By Derrick Knowles
Cover photo courtesy of Tele Colo
Over the years skiing on telemark gear, I’ve encountered a few slogans from tele skiing’s zenith, some of them on faded stickers plastered to Subarus and others repeated by lifties with a Jeff Spicoli-esque cackle in the lift line as I approached: “Free your heel, ski for real.” Or, my favorite, “Free your heel, free your mind.” Are such sayings tired mantras of a dying sect of snow-sliding’s more archaic brethren? Or is there something significant about telemark that just won’t let it die?
Telemark skiing on free-heel gear and the signature turn that involves the dropping of knees, scissoring of skis, and sometimes wild, dance-like movements down a mountain, was pioneered by Norwegian skier Sondre Norheim in the middle of the 19th century. No doubt, the telemark style of skiing—which takes its name from Norheim’s home turf in the Telemark region of Norway—played a profound and foundational role in the evolution of skiing. But, time marched on, gear evolved, and modern fixed-heel alpine ski bindings, burly plastic boots, and fatter shaped skis have largely replaced their telemark forebearers on modern-day ski area and backcountry slopes.
You don’t see too many skiers donning minimalist leather boots and 3-pin tele bindings on the lifts these days, although some still roam the hills in the backcountry. Yet, tele skiing and its devotees continue to persist at ski areas, most of them on modern tele gear that to most skiers look indistinguishable from all the other alpine skiers out on the snow. That is, until those heels lift up off of the skis in the shuffle to the lift line or the knees start dropping with each turn down the mountain.
The Origins of Tele Ski Gear and the Persistence of the Free Heel
For years, those looking to get into telemark only required an inexpensive 3-pin (think XC ski bindings) or cable binding setup and leather or plastic Nordic-style boots. While that style of tele gear is still widely available, affordable, and great for learning to tele ski or tour around in the backcountry on a budget, there were drawbacks with that gear for skiers wanting to keep up in the alpine world, including less power, control and stability, especially for beginners.
Likely coinciding with the last major tele boom around 2010, when new NTN tele bindings (New Telemark Norm) hit the scene, the number of new tele converts at alpine ski areas grew, even as the trend in backcountry skiing continued to see former tele skiers converting to fixed-heel AT gear. With the rise of NTN, beginner and veteran free heelers finally had access to gear that was comparable in many ways to that of their modern alpine skier cousins, while still providing the flexible, free-heel movement that defines telemark skiing.
A long-time Inland Northwest backcountry and telemark skier and the owner of Altai Skis in Curlew, Wash., 70-year-old Nils Larsen’s life has been so inspired by and intertwined with free-heel and backcountry skiing that he named his daughter after the aforementioned telemark founder Sondre Norheim. After being a part of several other boom and bust times in the world of telemark, Larsen observes that the telemark scene, at least regionally, has been at a low ebb in general but certainly not dead.
“The whole ‘tele is dead’ thing is a little overblown,” says Larsen. “There are still plenty of people in my age group doing it and a growing cohort of younger skiers getting into it.”
Though as Larsen and other veteran tele skiers readily admit, telemark skiing is definitely past its high point in the ‘90s. The sport has changed a lot too, says Larsen. “I feel like tele has veered off from its origins, constantly trying to catch up with alpine skiing with stiffness and power. It’s a little bit of false narrative,” he says. “Tele is never going to be the same as alpine. It should be its own thing.”
To that point, Larsen’s company Altai Skis makes free-heeled skis with built-in traction to allow them to both climb and descend without the need for climbing skins, additional traction or to learn the tele turn. Inspired by the origins of skiing in the Altai Mountains of China, where they’ve been used as a tool for backcountry travel and hunting for millennia, Larsen’s skis, including the Hok that’s popular with snowshoers and skiers looking to tour around any size hills or mountains, have seen increased interest and sales in recent years.
Larsen says that many skiers first gravitated to telemark back in the earlier days as a way to ski in the backcountry. “AT didn’t really exist in the U.S. back then and you could go out with this super light and inexpensive tele system and ski in the backcountry.” As alpine touring (AT) gear became a more popular and affordable setup for backcountry skiing, however, tele gear began collecting dust in many skiers’ garages. Still, some long-time tele skiers resisted locking down their heels and new telemark skiers of all ages continue to bolster the ranks of free-heelers every year, making the discipline surprisingly resilient at both resorts and on backcountry terrain.
Larsen attributes this phenomenon to the aesthetic appeal of the telemark turn and freedom of movement in the gear. “It’s never going to be as functional or powerful as alpine, but it doesn’t have to be. We don’t ski because it’s functional, we ski because it’s pleasurable.”
Today’s Tele Fanatics and the Modern Gear Many Ride On
Shelley Kovacs and Marc Schanfarber, both tele instructors at 49 Degrees North, have an appreciation for the minimalist free-heel legacy, but are also proponents of modern NTN tele gear at ski areas, emphasizing how it has made tele so much more accessible and enjoyable for a wider audience.
