So, you got issues????

[Williamtele]

In quivering anticipation of the ski season the usual obsessions are taking hold.....checking various ski related websites everyday, looking at long range forecasts, complaining about our local mountain, and of course, having ski dreams. Ski dreams are the best because I'm always doing things that, not surprisingly, I can only dream of doing in real life. There's the whole "why am I naked thing?" but we'll save that for another thread.

So to get the Telemark Instruction Forum launched for this season, I'd like to ask members to respond to the question "what do you dream of being able to do on tele skis?" It could be broad in scope like ski powder, go into the trees, play in the park, or survive moguls. Or more nuanced like ski like Biff, get more weight on the rear foot, achieve higher edge angles, or ski like Biff.

With a bag of issues in hand your intrepid forum contributors can address them and beat them to death because that's what forum contributors do. Hopefully, we'll all learn something in the process. My only request is to keep it skiing related because we all have other "issues" and the entire internet isn't big enough if we go down that rabbit hole.

Also, no one can ski like Biff so don't ask.

[Biff]

Damn.... I wish I Could ski like Biff!!! Or at least like Biff used to. Last I looked the old guy was limping down the slopes.


I have been having powder dreams. The wild thing is... I just keep going long past the time I usually stop and pant and moan and Bill, Cory, Dirk or Tasse or even Downey (that's really sad) pass me. The bastards! In the dreams my knee doesn't hurt and I don't ever tire. It's awesome!!

I just want to add that you guys (and Bill especially) deserve a real thumbs up for making this instruction section work as well as it is. It's turned into a real plus for Tele-east.

[Rene-Martin Trudel]

Hey Will,


You are right, setting goals is important. I think it's the #1 factor for me improving, year after year.

This season my goals are:

1.Having an easier, less agressive transition in carving situations. At high speeds, I tend to cramp up in the steeps. On intermediate terrain, i can really let my technique talk and be very quiet with my core muscles. On steeps, carving becomes much more cramped and inconsistant depending on snow condition.So at the very least, I want to have half of the turn to be more flowy, easy and I think it start with the transition.
2. I want to improve my pivot in really tight trees. I tought I was not having any problem with that untill I saw a guy name Steeve at Mad River Glen just ripping through tight trees in a crusty snow. Wow, I wnat to improve how quickly I make the pivot in the extension
3. i want to land a 360 cab in the park. I've tried last year but failed. At 36, my years improving in the park and evading quickly. I want to take off going backward, do a full turn in the air and land fakie again...

That's it for this year...

Oh and I want to have at least 40% of my days on snow in BC

Cheers

Rene

[Brenda]

Issues?!?! I've got a subscription!

I'd like to continue my work in the bumps to become more consistent and go with the flow. Tall bumps/deep troughs still spit me out a lot of the time.

Ditto with trees, more flow, more consistency.

I'd like to feel more comfortable on steep terrain. Unfortunately, we don't have a Western trip planned this year (yet), so I'm not sure how I'm going to work on this one, except in the Spring when I'm more comfortable skiing Tux, HH, and GOS.

I want to improve my parallel turns. Having gone from zero to tele, I've never really worked on my form when making parallel turns. I keep saying I'm going to take lessons, so maybe this is the year. I make fine P-turns, but I have no idea how to P-turn in bumps for example, so there is plenty of room for improvement. Being able to switch to quick p-turns in some situations (tight trees) would be nice.

There are all kinds of individual areas to work on encapsulated in these goals.

I feel small improvements most years, but it's a never-ending, if very fun, process.

[Biff]

I skied with Jim Tasse a bit last season and what I would really like to do is steal his foot movements... What he can do with his feet and ankles is amazing. and Brenda, I'm with you on parallel. I get behind some tele skiers like Jay York or Jim Tasse when they are paralleling in powder and I just don't have it.

[Williamtele]

So now we have a BIG problem. All these people want to ski like Biff, but now Biff wants to ski like Jim and Jay. This can't end well.

The first order of business at Mt. Abrams in February is going to be figuring out just WHO wants to ski like WHOM.

[Biff]

So now we have a BIG problem. All these people want to ski like Biff, but now Biff wants to ski like Jim and Jay. This can't end well.

