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Show ide That en OS ee oh Wasatch Canyon SSR ie Saya Reporter Turning Telemarkat Alta: Drop the Knee or Dropthe Spor portDave Peck to concentrate on the dynamics of the turn.”’ While getting on and off the chair was a call. Out of our crew of ten, | ive Alta instructor G.7 6.6 other shops including some motley and some looking fairly serious, about seven Underwood took — our Breese. al Snowbird chore unto itself, we all bene- group of five, rent top tele method. I found myself want- which ranged . gear as well. ing to take more poleless runs. Underwood had promised that we would find the fundamentals of tele- froma ner-through-intermediate telemark skiers. Without further ado, we whisked, well, mosied, up the Albion lift followed by two Alta instructors. After a short demonstration of our humble telemarkability, the instructors dissect- ed the group: those who linked at least a few tele turns went with Christian, and those who bent at the knees, ankles, hips, waist, and neck but still went straight stayed with Greg. A highly scientific method of natural selection. As this was my first ski lesson of any kind in about twenty years, I modestly kept my heels firmly planted on my skis and. so joined me beginners. _ Despite my best ae to hide it lately, I had become an anachronism. Too haggard and mediocre to make it as a competitive skier anymore, and too damn conservative to -mix it up with the knuckledraggers, I was. slowly becoming obsolete on the hill. Snowboarders joked about my Geritol habit. Worse than that, those daz- zling telemark goddesses looked right through me as if. I were a monoskier. Time to get a life. I bit the extravagant bullet of a new pair of Scarpa Terminators, mounted superfluous pair slaloms, enrolled and of a Hart in the Alta telemark clinic. _ Alta is one of the few ski areas that offer group (i.e. affordable) telemark lessons. Most resorts have private tele “lessons available, but our newspaper’s coffers are hardly overflowing with doubloons lately. For thirty dol- ~ lars, you get a full afternoon’s instruction, more than most alpine legs can endure anyway. The clinics are designed for anyone from the so-called never-ever to the intermediate telemark skier. Thirty-some- tele- instantly from this mark equiptechnique marking a sixty-three has evolved to closer resemble repetition the enough sequence of steps would start to flow naturally. This was ment and year old gentleman who appeared to The newly learned Telemark t turn... that of ‘its a tp. tenes have joined us stable stance Underwood brethren, the telemark image by losing a bet with his taught us kept our back foot has similarly changed. What grandchildren. “We _ usually within a boot length of the was five years ago an underget an older clientele,” said front or downhill foot, but ground, backcountry sport Underwood. “They start at with the ankles flexed enough typified by gators, huge backabout college age, and get as to allow as deep a position as packs and the primary colors old as their sixties.” you see on the covers of magblue and black, has become a Underwood was the brainazines. By the end of the first glamour sport. Running child behind the group clinics run everyone looked much gates, ripping bumps, and at Alta, and was finally given more comfortable on their launching big air on pins free reign to run it as he skis, excepting Dan, the have become the new stanwished after some insistent entheusiac grandfather. dard. At resorts like Snowbird cajoling. Unsure of the popuDan’s problem seemed to and Vail, the old ducklarity of the program, the ski be his equipment rather than taped North Face combos school has been pleasantly his age: lace-up leather crosshave been replaced by surprised as almost every country moccasins, laser-thin Descente and Spyder oneclinic has been full in this Karhu backcountry skis circa © piece suits. Like it or not, first season. “The only time 1983, with matching threetelemarking is in the limewe didn’t have a full class pin bindings that overhung light now. I had already was on a day it was below his skis by a country mile. learned my lesson by missing zero and blowing like crazy, “You may be at a slight disadthe computer generation, and and even then we had two vantage to people show up,” Underwood these. folks reported proudly. To date with plastic their popularity from hung posters and placards in the canyon lodges has come and word of mouth, as adver- tising dollars are scarcer than © hairs on our publisher’s head. As we slowly made our way down Crooked Mile, Underwood methodically constructed for us the telemark turn. That graceful, fluid arc that was born in Norway at the dawn of time required some fundamental basics.. The keys, as we learned throughout the afternoon, Pressure, were Balance, Edging, and Steering. At first it seemed we would never get beyond the Balance portion, as most of the group took to free heels like a house cat to water. I learned why the huge, wide stance I had adopted in my few prior attempts to tele had turned Weeble, me one into who a failed wobbled but did fall down. The more hoo ts. , Underwood, euphemized* consolingly, on “you'll have to stronger mark nid JOHN BRESEE- muster of the Alta telemark clinic, prescribed for begin- As. fresh- = fited faced twenty- 2 four year oldz consultant to my ie much what I expected at the iy Pretty S tentative. Soest were os hands. A few, including my own, ° = telemarked before?” came the Several QD “How many of you have —_tech- Eyen with proper instruction 99 Whereas there things can still go horribly are many purists in the sport who would rather die than give up their leather boots, I strongly advocate that the new tele skier learn with the advantage of modern plastic. The Peruvian Lodge rental shop provided my colleague Balog with state of the art Scarpa boots, Riva cable bindings, and Black Diamond skis which made his initiation much easier than Dan’s. A full telemark package for $27.00 rents at the Peruvian; Page 6 but with the first time I had believed him all day. I started fantasizing about swooping across snowfields in knickers and Norwegian sweater, spinning my eight-foot hickory staff like a baton as I touched it down between turns. Ah, to be back in the old country! The fantasy lasted until Underwood took a few of us for a final run on Sugarloaf where I found some true Vermont boilerplate and spun across it like a top. Despite the reality check, I was ready to leave the nest and get some mileage of my own. Dan had retired for the day by this time, but the glow of pride in the rest of my group was testament to a collective pales stone. | Anyone wh is not yet on telemark skis should definitely give it a try. I would be lying if I said it was an easy sport, but proper instruction early on will save you from learning bad habits and steep- -say just use a tele- Ue, awkward, awry! I was Gol’darned if I was going to miss this bandwagon. At this point we were all linking what appeared from a distance to be decent tele- mark turns, albeit on a gentle slope; our erstwhile instructor decided it was time to remove the training wheels. “Right now your poles are just a distraction,” explained Underwood to his amputee pupils. “You'll really be able en the learning curve considerably. Alta’s group clinic is a fast and frugal ticket in the right direction, both for new skiers and those looking to jump out of the intermediate rut. Properly equipped and physically fit, anyone can telemark, and if you’re like me, you'll never want to return to bondage and Lange Palle again. run Alta Telemark clinics every Tuesday and Sunday 1-3:30 pm. Cost is $30. Sign up at the Albion Ski School desk or call 742-2600 more info. Alta Peruvian shop 742-3000. for rental |