“Things have evolved so that you can do many of the same things on tele gear as alpine gear now that wasn’t formerly possible, or harder to accomplish with older 75mm equipment,” says Schanfarber, referring to early Nordic-sized tele boots and bindings.
Compared to alpine ski gear, any type of tele equipment allows a skier to lift their heel and walk and move and climb. You can do parallel alpine turns or tele turns, all with added boot comfort and the freedom of expanded movement created by the unattached heel, Schanfarber explains.
What sets newer NTN boots and bindings apart from the more traditional tele gear, however, is greater power and control—things that are especially handy for those skiing at resorts, in the park, or on aggressive backcountry terrain. Mark Beatie, longtime Mountain Gear boot fitter and telemark gear specialist who’s also a tele instructor, agrees that the gear has gotten so much better. “It offers better fit, more safety and significant improvement in control and energy transmission.” On the downside, he adds, “It is coming at a dramatic increase in price.”
Beatie also points out that the technique has evolved right along with the gear. “We have brought the stance from knee on the ski to a taller, stronger base for movement. The lead change is a shorter motion and everything is intended to work with the skier’s natural range of motion while maintaining strength, stability and that graceful flow down the mountain.”
The modern gear and style is also likely the driving force keeping the sport alive, and it’s the new generation of passionate and innovative tele skier evangelists themselves who are driving this latest resurgence in telemark skiing.
New Wave of Tele
Avid 54-year-old western Washington-based skier Serge Baranovsky may be a recent tele convert, but when the bug bit, it bit hard. In 2021, he started Rise of Telemark, a resource that has created more access to the sport with gear rentals (out of the Seattle area), a local online shop, and tele events like the Wenatchee Telemark Festival at Mission Ridge, which debuted last season, all with a goal of growing participation in the sport.
While greatly improved gear is a major driver, Serge says the main reason tele is still thriving is the younger generation coming in. “It’s far from dead and is coming back to life. There are a ton of telemark skiers on Instagram in their 20s and 30s hucking cliffs and pulling off tricks in the park that helps create the awareness of the sport with a new generation.”
Thirty-year-old Seattle tele skier Brian Hitchens, who runs the Cascade Telemark YouTube channel, echoes this sentiment, noting that there are plenty of tele skiers at the resorts he frequents, including Stevens Pass, Mission Ridge, and Whistler, who are remaking the old-school image of tele in and out of the park. He calls out Tele Colo, founded in 2018 by skateboarder and surfer-turned-tele-skier CJ Coccia, as a major influence behind the evolution and image of the sport. Tele Colo, says Hitchens, is playing a big role in boosting the new generation of telemark culture through digital media and pushing the boundaries of telemark with their ski films and hype more than anyone.
People really like how they can represent their own style on modern-equipped telemark skis, says Hitchens. “It’s sounds a little woo-woo, but the way you can move on telemark skis just opens the door up to really however you want to express yourself on skis.” He says many of the younger generation of telemark skiers have a different philosophy from traditional tele skiers. “I have [tele-skiing] friends who are insane how they ski. Like I don’t physically think it’s possible, until you go down the hill with them. I think people latch onto that freedom of expression and that matched with this newer technology have been propelling new people to get into it.”
All of that new generation passion and creativity translates into curiosity too, he says. “Last season especially there was an insane amount of tele skiers out there, to the point where every time up the chair lift somebody’s skiing tele down the hill.”
Three Hallmarks Behind the Tele Resurgence
Contrary to rumors circulating around the ski community that tele is dead, there are some very real signs that it’s experiencing a renaissance of sorts.
After talking with a half dozen modern tele acolytes from around the Northwest and beyond, three reasons for this resurgence—in addition to the big one, improvements in the modern gear—were repeated by nearly all of them: freedom, not just of the heel but in movement and the creative expression it affords a skier in their turns; the challenge of learning a new way to ski; and the community.
The Close-knit Tele Community: Nearly a quarter century into the 2000s, one might conclude that tele skiers at Inland Northwest resorts are but a few torn ACLs away from an endangered species listing. Ironically, the infrequency with which tele skiers encounter one another also plays into tele skiing’s resilience: the community that arises when tele skiers come together for events and festivals.
Several telemark and free-heel backcountry events are happening this season at ski areas and mountain passes throughout the Inland PNW (see sidebar for details), including the Telebration event, which has been organized in various forms by 49 Degrees North just about every year since 2019.
Last March, I finally made it to the two-day iteration of Telebration. While I’ve been skiing on telemark gear for over 20 years, it’s been nearly as long since I took a lesson and worked to improve my technique. Telebration included group telemark ski clinics and private lessons for all experience levels, demo gear from 22 Designs, and a post-slope showing of Tele Colo’s 2023 film release “This is Telemark” with giveaways and festive vibes.
I admittedly signed up for the clinics for the chance to learn and make my skiing more fun and fluid, something my instructors Kovacs and Schanfarber didn’t let me down on. But, being a shameless introvert, community wasn’t necessarily why I signed up. Before my first Telebration experience, I didn’t totally get the contagious power of the tele community that comes with skiing and revelry with other free-heeled kin until then.
