Choosing telemark ski gear is about much more than just finding something you like.  It’s about making sure that you get the right fit and also select the right gear for your skill level and the type of skiing you like.  There are four major pieces of telemark gear that you should be especially concerned about: skis, bindings, boots, and poles.

Telemark Skis

The skis are probably the most important part of your telemark ski gear.  You’ll need to choose based on your weight, the level of your ability, and the type of telemark skiing you would like to do.  For example, skiing on steep slopes will require one kind of ski, while focusing more on speed will require another kind.

Here are some basic tips on choosing the right telemark skis:

• Make sure that the width of the skis matches your boots.
• Choose wide skis if you prefer soft snow.
• Narrow skis are for hard snow.
• Avoid leather boots if you are going for wide skis.
• If you like to ski fast, look for a longer length.
• Skiing slower requires shorter skis so for better maneuverability.
• If you spend more time on groomed trails, opt for a deeper sidecut.
• For trails with lots of turns, opt for a sidecut with curves that are more pronounced.
• Softer skis will make skiing in the backcountry easier.
• Skis with a medium flex are more versatile in the type of terrain you can ski on.
• Stiffer skis are perfect for groomed trails.

Telemark Ski Boots and Bindings

The ski boots and bindings go hand in hand, no matter what kind of skiing you do.  The bindings are essentially the piece that connects your boots to the skis.  Most telemark skiers prefer cable and plat bindings.  Three-pin bindings are still in use for a lot of downhill telemark skiing, although they aren’t good for those who take long tours out in the backcountry.

When trying on ski boots, look for a pair that provide you with plenty of support from side to side.  You’ll notice that they are heavier and more protective than other types of cross country boots because of all the turning you’ll be doing.

Plastic boots are the best choice for most telemark skiers, although a few do use leather boots.  Just opt for boots that feel comfortable and make sure that they will work with the bindings you select.

Telemark Ski Poles

Choosing poles is mostly a matter of what feels good.  Most poles are adjustable in either two or three sections.  Just be sure that they adjust to be long enough for all types of skiing.  You’ll need to pull them out so they are long enough to reach from the ground up to your armpits for cross country skiing.  They only need to go to your waist for downhill.

With hundreds of ski companies producing great products, it can be hard to choose the right product to suit your needs.  Garmont Telemark boots provide the flexibility and comfort needed for Nordic skiing with the control of the telemark style.  The fine Italian craftsmanship offers quality and style as well as functionality.

Features of the Garmont Telemark Boots

With styles for both men and women, the Garmont Telemark line is considered one of the best on the market.   Each boot features:

• Multi-injection PEBAX shell which make the boot flexible but strong and waterproof
• Pad-Lock liner that gives a secure, comfortable fit
• EVA foam that keeps feet warm and does not absorb moisture
• Two micro-adjust buckles and a power strap
• Fits any 75 mm / 3 pin ski bindings for backcountry or telemark skiing

The Garmont Telemark Boots: Specially Designed

Garmont boots also offer specially designed pockets for bunions and the navicular bone, making this boot as comfortable as possible.  The boots are designed to be an extension of the foot so that you don’t even notice you are wearing them.  Since the boot is contoured to fit around the ankle, it gives the support you need to ski for long periods of time without strain on your bones and ligaments.  It perfectly combines supple construction for freedom of movement and support for form and endurance.

The telemark style is marked by fluid turns and these boots allow you the liberty to move smoothly and quickly.  The full metal edge makes telemarking simple even in the most rugged terrain.  Because they are so versatile, you can even use them to hit the slopes if you spy some while you are in the backcountry.

Other Attributes of the Garmont Telemark Boots

Backcountry skiing can be tricky, and finding the right boot is essential.  You want a boot that is versatile and sturdy but that can also be worn for long excursions without pain.  Another great feature of the Garmont Telemark boots is that the liners are removable.  If you’re on the trail for a few days, you can take them out to dry while you rest and start fresh the next day.

These boots adapt well to both backcountry and telemark trails.  No matter where you go, you can be assured that Garmont boots will pass the test for maneuverability.  The look and feel is professional; these quality ski boots are extremely functional.

All of these elements combine to make Garmont Telemark boots some of the best on the market.  Serious Nordic skiers should consider investing in these boots to improve the quality of their adventures.  They are readily available and easy to find.  If you think you can’t afford them, try finding last year’s model on the web.  You may not get all the latest features, but you will still have what you need to carve a path through the backcountry in comfort.

