ski boots, but you would probably ruin the bindings and pull the bindings off the skis. u can buy used tele boots in a used sports store for like 20 bucks. so no point ruining good bindings.
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Do not try to ski Tele with touring boots it'll fuck up your bindings and is not at all an accurate representation of what it's like to Tele.
 
13877661:SetteePrig said:
Do not try to ski Tele with touring boots it'll fuck up your bindings and is not at all an accurate representation of what it's like to Tele.
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Are you talking about skiing down on an AT setup not locked in? Or using tele bindings with ski boots?
 
13877668:Casey said:
Are you talking about skiing down on an AT setup not locked in? Or using tele bindings with ski boots?
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Sorry ahaha, skiing down not locked in, you can try with ski boots but I don't think your going to have much success. If your thinking about teleing, which I high recommend, just keep in mind there is a huge range in gear that can impact your experience. Nowadays Tele gear is getting really stiff and the style is changing, this allows you to ski harder/faster. Keep in mind that if you buy a super cheap Tele set up it could feel really shitty and janky. The shitty thing about Tele gear is if you want nice gear it's actually really expensive. It's cheap to get into but if you start buying new shit it's fucking pricy. Any way if your interested definitely go used initially, chances are you won't like it the first time you go out but give it a chance it's really fun! And for gear some good bindings are 22 designs Vices or Axl, Blackdimond 01, I'd look for 4 buckle boots they are way more stable! Have fun.
 
13877211:Mort.Mcfly said:
they all talk shit about me skiing in the park, saying it isn't the way you should ski.
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I gotta agree. Skiing into ditches isn’t the way you should ski.
 
I picked up a tele set up today. Steal of a lifetime. Majesty Dirty Bears and Scarpa T-Race with intuition liners for 20 bucks.
 
Sitting on a chair with a tele skier who had a kitchen towel pinned to his helmet to cover his face. Would not stop talking about the issues he had when trying to travel with his cat from Summit County to New York. But anyways he hit us with a pretty damn good one liner.

"Why Is telemark banned in Afghanistan?"

"Because of the tele-ban"

totally weird guy joke, but it was pretty dam hilarious coming from this cooky fuck.
 
So Colorado has had such a mediocre winter so far that I've actually become really competent on tele gear. I've been leaving all the tech setups at home lately simply because it's just different and fun. Like.. the most fun i've had sucking at skiing ever. If the conditions are primo, then yeah, i'm out on my AT gear, but when it's been yucky out, or the avalanche danger is too high to go above 30 degs, I'm touring on the teles.

My setup:

Black Diamond Custom 130 boots.

Dynastar Cham 97 HM skis

Black Diamond 01 Touring Bindings.

The weight is about the same as if I had mounted up Kingpins on these suckers. It's so nice.
 
13898964:DingoSean said:
So Colorado has had such a mediocre winter so far that I've actually become really competent on tele gear. I've been leaving all the tech setups at home lately simply because it's just different and fun. Like.. the most fun i've had sucking at skiing ever. If the conditions are primo, then yeah, i'm out on my AT gear, but when it's been yucky out, or the avalanche danger is too high to go above 30 degs, I'm touring on the teles.

My setup:

Black Diamond Custom 130 boots.

Dynastar Cham 97 HM skis

Black Diamond 01 Touring Bindings.

The weight is about the same as if I had mounted up Kingpins on these suckers. It's so nice.
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Can you tour on regular tele bindings that don't have tour mode or is it just a pain in the ass?
 
Tele is rad. Super fun.

I likely have one of the dumbest tele set ups ever... Rotefella cobras center mounted on 06/07 Invaders. (Also got some get targas on BD Justices)
 
13898995:Casey said:
Can you tour on regular tele bindings that don't have tour mode or is it just a pain in the ass?
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It would be a bit of a pain in the ass not having a free pivot. At least if you have an active binding (meaning any tele binding you or I would want to use) You'd be dealing with all the resistance of the springs, and also super reliant on your bellows.

If you want a good binding with a free pivot, there are plenty of good options...

black Diamond 01, Voile Switchback (super light!), 22Designs Axl or G3 Targa Ascent... Lots of great bindings. You even have some funky stuff from Bishop that works great too. The Tele world is full of great gear, even in the 75mm world where things are cheaper, more established, and the used market is huge.

NTN is great too, but there's just not as many options on the market. Rotefella has the Freeride, which is sweet because you can buy one binding, and then it's just a 60$ adapter to be able to slide it onto however many skis you want... (no quiver killers needed). They also have the freedom, which is made to have a smoother motion for touring, as well as multiple climb bars, rather than just one 10 degree block that flips up. It's also really lightweight.

22 Designs has the Outlaw bindings, which are probably the most loved of the NTN crowd. Tour great, and ski super actively (aka, you can make them super strong and deliver a ton of power)

Bishop has the BMF's and are super burly..

And then there are the "tele-tech" options... which, currently there are only 2 real options on the market, and a 3rd big addition next season.

So far, there is the Olympus Mountain Gear binding, which combines a tele toe with a cable that goes around the back of the heel - like a 75mm setup. They are cheap and effective, but not super good at delivering power.

Then there's the Medijo 2.0.. Fully Tele-Tech NTN and you can get an adapter to lock your heel down if you have either older scarpas with a full tech toe-heel setup like in the older Scarpas or the Crispi's (for when you need to alpine-out of something super sketch) These are super light, pretty strong, well made, and pretty damn light at only 500g per side... (the kingpin is 760g, for reference)

And next year, 22Designs unleashes the Lynx, which is going to be about the same weight as the Meidjo, but on a simpler, perhaps more durable platform that utilizes the same hole pattern as the rest of their bindings.

Super exciting options coming out for the future now.. From what I can see.. the Tele world isn't dead, it's just becoming far more niche.. or core.. whatever you want to say. I'm stoked on it.
 
13877211:lil.Boye said:
shit's boring. there is a private school in my village that teaches tele skiing. it is apparently one of the best in the world, but all of them suck dick at tele skiing. they all talk shit about me skiing in the park, saying it isn't the way you should ski. they just trying to convert me to tele skiing. fuck no.
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Haha just tele in the park show them
 
Telemark bindings don't release, right? I'm trying to get into telemark and I'm concerned about that. Are there a lot of times that you can get hurt by no release?
 
13902242:TrippTermini said:
Telemark bindings don't release, right? I'm trying to get into telemark and I'm concerned about that. Are there a lot of times that you can get hurt by no release?
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Well idk about ntn but regular tele bindings dont, however since there is only one point of contact you ar not very likley to get hurt because of the lack of release
 
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