With more and more skiers buying AT gear to get out in the untracked, we have noticed a bit of animosity forming between the new crop of AT folks and telemarkers (as in when our AT friends say “Telemarking is stupid” or when tele-skiers say AT stands for “Aging Telemarker”). When we asked our readers which discipline was, in fact, stupid… they got offended by the question. Though 70 percent of you said telemarking was indeed stupid. So we decided to have AT adherent Tom Winter and tele-goddess Heather Hansman square off over which form of skiing was more “free.”
Freedom Flies
For the sake of a fair argument I’ll admit that there are plenty of ways in which alpine skiing is superior to telemark skiing. If you want to go really fast on groomers, or blow every vocabulary letter of cruciate ligament in your knees, then you should probably alpine. But if you’re looking for freedom, tele is where you will find it.
Just so we’re clear here, let’s talk about what freedom is. If you go by Miriam Webster’s eighth definition, which I did, you get this: “the quality, especially of the will or the individual, of not being totally constrained; able to choose between alternative actions in identical circumstances.”
That’s exactly what telemarking does, it gives you the ability to choose. Skiing, at its core, is about the turn, and teleing throws another set of turns into the mix. If you’re feeling lazy or the snow is manky, you can stand up and make alpine turns. But you can also make deep snow, knee-to-face tele turns. And I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to do that. If you lock your heel down on an alpine setup you’re just that, locked down and option-less.
I know what you’re going to say about how much technology has advanced, and now you have 4-ounce Dynafits for the uphill, or 40 DIN Dukes for the downhill. I get that, and I agree. Heavy bindings and set-back pivot points don’t do anything for uphill efficiency. I wish tele bindings were progressing as quickly as AT ones, and I’m so glad that they give you the freedom not to have to make telemark turns. If you can’t keep you skis under you and you’re fearful of tips flying at your face (there goes your social life) that’s your own fault, not the binding’s.
