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Telemark bunny hill buddy wanted for Sunday


dryad

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Hi, I'm a beginner tele-babe looking for a partner/instructor for Sunday, either Stevens or Snoqualmie. I'll buy you a beer if you teach me something. bigdrink.gif

 

And if you're another newbie like me who just wants to mess around on the bunny hill, that's cool too.

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E-rock said:

Omifuckinggod!!!! A tele-BABE who wants young, strapping lads who know how to turn-em to teach her tele-technique, or just "mess around". Then she'll buy beer afterwards!!!! Sound too good to be. .... oh crap it is.

That's actually a pretty accurate reading of what I'm looking for, except for the "just mess around" part. The tele lesson is an essential part of the deal.

 

So here's something of a little trip report. The lucky instructor (if there was one) would have actually gotten 2 beginner tele-babes yesterday, me and a friend of mine. It was her first time on tele gear, and my third, so we studied "Allen and Mike's Telemark Tips" and made some progress. Makes me thing of the saying, "In the land of he blind, the one-eyed man is king."

 

We went up to Stevens and it was a mob scene, not surprising on a bright sunny Sunday after a snowfall. I must say, nothing hones your turn-making instincts like running through a gauntlet of 8-year-old snowboarders. So tempting to use the business end of my poles on the little buggers.... Grrr!

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dryad said:

E-rock said:

Omifuckinggod!!!! A tele-BABE who wants young, strapping lads who know how to turn-em to teach her tele-technique, or just "mess around". Then she'll buy beer afterwards!!!! Sound too good to be. .... oh crap it is.

That's actually a pretty accurate reading of what I'm looking for, except for the "just mess around" part. The tele lesson is an essential part of the deal.

 

So here's something of a little trip report. The lucky instructor (if there was one) would have actually gotten 2 beginner tele-babes yesterday, me and a friend of mine. It was her first time on tele gear, and my third, so we studied "Allen and Mike's Telemark Tips" and made some progress. Makes me thing of the saying, "In the land of he blind, the one-eyed man is king."

 

We went up to Stevens and it was a mob scene, not surprising on a bright sunny Sunday after a snowfall. I must say, nothing hones your turn-making instincts like running through a gauntlet of 8-year-old snowboarders. So tempting to use the business end of my poles on the little buggers.... Grrr!

 

don't worry about e-rock he is as innocent and kind as a puppy. and a rockin tele skier!!!!!!

 

have fun learnin..i try a couple of times a year and just end up skiing paramark with my gear and then leave it in the closet for my REAL skis!!!

 

bigdrink.gif

 

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If you can, the best way to learn any ski technique involves repetition. Try to ski at leat once a week (better twice a week) for several weeks in a row. Get some coaching or even pay for a lesson if you can, but the repetition is at least as important. I taught myself the telemark turn using the old "Cross Country Downhill" book by Steve Barnett that pretty much started the telemark fad.

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While I agree with Mattp, when I was learning (downhill heels locked, not tele) I found that going skiing multiple days in a row produced huge leaps in skill. Lessons good too.

 

(can't comment specifically on tele skiing except for the fact that I tried it a couple of times and didn't succeed in teaching myself how to do those drop-knee teleturns)

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Yes, as we all have said, "nothing that another 50 days of skiing wouldn't cure..."

 

On the thin sticks, the big problem seems to be keeping track of where your weight is, and that's where lots of miles on the skis really helps. With heavier gear, you can cheat a lot more. Perhaps if you haven't skiied much on alpine boards, you haven't had the opportunity for as much laziness.

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Thanks for all the advice, folks!

(and for the warm welcome to this forum) smile.gif

 

I haven't done any alpine skiing at all, just XC. My friend learned alpine skiing as a kid and I could totally see that manifesting itself in her attempts to tele. She starts off in a tele then winds up parallel no matter how hard she tried not to. Pretty powerful muscle memory.

 

I, on the other hand, seem to be perfecting the dreaded fake-a-mark, that thing where the lead foot does all the work and the back foot just kinda trails behind. Works on hardpack, but I don't want to ingrain bad habits. Gotta work on weighting the back foot bigtime.

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I say get someone who is PSIA trained if you take classes. There are plenty of dynamite skiers out there. Few can put into words what your body should be doing in the turn like a professional teacher. The best can watch your form and tell you exactly what you are doing wrong or right. Worth the money in my book, and you take one one hour session then work a few weeks on it, come back for more when you have digested the MANY little nuances. Or just go skiing a lot. If you get some bad habits in the muscle memory though, they can be virtually impossible to remove. Ask any tennis instructor.

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specialed said:

Fuck just go skiing, watch good skiers, and figure it out yourself. Forget paying anyone good money. Learning yourself is the fun part. Though, if I was in Washington last weekend I would have gone skiing with you. Wouldn't have passed up chicks, beer, and skiing. grin.gif

 

yur trashy though special!!!

 

yelrotflmao.gifbigdrink.gif

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my biggest tip for beginning tele skiers: don't get into the bad habit of letting the trailing ski get too far back - it needs to be beneith you with your weight on the ball of your foot. pretend you are holding a grapefruit between your knees and everything will be perfect.

 

if you are planning on teleing in the backcountry you may want to practice in some off-piste snow early on as well. it is very different. i have seen people get very good on piste and then flounder in the deep stuff.

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Greg is right about the difference between hardpack and deep snow. The half-broken snow alongside a ski run can also be pretty challenging and require very fore-aft balance/response. Learn to ski off the groomed part of the ski run and even head through the trees in between the runs to learn to be comfortable in the woods (perhaps not at Snoqualmie Pass, though because I think most of those are pretty thick trees).

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I was out at Steven's yesterday too - ripped it up in Mill Valley. Andromeda face was awesome! I saw a few other pinheads out there, but none that looked beginner-ish. Perhaps you are being overly modest?

 

Best advice I could give to someone switching from downhill to tele would be: in downhill you weight your downhill ski; with tele you weight both evenly while dropping the inside knee. Even pressure on both skis during the turn makes a big difference in smoothness and control.

fruit.gif

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