Tele Love

Without a doubt, telemarking skiing is one of my favorite things. Playing in the snow is fun. Period. Lynn is the first to admit that I have a very certain contentment after a day (or even a few hours) of making turns. I always really liked to ski, but it wasn't until I followed suit of my friends and picked up telemarking that I really LOVED to ski. Sure, telemarking is harder to do, its not as fast as alpine skis or snowboarding, it wears your legs out faster, but that's not what it's about. The "love of tele" that I have was summed up pretty nicely by an article I read a while back. I've saved the quote and come back to it quite often...

"Here’s the conventional wisdom: Telemark skiing is stupid for so many reasons. It is an inefficient way to get down the mountain - all those deep knee bends!....."Ironically, the freedom of the heels actually puts us in bondage: bondage to inefficiency."

"But really, telemark skiing is not about efficiency. It is about love. And if loving telemark skiing is wrong, then I don’t wanna be right. I love to make the tele turn. I love the feel of the carve. The angulation. The proximity to the snow. The absolute level of physical engagement required to make the turn. There’s just so much going on. Knees, heels, arms, shoulders, toes. I know it may be inefficient, but I simply don’t care. I love it. It's my turn."

This morning I spent a few hours on Loveland's Ridge, where they reported 6 inches of new snow, but it actually skiied like it was a foot of new. That's just the kind of winter its been. I don't like to throw around a work like "epic" too much, but its been pretty epic. Whenever I hear somebody say "I'm sooo sick of winter", I just smile and quietly wish it would never end in the high country.

To any of you who have always wondered what's so great about it, or were always just curious to try tele, I must urge you to try it. Now. Go.