Telemark skiers know that the right ski boot is essential to performance and comfort, and many swear by the Crispi telemark boots.  Backcountry skiing can make for long days.  If you don’t have the right boot, you could end up unable to navigate tough terrain.  Crispi Telemark boots are designed to give skiers control, flexibility, and a natural feel.

Features of the Crispi Telemark Boots

Crispi produces boots for both 75mm and NTN bindings.  No matter what type of binding you choose, Crispi Telemark boots provide lateral stiffness, but flex smoothly for turn maneuverability.  All Crispi boots feature:

• Pebax shell reinforced with carbon
• Thermo-moldable Crispi Dynamic liners
• Micro-adjustable buckles
• Power strap to control ankle stiffness
• Outsoles that provide traction while walking

The Crispi NTN boots feature walk/ski modes that allow you to transition easily between different terrains.  Crispi 75mm boots offer 3 lean positions to adapt to any situation, a Power Extension Cuff to deliver power to the forward ski, and adjustable buckles to give you the perfect fit.

Advantages of Crispi Telemark Boots

Crispi is one of the top brands for Telemark boots.  They offer quality paired with control and power.  For skiers who use NTN bindings, Crispi was one of the first companies to develop boots to fit this revolutionary binding system.

Though the original models were considered to be too stiff, Crispi has continued to revise and perfect their design over the past few years.  The result is a boot that is stiff enough to offer the necessary support but flexible enough to negotiate hard, powerful turns.  The bellows have been softened to allow for greater maneuverability.

Crispi offers variety in the world of Telemark skiing.  While brands are a factor, the big issue with shoppers is fit.  With plush, moldable linings and adjustable straps, Crispi boots can offer a perfect fit for all sizes and types of feet.  If you have trouble finding the right fit, these could be the right boots for you.

What Owners Say about Crispi Telemark Boots

Advertisements and product descriptions paint pretty pictures of boots that may not always be accurate.  Though product reviews offer insight, they are no match for owners who use the boots regularly.

Owners of Crispi Telemark boots rave about the flexibility and control.  They state that Crispi boots not only perform better than other boots in the backcountry, but they are warm and comfortable.  Several owners state that other brands don’t provide the precision of the Crispi models and that the bellows allow for more range of motion.

With so many ski boots on the market, it is important to research and find the one that best suits your skiing needs and fits both your style and your feet.  Crispi provides a range of styles and sizes to appeal to skiers who are serious about navigating the backcountry.

If you are looking for a boot that is flexible enough to maneuver through sharp turns, but stiff enough to provide support and comfort, look no further than Crispi.

What is Telemark Skiing

Telemark skiing is quickly becoming the buzz word of winter sports for the Winter of 2009 and will continue to be a growing trend even into the new year. While most people have heard of cross country skiing, downhill skiing, and even water skiing, even some skiing experts may be at a loss when it comes to Telemark skiing.

Telemark skiing is not strictly alpine skiing, and it is not strictly downhill skiing. Telemark skiing is a skiing hybrid which includes ski bindings that only connect to the ski boot at the toe like cross country skiing, but where the skier raises the inner ski as they traverse down the hill or across the snow. Originating in Norway, Telemark skiing is set to make a big impact in the US this ski season.

The main reason telemark skiing is such a hot topic for this cold season sport is the extreme exercise it provides. In telemark skiing the legs and body pump like in cross country, but the skier can enjoy the speed and excitement of downhill racing. Marketers and skiers alike hope that the strong workout coupled with the fun of a day on the slopes will be a big hit in today’s health and eco conscience society.

From a ski salesmen’s view one key selling point of telemark skis is that they have a dual utility. With telemark skis a skier does not have to buy a pair of cross country skis and downhill skis, the telemark skis will work for both which will lead to more options for the skier. Additionally, ski slopes can begin to integrate more flat paths in their ski plans which will allow skiers to take advantage of the multipurpose telemark skis.

From the perspective of an avid skier, telemark skis are just plain cool! When watching an advanced telemark skier it is as if the skier is floating on one leg down the hill and kicking up a snow half pipe behind them all the way down. Additionally, telemark skis offer a new skiing esperience without a steep learning curve. The transition from cross country skier to downhill racer is almost seamless through the use of telemark skis.

Overall the telemark skis provide an outlet for winter sports enthusiast to hop on the new ski trend and become this year’s trendsetters whether it is on some giant mountains out in the west or even on some small local bumps back on the east coast. Telemark skis are the new skis.

