Tele fat ski questions

Heh -- she's going to flip her lid.  Our regular crew calls fat skis "cheater sticks".  Can't wait to see her ski them.

>90mm=salvation

btw my 88mm still rip the ice.

Since we are reminiscing, my first tele setup was Epoke 900's Narrona low cut leather and heel locators.  Early 80's progressed to Asolo Extremes and Kazama (from Osborn and Ulland!).  I can't believe we skiied Alpy and Crystal steeps in that setup (I sure couldn't now!)

Telemark skiing on fat skis is like having sex after a few drinks, you have just as much fun, but you sure last longer.

I ski the Havoc for every day, but I plan on getting (or building) some reverse camber 140-110-130 teleboards for the real deep stuff.  I find that a closed stance and weighting both front and back skis leads to less effort, the classic tele feel and more control with fatter skis.

amen. preach the good news brother!

Agreed. Standing on the lead ski and using the rear ski as a rudder is a vestigial technique that needs to go away. They work against you now, and never really worked for you in the first place, although they got you down the hill (and yes, I put my time in on leathers and skinny skis in places like International). Good 50/50 weighting, constant arch/ball of foot pressure, and smooth, continuous, lead changes (as opposed to hanging out in knee to ski land) is how you'll get the most out of fat skis and stiff boots.

I will say however that some new alpine skis (which the Fischer Tstix may fall into) have very forward mount points to improve their performance in the air and turn initiation on hard pack. That can make them dive and hard to steer in powder so you may want to consider pulling the binding back a bit. I did this on my Voelkl Mantras (back about 1.5" from the stock mount) and they now ski a lot better in powder and tele turns.

Jerm:

I have some soft K2's and I've just been LOVING the forward mount even in the pow pow. K2's are nice because you can choose and switch relatively easy with those incerts. Are your skis on the stiffer side, or the softer side? I find at least with soft skis the tips tend to float a bit better.

I do have to admit that I do tip dive and face plant a lot. But I'm chalking that up to bad technique and a need to get snowy and cold every now and then.

savegondor

Agreed. Standing on the lead ski and using the rear ski as a rudder is a vestigial technique that needs to go away. They work against you now, and never really worked for you in the first place, although they got you down the hill (and yes, I put my time in on leathers and skinny skis in places like International). Good 50/50 weighting, constant arch/ball of foot pressure, and smooth, continuous, lead changes (as opposed to hanging out in knee to ski land) is how you'll get the most out of fat skis and stiff boots.

I will say however that some new alpine skis (which the Fischer Tstix may fall into) have very forward mount points to improve their performance in the air and turn initiation on hard pack. That can make them dive and hard to steer in powder so you may want to consider pulling the binding back a bit. I did this on my Voelkl Mantras (back about 1.5" from the stock mount) and they now ski a lot better in powder and tele turns.

....seems also to me that with the 'Tele-stance' makes your platform long and stable enough that mounting back shouldn't be necessary to stay balanced or floating in the deep. ....seems to me...

The K2 forward inserts are generally only ~1-2 cm forward of chord center. The alpine mount on my Volkls is ~4 inches forward of chord center. Even with them pulled back 1.5" they are still a somewhat forward mount. Mantras are moderately stiff.