im thinking im going to telle this year...ive been poking around looking at equipment...i dont know what to look for...i think ill be a fast learner since im an expert alpiner and boarder and ill be going 1 or 2 times a week...does anybody have any advice for a telle nubbie?
I got a few tele days in the backcountry last spring, but I'm new to it this year as well. For me it is a way to make the little shitty local hill interesting again, and I definitely like it better touring than my split. I'm a solid skier and snowboarder as well, so I think the new turn should come quickly. Not much advice to offer, but have fun!
As far as equipment your feet will have to tell you. Garmont for wide feet, Scarpa for narrower and I don't know any thing about Crispy! Then again my new Scarpa's do seem wider then my last pair. Bottom line is you want a plastic telly boot and you just need to try some on. If you ski hard, you will probably want a stiffer, more buckle boot as apposed to a softer less buckle boot. I do not take my T-race into the backcountry, but I do all my touring on my T-1s. I just keep the T-1s looser when climbing.
As far as skis, what ever type of ski you liked for Alpine is a good place to start. I tend to use lighter gear for backcountry, but that is more since I use my powder skis for backcountry anyway. My quiver is a mix of Alpine boards and telly boards.
Your Alpine experience is a plus, since your ski reflexes are the same, it is just a different way to pressure your edges. The boarding experience will not help you on your tellies. Your downhill(front) ski stabilizes you while your uphill(back) ski does the turning. Think pressure your big toe on the front and your little toe on the back. Now go out there and have some fun!
my advice would be get good boots. hard plastic with at least 3 buckles. the old school soft boots will require much more practice and you will go a lot slower over all.
all the new schoolers are charging with plastic boots with 4 buckles.
also get a flat tail ski. I think it will help you learn the turn, without washing out as much.
and lastly, make sure you focus on the tele turn, not the bent knee'd alpine turn.
Concentrate on dropping your weight between your legs. if you pressure the front ski and trail the back that is not a tele turn.
You will know when you bag some tele turns, you will be spent.
I was good till noon everyday for about a month until my body got used to it
good luck, its so fuckin fun, especialy in the powda!
PS 6" = faceshots on a tele ski
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my advice would be get good boots. hard plastic with at least 3 buckles. the old school soft boots will require much more practice and you will go a lot slower over all.
all the new schoolers are charging with plastic boots with 4 buckles.
also get a flat tail ski. I think it will help you learn the turn, without washing out as much.
and lastly, make sure you focus on the tele turn, not the bent knee'd alpine turn.
Concentrate on dropping your weight between your legs. if you pressure the front ski and trail the back that is not a tele turn.
You will know when you bag some tele turns, you will be spent.
I was good till noon everyday for about a month until my body got used to it
good luck, its so fuckin fun, especialy in the powda!
PS 6" = faceshots on a tele ski
What he said is pretty much right. Don't weight your outside ski alpine style and lift your back heal like a fairy. The tele (not telle, telly) turn came from needing stability since the heal is not fastened. If you need an example, put one foot in front of another and bend both knees. If someone was to push you forward or backward you could resist the force. If your feet were parallel you could be easily pushed off balance. If you weight your outside ski in an alpine stance while telemarking, your only means to resist going forward is to extend a leg backwards in a balancing motion. Not to dynamic. You are better off using your muscles to resist a force than the mass of your anatomy.
Once you get the hang of it, hopefully you will return to your alpine roots. It is where all the performance lies. Thats what I did. Plus hippie tele chicks drive me nuts. They never learned to alpine and they suck at tele (usually)! You spend all day waiting.
What he said is pretty much right. Don't weight your outside ski alpine style and lift your back heal like a fairy. The tele (not telle, telly) turn came from needing stability since the heal is not fastened. If you need an example, put one foot in front of another and bend both knees. If someone was to push you forward or backward you could resist the force. If your feet were parallel you could be easily pushed off balance. If you weight your outside ski in an alpine stance while telemarking, your only means to resist going forward is to extend a leg backwards in a balancing motion. Not to dynamic. You are better off using your muscles to resist a force than the mass of your anatomy.
Once you get the hang of it, hopefully you will return to your alpine roots. It is where all the performance lies. Thats what I did. Plus hippie tele chicks drive me nuts. They never learned to alpine and they suck at tele (usually)! You spend all day waiting.
These Great suggestions! I would add... Remember the basics of skiing i.e. shoulders face down hill and keep the upper and lower body separate (quite upper body) and look up.
I perfer my poles to be a little shorter then my Alpine poles. I found that the longer pole was pushing my up hill shoulder around and was causing me to rotate (bad form i guess) and then my tails would wash out.
thanks...everyone says plastic boots...i got a wide foot...ill try on the garmonts first...now how heavy of a boot should i look for....do all boots work with any binding????if i got a heavy ski wouldnt i need a better binding and heavy boot???
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