Skiing at Carson Pass
We went skiing at Carson Pass on Saturday and found some nice corn below Elephant’s Back that worked well for practicing tele turns.
After the last time I went skiing, I posted some pictures to the telemarktips.com forums and asked for advice. Everyone said “shorter poles (so you can get lower)” and several people recommended reading Paul Parker’s Free Heel Skiing. I followed both bits of advice and it worked. I was able to link turns together this time, starting to get a feel for the flow between turns. It was awesome!
January 9th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
The free-heel ( or Telemark ) revival started in Crested Butte, Colorado, and quickly spread to many other areas in the Western United States even though it originated back in 1969 in Norway.
Anyway - free heeling differs from alpine skiing equipment because the ski is only connected to the boot at the toe just like in cross country skiing. The edges used for this turn is the same as it is with a parallel turn, but a free heel turn has you leading the turn with the outside ski. All the while trailing the inside ski. When you start the turn, you will edge the outside ski. In turn it becomes the downhill ski when you come to the completion of the turn. 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 have a hard time placing enough weight on their inside (”heel-up”) ski to force it to turn, or “carve” in unison with the outside ski. Often having the majority of the weight on the inside trailing ski can help compensate for poor technique. It allows the skier to control the snow better using the outside ski as a ‘buffer’, and to also help keep the outside ski tip above the snow.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Hi! Nice place to ride in! I hope you will post more pictures.
-Macky Bugay
May 20th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Sounds like a great forum. It’s nice when you can go to a great forum and get some constuctive advice and actually learn somthing.