The first order of business at Mt. Abrams in February is going to be figuring out just WHO wants to ski like WHOM.

Well first lets get this straight... I want to tele like Jim and parallel like Jim or Jay, both of whom parallel on teles like a warm knife through butter. But I think it's safe to say that anyone getting behind Tasse on a powder day in the glades would be very happy to ski like him. The ease and quickness that he can steer his feet is uncanny.

And for those wondering who the hell we are talking about... Jim is a PSIA examiner and an instructor at Mt Abram in Maine. He will be teaching at the Maine tele fest there in February.

[Dirk]

Remember Mike, that instructor who dragged us through the woods at Stowe? That's who I want to ski like. At age 52 though, I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

[flyingcow]

So my goal this year is to get better on light gear. My size has always been a challenge, and it certainly prevents me from going to steeper stuff and launching off things. I'm working on getting smaller, but that's a damn long road with an unknown end. So as I figure that out, I'm going to have more fun on the low angle stuff I ski regularly. I just beefed up to a Solomon Xadv-6 boot to run my BC-70's and I might try a BC-110 or BC-125 with the same boot. That'll give me a wicked light (and comfy) setup that can take me anywhere I want to go! The heavy tele gear will still see plenty of days on snow, but I really want to find myself deeper into the backcountry and using my skis as approaches to mountains I want to climb.

[Dirk]

Cow,

My 2 cents, if you put that boot on a BC 110 or 125, you will flail wildly on any packed surface. If you only take that rig out on hero snow days, you may be fine. Don't go too wide with a system boot.

I've settled on leather lace ups and Glittertinds for covering ground on packed or shallow snow, same boots with Guides and pins for general farting around and meadow skipping, and old T2s and Vector BCs for steeper, deeper objectives. My resort skis and boots mostly gather dust. Not sure how that happened...

[Biff]

Remember Mike, that instructor who dragged us through the woods at Stowe? That's who I want to ski like. At age 52 though, I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

I do remember Mike (Beagan?)... another PSIA examiner and an awesome skier. I think he won the NET mogul comp that year at Stowe. I know what you mean about 52... I'll be 60 this March. My ship is somewhere around Australia by now.

[Bern]

I take my cue from Lucy, the brat, (actually she was a female dog) in the Peanut comic strip who said, "I don't care if anyone likes me as long as I'm popular". Similarly, I don't care how I ski as long as look good.

[Williamtele]

Remember Mike, that instructor who dragged us through the woods at Stowe? That's who I want to ski like. At age 52 though, I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

I do remember Mike (Beagan?)... another PSIA examiner and an awesome skier. I think he won the NET mogul comp that year at Stowe. I know what you mean about 52... I'll be 60 this March. My ship is somewhere around Australia by now.

With the the way that the telemark crew is aging, the next hardware innovation might be a portable de-fib or oxygen delivery system integrated into boots and bindings. We'll call it the NTN-MD. Biff, 1955 was a great year. 2/16 for me.

[Biff]

Remember Mike, that instructor who dragged us through the woods at Stowe? That's who I want to ski like. At age 52 though, I'm afraid that ship has sailed.

I do remember Mike (Beagan?)... another PSIA examiner and an awesome skier. I think he won the NET mogul comp that year at Stowe. I know what you mean about 52... I'll be 60 this March. My ship is somewhere around Australia by now.

With the the way that the telemark crew is aging, the next hardware innovation might be a portable de-fib or oxygen delivery system integrated into boots and bindings. We'll call it the NTN-MD. Biff, 1955 was a great year. 2/16 for me.

I'll save a cigar for you.

[Williamtele]

Issues?!?! I've got a subscription!

I want to improve my parallel turns. Having gone from zero to tele, I've never really worked on my form when making parallel turns. I keep saying I'm going to take lessons, so maybe this is the year. I make fine P-turns, but I have no idea how to P-turn in bumps for example, so there is plenty of room for improvement. Being able to switch to quick p-turns in some situations (tight trees) would be nice.

Hi Brenda, "pivot slips" are the monomarks of P-turns. The cure for all that ails you. Google it for a description and a nauseating amount of discussion about their virtues.