By: BobWrites

Telemark skiing is a term used for skiing using the Telemark turn. It is also known as “free heel skiing.” Unlike alpine skiing equipment, the skis used for telemarking have a binding that only connects the boot to the ski at the toes, just as in cross-country skiing. Telemark turns are led with the heel flat on the outside ski (the downhill ski at the end of the turn), while the inside (uphill) ski is pulled beneath the skier’s body with a flexed knee and raised heel. The skis are staggered but not quite parallel, and 50% to 60% of the body weight is distributed on the outside ski, depending on snow conditions.

The Telemark turn came to the attention of the Norwegian public in 1868, when Sondre Norheim took part in a ski jumping competition. Norheim’s technique of fluid turns soon dominated skiing, and in Norway it continued to do well into the next century. Starting in the 1910s, newer techniques based on the stem gradually replaced Telemark in the Alpine countries. Newer techniques were easier to master and enabled shorter turns better suited for steeper alpine terrain and skiing downhill. The Telemark turn became the technique of ski touring in rolling terrain.

The technique is named after the Telemark region of Norway, just as the Stem Christie turn was named after Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. As well as inventing the Telemark turn, Sondre Norheim and his fellow skiers used and refined parallel skiing techniques. Thus, while the Telemark is part of early skiing’s foundation, parallel techniques are of equal importance.

The Telemark revival

The revival in the Telemark technique, after its decline from popularity in the mid-1940s, started in United States in the 1970s. Telemarking was a back-to-basics reaction to the high-tech equipment developments of alpine skiing, and the increasing reliance on crowded groomed pistes served by ever larger and faster mechanical ski lifts. The use of traditional clothing is associated with the Telemark skiing revival.

The Telemark revival started almost simultaneously in Crested Butte, Colorado and the northern part of the Green Mountains in Vermont. The Vermont revival was lead by Telemark enthusiast Ronald “Ramsey” Ramsey who upon returning from living abroad, including the Telemark region of Norway, brought many of the gear and tech niche common in Europe, the revival soon spread quickly to other areas in the Western United States. It came to the attention of a larger public with a demonstration by a team from the Professional Ski Instructors of America at Interski, Italy in 1983. It grew to prominence during the 1990s; and although organizations such as NATO (North American Telemark Organization) and NET (New England Telemark) sponsor telemark festivals and Instruction as the sport continues to grow, it is still considered a minority sport.

Skis

Most modern telemark skis are virtually identical to today’s alpine skis, however they differ in one way. The heel of the skier’s boot is detached from the ski. This detachment allows the skier to kneel as he turns, thus creating a deep smooth turn. Developments in shape and manufacture have seen skis get shorter and wider, taking design cues from both alpine skiing and snowboarding. The unique mechanics of the telemark turn could distinguish telemark equipment from alpine equipment, but advances in boot and binding technology have helped reduce the need to have the ski itself meet any such demands. Many manufacturers still have lines of

Boots

Leather boots are still used by some, but durable polymer (“Pebax”) is now the usual choice. Polymer boots feature a bellows above the toes to allow the necessary flex for a telemark turn. All standard telemark boots have a trapezoidal “duckbill” at the front, which interfaces boots with the binding. While most telemark skiers use cables to attach boots to bindings, the duckbill has three reinforced holes in the bottom to attach three-pin bindings. NTN boots are also becoming more popular, which instead of the duckbill attach to the binding by a hook in the front and ball of the boot.

Bindings

Bindings hold the Telemark boot to the ski by the toe only. The oldest version of manufactured bindings, so called three-pin bindings, had three pins pointing up from the ski for which boots had matching holes. The duckbill was placed on top of the pins and held down with a locking mechanism (the “bail”). This duckbill boot-binding interface is referred to as the 75mm Nordic Norm.

From the 1980s onwards, telemark equipment has become progressively heavier and more durable as manufacturers seek to answer the demand for telemark equipment offering greater performance and durability.

During the 1980s cable bindings that have a spring-loaded cable to hold the boot in the binding became popular. These have a socket that the duckbill fits into, but usually no pins. The spring-loaded cable is stretched onto the boot heel by a throw. Cable bindings are stronger than three-pin bindings and offer more control in turns, but they are heavier and produce more resistance to flexing the boot, therefore are not as suitable for ski touring.

To address ski touring issues, since 2005, cable binding manufacturers have introduced touring-mode bindings. These switch between a “free pivot” mode (borrowed from randonnee binding design) for touring and a downhill mode with more cable tension applied to the boot.

Also available are hinged plate bindings, combining the lateral stiffness of a traditional alpine binding with the flexibility of a traditional Telemark bindings. Despite performance benefits, these bindings have failed to gain a significant following during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and most manufacturers have withdrawn models from production. Examples include the Voile VPII, Bomber Bishop (both USA) and Linken (Norway).

