Learning to telemark

What's your suggested BAC? 

Who mentioned alcohol? 

Jesse,
I'm new to the board also. I grew up skiing in Tahoe as well. I'm going to second reading and implementing Alan and Mike's book, the tele-lunges (no matter who is watching) and the yoga. However, the best thing you can do if you want to get better is take a lesson from a certified instructor. It can still be done on the cheap if you have some kind of "tele-fest" in your neighborhood with some clinics and a good instructor. People who say you don't need to take lessons have no idea how bad they look.
Lessons will point you in the right direction and shorten the learning curve. It's just a question of what it's worth to you. I've been teaching myself for 20 years with a lot of help and I still suck. Telemarking is the definition of a "lifetime sport". You are doing the right thing. Good luck and have fun.

Who mentioned alcohol? 

Then isn't it spelled BAKE? They are still hippy sticks ridden by pinheads, after all. :

For several reasons, I have held back from adding my two bits. I have some unconventional views on telemarking that are summed up in Telemon's Three Rules of Telemarking.

1. Have fun!
Seems obvious, but some skiers are so concerned about carving the perfect tele-turn that they aren't having any fun. So what if you poodle and do a quasi-snowplow now and then, your heels are free and so should your spirit be.Hoot and holler; let the world know that you enjoy being different than 99.9% of the snow sliding community.

2. Don't fall. Confidence in one's ability to get down without any accidents is very important (at least to me.) Every fall chips away at this self confidence making for tentative turns. Falling is tiring and potentially painful. "The more that you fall, the more you fall." This is even more critical in the backcountry than in the resorts.

3.Try to look good.
Telemarkers are still a bit of a curiosity to the conventional skiers and boarders on the slopes, so I do try to present a positive image. When I ski the fall line under a chairlift I have additional incentive to not fall, but if it wasn't fun, I wouldn't be doing it.

I agree with many of the comments made in this thread. Practice is very important. One of the reasons that I stuck so long as an intermediate skier was that I was too cheap to pay for chairlifts. I know that it is sacrilegious for some TAYERs to promote resort skiing, but saving one's energy for the downhill sections is essential for most people to progress.

Technology has made telemark skiing easier. I have no experience with alpine skiing, but I did start to make tele-turns when boots were soft and skis were skinny and nearly straight. As equipment improved, so did I. I probably would have improved faster if I had taken some lessons, but once again my frugality was my biggest impediment to getting better.

I have been told that I am a terrible dancer. I found that if I was trying to remember all of the steps in the tele books, it was like trying to dance to the prescribed steps of a particular dance style. That isn't fun to me. My tele moves are much like my dance moves; free style. And by the way, I have been told that I can't tele either, even after a day of not falling on black diamond slopes. ???

As far as the wink,wink.nod,nod references to ingesting alternative substances, I would never consider diminishing my limited athletic abilities while there is skiing to be had (see rule 2). There is always time for that once the day is done.

Thanks for the advice Tony_Bentley. I was pretty solid with the parallel turn at the end of last season on the ski boards, so I'll work and see how that translates with the free-heeled approached. I predict I'll be stuck wedging around the bunny slopes my first day out, but hopefully once I get comfortable with that, I'll move back to the parallel, get comfy with that, then move onto the tele-turn. As far as why I want to learn how to telemark, I think I could best sum up my answer by saying: I want to be able to break free from the confines of lift-served skiing, get out in the vast expanse of natural beauty that is the Pacific Northwest, and bound gracefully through a field of fresh powder. I hope that's not too ambitious 

Remember that Alpine Touring and Telemark are no different in that you can hike uphill with skins and ski downhill. So why Telemark? The weight is more for the bindings and boots (compared to Dynafit), the resistance is greater on going uphill (with most tele bindings) and the performance is less going downhill (I can ski faster with downhill gear). As far as I can see, the only benefit is a better workout, you look cool (which only matters at the resort), you can kick on flats more effectively and it is slightly cheaper than AT ($200?).

Nothing is too ambitious. Go for it.

