Telemark

What is telemark?

The winter sports offer you more and more alternatives so that anyone who wants to practice activities where the main scenario is the snow can do it. To explain what telemark skiing consists of, the easiest thing to do is to resort to a few definitions:

Telemark is the sport that my grandfather and his contemporaries practiced. And their grandparents, their creators, were the ones who invented ski; although we are referring more to the grandparents of the Norwegians.
This is a free heel ski, that is, without a heel pad. It allows the movement of the instep and heel, taking it off the board but keeping the toe fixed.
The telemark is also the last of the ski techniques, the one with the most possibilities of evolving and the one that is on the crest of the wave.
"It is a speed sport," stated the telemark world champion, in 1994, in an interview for Eurosport.
It is the best instrument to perfect skiing technique in general, including alpine skiing. It is very useful to practice centrality (balance), rhythm, decision, elasticity and sensitivity, all of which is very important in the development of high-level technique.

Another definition or advantage that we can find is that telemark is freedom. Because? Here are three very clear reasons:

The fact of having the heel free allows you to position yourself in a wide variety of positions on the skis, especially in the anteroposterior axis.

It gives great freedom of movement in the mountains to go up, down, cross flat areas or change from one valley to another. On cross-country skiing excursions, where the snow is ending, it makes it easier to change the snowmobile, since the same boot with the that you ski is a true mountain boot, with the right soles for moving over rocks or slopes without snow.

Freedom as a philosophy, since almost everyone who enters this sport turns out to be free and unapologetic people, eager to learn new things and perfect old techniques. We are like a big family. It is rare that two telemarkers meet and do not greet each other, in fact, they may start chatting and even continue the day together. Modern telemark is very popular in Norway, where they have that spirit that should be that of all skiers. Perhaps they are the true heirs of what skiing was in its origins.

Telemark modalities

Telemark-Backcountry. Hikers who want to start skiing on gentle slopes and don't fancy the hustle and bustle of the lifts.

Telemark-Dynamism-Improvement. Good competition skiers and instructors who find the climax of skiing in the telemark.

Telemark-School. Average skiers who begin to practice telemark and learn much more than they imagined about skiing in general.

Telemark-Initiation. Future alpine skiers who try the first days with telemark. It is especially good for them to learn to balance.

High mountain telemark. Large and small mountaineers, who have been ski touring all their lives and switch to telemark, because it is much more comfortable and adaptable to the needs that arise in the mountains .