How do you describe telemarking?

Wow, Nordique, way to set the bar for making lemonade out of lemons! You may be at less risk than you think; I looked at all the abstracts for all relevant articles on PubMed and there is no mention of tibial fractures - and a protective effect from plastic boots. In terms of mechanism of injury, if you BC tele ski soft snow and don't huck jumps and go at blazing speed, you should be safe. All the reports looked like this:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10628283

Happy Birthday!

... You may be at less risk than you think; I looked at all the abstracts for all relevant articles on PubMed and there is no mention of tibial fractures - and a protective effect from plastic boots.  In terms of mechanism of injury, if you BC tele ski soft snow and don't huck jumps and go at blazing speed, you should be safe.  All the reports looked like this:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10628283

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for the link!

The comments by Rick Howell in this Wildsnow report are worth reading Comments on risk of tibial fractures ; Rick Howell is one of the world's leading experts on ski bindings relative to ski injuries.

There are serious risks to tibial injuries with both AT and Alpine bindings.  I had one on Easter when skiing down to the main lodge at White Pass in shallow snow I hit a rock under the snow and had a twisting fall that sprained my MCL, my tib-fib joint and peroneal insertion, the peroneal tendon in the ankle and my forefoot.  The binding did not release as would be expected from where the side of the ski hit the rock as I was completing the turn (the evidence was in the dinged edge and groove in the ptex which also recorded the twisting fall--and it was the twisting that did the damage). I was skiing relatively slowly on Volkl Nanuqs with Radical STs but the same thing could have happened with my alpine gear.  It all hinges on where the side impact hits--forward and its the tib-fib, rearward other injuries; only the Knee binding (developed by Howell) provides protection to the knee-lower leg complex thru toe, heel, and upward release. 

I do believe tele skiing with 3 pins and a boot that is not locked in a forward lean on firm snow or soft snow (but not on breakable crust) at reasonable speeds with a tight stance (wide stance may lead to catching an edge) is relatively safe. I had no leg injuries skiing tele; I've had a half a dozen fixed heel (moguls, breakable crust, rock). I did have a friend who had a twisting fall in tele gear in deep powder in a gulley that resulted in a nice spiral fracture of the tibia or fibula (can't remember which or the details); she had to be airlifted out of the backcountry.

Like a lot of old skier/hikers, it comes down, sometimes, to giving up skiing (to avoid injuries) in order to continue hiking.   Tomorrow will be my 113th hike this year, with 655 miles of hiking so far this year, and over 197,000 feet of vertical gain, plus 112 rock climbing days--and today is my 72nd birthday!  And all on one very old right leg, knee (replaced in 2006) and right ankle (replaced last year)!

Congrats! Nice going with the hiking! I'm just a bit younger than you and I'm taking it real careful skiing this year after several injuries last year and the year before. I'm not ready to give up skiing yet but might be with one more setback. Time (and physical therapy) required to heal even moderate-severe sprains seems to be getter longer and longer with age and reverberations from one injury throughout the locomotive complex seem to be increasing. Most likely a result of reduced elasticity and increased osteoarthritis that accompany aging.

Telemark = Skiing in the mountains!
Alpine = Skiing in the mountains!

And BTW.  My Tele set up is lighter than your AT set up 

Oh, and Telemark is my religion.

Nice, Dan.

How about this?

Alpine skiing = Ferrari
Telemark skiing = Ducati

Bruce

p.s. Skate skiing = Pinarello

Bruce.

Skate skiing = skiing in the mountains with tight pants!!!