When I wanted to learn about the nuts and bolts of telemark skiing, I was referred, by more than one person, to Peter Kavouksorian, one of the acknowledged Deans of Eastern freeheel skiing. Peter K. got hooked early on the joys of cross country skiing, becoming a professional instructor and opening Mountain Travelers in Rutland, Vermont in 1976. Mountain Travelers is a freeheel skiing, hiking, biking, and kayaking full service store that is widely known and respected among mountain sports enthusiasts.
Through his business Peter, and his wife JoAnn, also an accomplished freeheel skier, were on the leading edge as ski manufacturers began to experiment with combining the freeheel versatility of cross country skiing with the power and control of alpine skis. What are known today in the ski industry as Telemark skis, were the result of this marriage of cross country freeheel bindings to skis made in the same mold as the manufacturer’s downhill skis.
Feel your weight on the ball of the feet. Body’s weight mass is continually carried forward on the skis to help in turning.
Practice shifting your weight from the downhill ski to uphill ski to get yourself down the mountain. Shift your weight ever so slightly while lifting the tail of the downhill ski.
Extend your uphill ski and using your wrist, swing the downhill pole tip forward. Touch the snow lightly with the extended ski to start the turn downward.
Using his technique, Noreheim enjoyed success in ski competitions, and went on to teach his style to the people of Telemark. However, other skiers in parts of Norway where the snow was not as deep and constant as in Telemark county found the telemark turn did not to work so well on harder packed snow. Skiers centered around the city of Christiana (now Oslo) evolved their own style, which developed more of a parallel turn and stop – dubbed the Christiania or “cristy” turn.
As Peter K, tells it, the rest is commercial history. During the early twentieth century, with the development of ski resorts and groomed downhill runs in Europe and the U.S., the telemark and freeheel style was soon overshadowed by parallel techniques.
It took less skill to learn parallel techniques, and it was easier to turn the ski atop the firmly groomed snow with a locked heel. While the freeheel style did not become obsolete, it was relegated to a specialty sport for outdoor touring and athletically inclined winter
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