It’s official, telemark skiing is now just another way to slide downhill at your favorite resort, along with snowboarding, tubbing, fixed-heel alpine, or riding a cafeteria tray…
“Freeheel skiing is not just backcountry skiing anymore,” says telemark skiing promoter and film maker Josh Murphy, “It used to be that people got into the sport because the gear was light and they wanted to access the backcountry. Now skiers try freeheel skiing and fall in love with it because the feeling is so unique. With modern skis, boots, and bindings it has become an exciting sport that is growing at resorts and in the backcountry.” (From SkiPressWorld.com, link broken so removed.)
What Murphy fails to mention (besides tele gear now weighing a ton), is that telemarking is now hip. It’s just plain stylish to be genuflecting down the slope where everyone can see you. Much of resort skiing has always been about style, so nothing wrong with that, but it is amusing that a sport started by granola crunching anti-corporate backcountry skiing furballs (myself included) has become a resort business. Who would have thought?
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
