Tele fat ski questions

Marcus hit the nail on the head. I started with leather and skinny and did the whole progression to plastic and wide. I have the same setup as Joe, Atuas with 01 midstiff and TRace. I have evolved my technique, tighter, more centered and equal weight between skis. Skiing deep powder, crud, windbuff and crust has never been more fun. I feel you have to adapt to a modern telemark turn to use the new gear, no more stem turns or tele two step. I still use those techniques on light weight touring gear when appropriate, but they don't work well with bigger boots and fat skis.

Like a number of you, I did the evolution from light weight x-c to B.C. x-c to light weight tele gear and finally, to fat tele (or mid-fat by some standards). Two weeks ago, I spent 10 hours on my brand new 128-91-116 Rapid Transits at Cypress Mountain on North Vancouver. I am a 56 year-old with an unconventional style of telemarking that involves a lot of near knee to ski actions. I do not think that the fatter skis are causing me to work any harder than I did in the past. I am not a big, strong person and I admit that I always thought it would take more of a man than myself to operate a big ski. This doesn't seem to be the case.

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.

Hi Joe - Jan here.  When was the last time we tele skied together - I'm guessing 89. Back then you skied fast and low - very fast by the days standard and I'm guessing w/ more weight up front. Assuming your style remains the same I'm guessing the issues you're dealing with have more to do with todays stiffer boots and more active bindings than ski width.

This is especially brought to light in pow. Today's more active bindings really push the shovel of the rear ski deep into the snow requiring you to ski more 50/50 weightwise. If you are not used to this I think you could interpret this as the skis providing more resistance. On hardpack/slop and corn you won't notice the added rear ski forepressure since the snow firmer snow supports the ski - but in deep unconsolidated snow there is no option other than weighting the back ski if you want to ski low.

The big advantage with the modern equipment is of course that you can ski much higher than past equipment allowed  and as a result, quicker lead changes, less tiring posture and longer "landing gear" allow tele skiers to pretty much keep up with any alpiner. Most folks have evolved with the equipment in this direction. There is of course the option to parallel w/ the new stuff to your hearts content too - for me this kind of broke the spell and I've dabbled with AT since (ironically lift ski free heel - nother subject).

Back to your question - if you want to ski low in the pow you may want to consider a softer "less active" binding but keep the wide skis. The skis aren't the problem. Older style T1's were softer too and might suit your skiing better but they tended to jam the toes.

Hi Joe - Jan here. When was the last time we tele skied together - I'm guessing 89. Back then you skied fast and low - very fast by the days standard and I'm guessing w/ more weight up front.

Back to your question - if you want to ski low in the pow you may want to consider a softer "less active" binding but keep the wide skis. The skis aren't the problem. Older style T1's were softer too and might suit your skiing better but they tended to jam the toes.

Good to hear from you Jan! You are one of the true tele guru's!
I remember us tele ripping the bumps on International back in the day. Like I mentioned infrequent tele outings, but, still attacking the fall line, I don't have have the knees like I used to, so I am using a more upright stance (less low turns) and transitions are still pretty manageable to handle in the bumps even on the big boards. Hope to ski with you sometime this season Jan!

A couple things you and others said in this thread have sparked some thoughts.
1) I think that you are spot on about the binding boot combo and the trailing ski diving in pow. I use the midstiff cartridge on the 01 and if it's cranked too tight it really is a bugger to ski on anything. I only feel the resistance in powder. I will keep this in mind as....
2) I will adjust my stance a little more to "feel" the balance on the trailing ski. One thing that I failed to mention is that the Fisher T-stix is a twin tip, and at times I feel that the ski overturns the turn and wants to keep sliding out in front a touch, therefore over rotating the shoulders and you know how that works out-dragging poles and dropping a knuckle here and there. (Aaron do you have this problem?) Could be me putting to much weight on the front ski.
3) I have always felt that the older T-1 boot kept me more upright than I was comfortable with, more so on steeper terrain 35 degree and up. In steeper terrain I have difficulty stepping into the first turn, usually need to set up the tele turn with a one or two parallel turns. Always wondered if a lower cut boot would be more helpful. That way I feel I can get over the boot. Like Marcus and dkoellle's boots a t-2 or equivalent. May provide a quicker transition. It is good to hear that the smaller boot can handle the bigger gear-I was a little leary.
My current T-1 is a little loose in the toes/bellows area, I am working on shoring this liner up to get better edge control. Maybe I need to look into other boots?
4) I do own a pair of Atomic Kailas on AT setup, I agree that they may be better on tele than AT. They are a little soft in the shovel for aggressive lift serve, but awesome in powder!
5) I had considered that I should have stayed with a conventional ski tail rather than the twinners, the jury is still out on that one until the Vertfest demos.

Thanks to all for the input and continue to add input or reminisce your past ski setup.
Don't know what my tele setup was pre lift serve, but my first lift serve setup was leather Asolo Snowfields single boot, Chouinard 3 pin no springs then, Karhu 215cm XCD-GT.
Don't miss the setup, but do miss my ability to take a good beating.
Joe

Joe, as long as I am balanced I don't have that problem. Maybe you're bindings are too far back. I would try skiing in walk mode with your T1s, I do this with my TRaces. I like to flex my knees, hips and ankles and can't stand the rigid ski modes.