Telemark Skier Magazine Archive 2003-2022

photo: Kjell Ellefson I'VE SURFED FRIENDS COUCHES FOR YEARS. THAT'S WHAT SKI BUMS DO. Entering your personal information on a website can feel strange, especially if you are asking to sleep at a stranger’s house. At least that’s how I felt at first. That was before I experienced, firsthand, my initial couch surf...

by Craig Dostie The invasion of 2-pin tele bindings, originally conceived as the Telemark Tech System®, continues. The latest is a telemark kit from Kreuzspitze, a ski mountaineering shop in Germany. It provides the ability to build your own tele tech binding without needing a machine shop. This is not...

Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) announced the construction of a new gondola for the 2016/2017 season. Construction will start this spring to be ready for a winter 2016/17 opening. The Sweetwater Gondola will be located between the Bridger Gondola and Teewinot High Speed Quad will have a mid-station approximately a...

Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) announced today that it has acquired Wilmot Mountain in Wisconsin near the Illinois state line, expanding its collection of premier urban ski areas in the Midwest. Located approximately 65 miles north of Chicago, Wilmot Mountain has long been a favorite of skiers and snowboarders in...

  Jeff Cox in his Springfield, VT workshop   by Tony Gill  “I’ve got nothing near me, but there’s a white ribbon of death thanks to some snowmaking,” said Jeff Cox, founder of Bluebird Day Gear. Snow conditions were looking pretty grim back in Vermont when I spoke to Cox...

by Craig Dostie   You need skins. Get some or go home.   \Now that the Sun is heading for the horizon, and with it the excitement of getting out in the snow, thoughts that tend toward getting ready for those coming days lead to gear. One of the three...

Choosing a Telemark binding doesn’t have to be complicated. This comprehensive guide breaks down 75mm and NTN systems, release considerations, touring efficiency, and downhill performance—helping Telemark skiers make informed decisions based on experience, terrain, and priorities.

Yup, that’s a Scott Voodoo clamped to a Meidjo with tech inserts in the toe. There has been a lot of telemark binding development to work with NTN boots lately, especially those incorporating a 2-pin tech toe in the design. Sadly, the news on the boot side of the equation...

Staying connected when you want with a 2-pin tech system requires tight tolerances – especially with the boot insert.   What started out as a simple test of the Meidjo, a telemark binding with a 2-pin toe and NTN clamp, turned into an investigation of tech toe inserts and what...

A hard turn is good to find.Photo by Halsted Morris. There’s a really good chance you’ll think of my advice on picking gear for telemarking as just another died in the wool leatherneck recommending old-fashioned values just because that’s the way he did it. You’d be right, except that everyone...

22D’s Outlaw. Break the rules. As a beta binding you expect some failures. Even when manufacturers don’t acknowledge it, like with first year bindings, it isn’t realistic to expect no problems. It’s worth repeating, 22 Design’s transparency with beta status deserves a medal. With any luck, that medal will be...

by Craig Dostie Pure Tele binding includes a heel stabilizer.   Interest in telemark bindings with a tech toe gained more advocates last week as fourteen writers and photographers from around the world tested beta versions of Moonlight Mountain Gear’s new telemark tech binding. Conceptually there is nothing new with...

The Lurk Myth by Josh Madsen The lurk, or single large pole, probably isn’t what you think it is when it comes to telemark history. According to Tarjei Gjelstad, a traditional ski maker and telemark historian, “Skiers from Morgedal and Telemark only use a short pole, unlike the lurk, because...

by Jeff Eckhouse // Photos by Kjell Ellefson // Modeling by Athena Brownson There are a lot of weekend warriors who dream of snow and check weather reports at lunch. If that sounds like you, harness your excitement and try this exercise in the break room. This month, we’re focusing...

by Tony Gill // photos by Kjell Ellefson Everybody knows what college is really all about: meeting the coeds, partying and, perhaps most importantly, getting a serious shreducation. The fine academic institutions listed here will ensure you get out on the slopes as much as possible. Just be sure you...

How a Suburban Couple Relaxes on the Weekend by Alessandra Bianchi It is 10 degrees and blowing a 30-mile per-hour northeast gale and I am staring at my husband’s butt. Not a full moon, just a discreet sliver of cheek on his upper right thigh—where his Calvin Klein tightie whities...

  *This originally appeared in TS#16

Connecting The Three Tele Hot Spots In The Midwest by JT Robinson For people outside of the Midwest, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan might not be the first place you think of when you want to take a ski trip. But with tons of snow every winter, there’s an interesting...

How Paul Kimbrough, the son of an avalanche forecaster, became the Telemark World Champion It’s April in Alaska and Paul Kimbrough is dropping into the biggest line of his life, a narrow, diagonal couloir hanging like a piece of thread above a 300-foot high cliff band. If he makes one mistake or gets caught...

One telemarker finds out the hard way how to treat frostbite in the backcountry by Megan Michelson Last April, Paige Brady, fresh off her victory at the 2010 Telemark Freeskiing World Championships at Alyeska, Alaska, flew into the Hayes Glacier in Alaska’s Tordrillo Mountains. She went with a couple of...