Jesse,
I'm new to the board also. I grew up skiing in Tahoe as well. I'm going to second reading and implementing Alan and Mike's book, the tele-lunges (no matter who is watching) and the yoga. However, the best thing you can do if you want to get better is take a lesson from a certified instructor. It can still be done on the cheap if you have some kind of "tele-fest" in your neighborhood with some clinics and a good instructor. People who say you don't need to take lessons have no idea how bad they look.
Lessons will point you in the right direction and shorten the learning curve. It's just a question of what it's worth to you. I've been teaching myself for 20 years with a lot of help and I still suck. Telemarking is the definition of a "lifetime sport". You are doing the right thing. Good luck and have fun.

Thanks for the input, wheelintehsky! I'll be thankful if I can get 20 years of skiing in; so I'll hope I can make the best of them and if/when the time comes, I'll look into lessons. Until then, I'll just work on the having fun part and see what I can pull off myself.

For several reasons, I have held back from adding my two bits. I have some unconventional views on telemarking that are summed up in Telemon's Three Rules of Telemarking.

1. Have fun!
Seems obvious, but some skiers are so concerned about carving the perfect tele-turn that they aren't having any fun. So what if you poodle and do a quasi-snowplow now and then, your heels are free and so should your spirit be.Hoot and holler; let the world know that you enjoy being different than  99.9% of the snow sliding community.

2. Don't fall.                                                                                                                                                                          Confidence in one's ability to get down without any accidents is very important (at least to me.) Every fall chips away at this self confidence making for tentative turns. Falling is tiring and potentially painful. "The more that you fall, the more you fall." This is even more critical in the backcountry than in the resorts.

3.Try to look good.
Telemarkers are still a bit of a curiosity to the conventional skiers and boarders on the slopes, so I do try to present a positive image. When I ski the fall line under a chairlift I have additional incentive to not fall, but if it wasn't fun, I wouldn't be doing it.

  I agree with many of the comments made in this thread. Practice is very important. One of the reasons that I stuck so long as an intermediate skier was that I was too cheap to pay for chairlifts. I know that it is sacrilegious for some TAYERs to promote resort skiing, but saving one's energy for the downhill sections is essential for most people to progress.

  Technology has made telemark skiing easier. I have no experience with alpine skiing, but I did start to make tele-turns when boots were soft and skis were skinny and nearly straight. As equipment improved, so did I. I probably would have improved faster if I had taken some lessons, but once again my frugality was my biggest impediment to getting better.

I have been told that I am a terrible dancer. I found that if I was trying to remember all of the steps in the tele books, it was like trying to dance to the prescribed steps of a particular dance style. That isn't fun to me. My tele moves are much like my dance moves; free style. And by the way, I have been told that I can't tele either, even after a day of not falling on black diamond slopes. ???

As far as the wink,wink.nod,nod references to ingesting alternative substances, I would never consider diminishing my limited athletic abilities while there is skiing to be had (see rule 2). There is always time for that once the day is done.  

Telemon, thanks for sharing your three rules! I would have to agree with rule number 1 above all else. If I go out there and become obsessed with doing everything right, I'll lose track of the original reason I took an interest in the sport: to enjoy it. As far as the not falling part, I'll see what I can do. I'm afraid of screwing up my knees, so I do try and avoid it if at all possible. As far as looking good, I'll try not to bring down the rest of the tele-community; but I generally look goofy so no guarantees there!  And with regards to the ingestion prior to skiing, I'll have to agree there too. Alcohol just makes me tired and anything else will cost me my job; so let me think about that - falling asleep on the lift, or sleeping in the cold after I can't pay my rent? I'll pass on both.

Remember that Alpine Touring and Telemark are no different in that you can hike uphill with skins and ski downhill. So why Telemark? The weight is more for the bindings and boots (compared to Dynafit), the resistance is greater on going uphill (with most tele bindings) and the performance is less going downhill (I can ski faster with downhill gear). As far as I can see, the only benefit is a better workout, you look cool (which only matters at the resort), you can kick on flats more effectively and it is slightly cheaper than AT ($200?).

Nothing is too ambitious. Go for it.

The reason I'm choosing telemark now is because it strikes me as a more challenging method for getting down the hill. At the end of the day, I'm more about zig-zagging across the fall line (either tele or parallel turn) on my way down than flying down it at mach speeds. Who knows? Maybe I'll find out it's not really for me, then switch over to an AT or randonee set up. Then I'll find out that's not for me, and I'll go back to sledding  But by then I'll be broke, so I'll just go back to sledding down Seneca street in Seattle on a cardboard box when it snows.