As Schanfarber would later tell me, gatherings of telemark skiers at events like 49 Degrees North’s Telebration play an essential role in growing the sport and community. “Whenever groups of tele skiers come together, it catches peoples’ attention and they’re like, I want to try that,” he says, a sentiment that helps spark the next wave of tele skiers. Such gatherings also tighten the bonds of the tele community, adds Kovacs. “Anywhere you go and see someone else tele skiing, you can end up instant friends. Because we’re such a minority, there’s real and lasting camaraderie.”
Learning Something New: The tele gateway for many skiers is a realization that it’s time to expand their skiing horizons. Hitchens was working as an alpine ski instructor at Stevens Pass when that moment hit. “At some point, it became clear that I was kinda skiing unsafe on alpine skis.” Since on many days he was teaching others to ski, it was the perfect time to slow down and learn to tele. The flow and pace of tele skiing resonated and he hasn’t looked back.
“You can just show up on any type of tele gear and you don’t feel like you have to compete with everybody on the mountain. It removes you from the rat race and at the end of the day you are trying something different,” Hitchens says.
Schanfarber concurs that learning to telemark is a great new challenge for a long-time alpine skier or snowboarder who may find themselves less inspired from skiing or riding the same terrain and making the same turns ski day after ski day. “Taking up tele can help make a small mountain big,” he says. “It’s a way to spice things up and learn something new.”
Kovacs points out that many people take up tele skiing when skiing with a friend, spouse, or child who is a beginner or slower skier. “If you are skiing with someone who is learning, it’s a great way to slow you down while learning something new in the process.”
The Freedom and Magic of the Turn: There’s a tele joke I read online recently that I think illuminates the heart of why tele seemingly refuses to die: How many tele skiers does it take to change a light bulb? One to screw it in and two to stand back and say, ‘Nice turns!’
Funny for sure, but there’s something to it. I got my first telemark setup as an inexpensive tool to build leg strength after multiple snowboarding injuries and as a way to get into the backcountry, but the reason I’ve stuck with it is all about the feel of the turn.
The allure of tele is really about the mechanics and what you can do, seconds Hitchens. “It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t gotten over the hump of staying in control. If you are willing to put in the time and effort, you are basically moving in a completely different plane of motion and you can apply forces to the skis that you never could on alpine skis. It’s like skiing with added dimensionality and your reward is a whole new way to get down the mountain.”
Founder and publisher of “Couloir Magazine” Craig Dostie summed up the magic potential and allure of the telemark turn in the 2010 Josh Madsen film “Freeheel Life 2: Hippies, Punx, & Misfits” more aptly than I’ve read or heard anywhere: “There’s this sweet spot in any turn on snow or in water, . . . there’s a sweet moment, a sweet moment, a magic moment . . . and in tele it’s whatever you want. It can be really huge and it can be really tight. You can make it whatever you want. But the sweet spot is more dynamic and it’s deeper and it’s wider.”
49 Degrees North: The Local Place to Learn to Tele Ski
Coming up on their 12th season as telemark ski instructors at 49 Degrees North near Chewelah, Wash., Kovacs and Schanfarber are playing a major role in keeping telemark skiing alive and well at 49 and around the region. For starters, 49 Degrees North is the only ski area in the Inland Northwest where you can rent a modern NTN tele ski setup and give it a try without having to buy all of the gear yourself right off the bat.
When Mountain Gear went out of business, 49 bought up their tele rental gear and started offering rentals to give people a place to try it out, says Schanfarber. 49 also has some of the region’s best tele instructors, with Kovacs, Schanfarber and other instructors available to get you started with plenty of pro tips to make sure your first day on telemark skis is productive and fun.
If you already have tele gear and some turns under your belt, lessons at 49 and the clinics at Telebration (scheduled for March 16 for the 2025 season) can help you identify plenty of bad habitats and new techniques to improve your tele turn game.
“Lessons aren’t just for beginners,” explains Schanfarber. “I’ve probably gone through a few hundred hours of advanced lessons because I want to get better. Lessons will make you ski more efficiently.”
There’s another tele-themed bumper sticker maybe you’ve seen: “Nobody Cares That You Tele!” Snark aside, that’s precisely the way that it should be. You probably won’t reach Nirvana like the Buddha on a pair of tele skis, and the telemark turn certainly won’t make you better than anyone else on the mountain, but you may find your own state of enlightenment in that distinct tele flow.
Some tele skiers may enjoy the spotlight of standing out against the masses of parallel-turning skiers shredding down the slopes and talking up their turns afterwards, but when it comes right down to it, it’s just another way to enjoy sliding down snowy mountains. A damn fun way, I might add, that you will likely find soul-filling and exhilarating if you give it a try.
Derrick Knowles is the Publisher of Out There Outdoors. He’s been skiing on tele gear since 2001, although mostly incognito blending in with his alpine and AT skiing partners with frequent parallel turns.