Since the 1990s Telemark news media have referred to the concept of a telemark binding “holy grail”. This is a vision of a telemark binding design that offers the ability to perform telemark turns combined with touring-mode, step-in entry and safety-release features.

An international consortium of Fritschi and Black Diamond produced the first binding to address this ambition with the hinged plate “Skyhoy” binding. Production ceased when equipment from the first production run displayed faults that were uneconomic to rectify.

The 7tm binding, manufactured by German company Rezotec GMBH, is a commercially successful design that offers “holy grail” features.

In late 2007 Rottefella introduced the New Telemark Norm (NTN) binding, a departure from the 75mm Nordic Norm, which uses a different boot sole, co-developed with the Crispi and Scarpa boot companies. Current NTN systems are at the heavier end of the boot/binding spectrum, primarily aimed at maximizing downhill control. However, the touring-mode feature is considered by many users to off-set the additional weight penalty.

Black Diamond Equipment were developing a competing “holy grail” system. They had announced that this would debut in 2009 and would maintain compatibility with the 75mm Nordic Norm. However, in late 2008 statements from Black Diamond personnel indicated that the development had been put on hold indefinitely.

Technique

The edges used in a Telemark turn are the same as with a parallel turn, but a Telemark turn involves leading the turn with the outside ski while trailing the inside ski. When initiating a turn, the skier edges the outside ski (which becomes the downhill ski at the completion of the turn) with a flat heel while simultaneously lifting the heel on the inside ski to shift the ski to the back of the Telemark stance. Through the turn, the skier’s weight is shifted onto the outside ski by a ratio of 50/50 up to 80/20 depending on snow conditions, and rests primarily on the toe-half of each foot—even the outside foot, which has its boot heel in contact with the ski. Inexperienced Telemark skiers often find it difficult to place enough weight on their trailing, inside (“heel-up”) ski to force it to turn, or “carve” in unison with the outside ski. When skiing off-piste in light powder the weight ratio can be different from the suggested 50 to 80 % on the outside ski. Developments in modern telemark technique subsequent to the release of modern, highly responsive boots and bindings have demonstrated an increasing preference toward a turn made in an aggressive, carving fashion that closely resembles the modern alpine turn; as such, the modern technique emphasizes a side-to-side weight distribution that closely resembles that of alpine skiing. Often having the majority of the weight on the inside trailing ski can help compensate for poor technique, as it allows the skier to use the outside ski as a ‘buffer’ to control the snow, and to help keeping the outside ski tip above the snow.

While there is universal agreement that a Telemark turn must involve staggered skis, there is no agreement on how much the skis should be staggered. Increasing the stagger (the fore/aft separation of the skis and boots) increases the amount that both knees are bent and brings the skier’s torso closer to the snow. Some Telemarkers enjoy an extremely low stance with the trailing knee almost in contact with the ski top, while others prefer a taller stance, with a consequently smaller stagger, that allows quicker transitions between turns. As a general rule, the back leg should be tucked in, with the knee of the trailing leg aligned vertically over the leading foot. Telemarkers who turn with their trailing knee considerably behind their leading foot are often referred to as “dog-leggers” because their rear leg resembles that of a wounded dog. “Toe-dragger” can also be used to describe Telemark skiers who do not tuck in their rear leg. It is possible to make parallel turns on Telemark equipment, which is why penalties are assessed if the boots are not staggered by at least a boot’s length in FIS Telemark competitions. This element of technique is up to the skier, although a very low stance is to be avoided where hard uneven snow might cause the lowered knee to collide with the ground or ski. Some Telemark skiers, therefore, use kneepads to reduce the risk of injury.

Accomplished Telemark skiers, like accomplished alpine skiers, keep their torsos vertical and oriented downhill while linking turns, thus avoiding turning too far. This position also allows greater control over the fine-tuning of weight distribution. Also, when skiing in thick powder it is important not to lean back. Staying forward and facing downhill allows you to respond to changing conditions quicker than if you are in the back seat. The lack of a fixed heel means that it is quite easy to go headfirst into the snow if one hits a hard patch, but if you are centered on your skis and facing downhill, you are actually less likely to fall on your face. Poles are optional. With or without, the skier’s hands should be in front of the body.

Some Telemark skiers continue to ski with a single long pole or “lurk” held in both hands in traditional style. The lurk should only contact the snow on the inside of the turn, though some find better balance results if the lurk contacts the snow on the outside of the turn.