BLISTER's Coverage of Telemark Is Unlike Any Other Site. Seriously.

At times appearing dismissive of the free-heel method, there may be more to BLISTER’s treatment of The Turn than meets the eye.

BLISTER is certainly not a telemark website. While the eminent reviewer undoubtedly touches on the free-heel method occasionally, and even had dedicated coverage of The Turn going on fifteen years ago, their current skiing purview ever remains focused on the alpine world. In fact, BLISTER’s modern perspective on things free-heel seems at times to even have a dismissive quality, especially when the crew jokingly, perhaps even mockingly took up telemark to the tune of over forty-thousand YouTube views in a ‘crash course’ treatment they similarly aimed at snow blading. While open to interpretation, the video and its vibe seemed to show that the ever misunderstood technique would remain so, especially at such a mainline skiing source such as BLISTER.

But taken as a whole, BLISTER’s coverage of things free-heel might actually frame the sport more than it seems, and in ways an at times blinder-prone telemark movement may be unable to. 

Still, it’s not hard for the telemark skier–long on the outskirts of the mainstream ski discourse–to wonder where free-heel skiing fits in the Blisterverse. The platform has not only set a new standard for gear review; it has long danced in the ski world limelight, getting kudos from the likes of Mountain Gazette’s Mike Rogge, maybe the most revered of all outdoor content creators for his core, large format magazine. And Cody Townsend, perhaps the most influential modern skier, is a regular on the BLISTER Podcast, eloquently chatting current events–both in and out of skiing–monthly with founder and editor-in-chief Jonathan Ellsworth. BLISTER is indeed on the cool, cutting edge of things, rubbing shoulders with the scions of the outdoor culture and the heroes of the skiing mainstream, realms that have always been strange bedfellows to the telemark movement.  

But almost ironically, this outlet has unintentionally played a quiet if interesting role charting telemark’s trajectory, acting as something of a canary in the coalmine as it maps the sport’s status in the wider skiing consciousness in a way the insulated niche sport isn’t quite able to accomplish itself.

For one, the cadence of BLISTER’s coverage telemark is revealing. The slow ascension on the new telemark norm–a movement forward (or backward or sideways depending on what pinner you ask)--sporadically received attention there in the early teens as The Turn receded into its now legendary retrograde. That occasional exposure reflected a wider ski culture that was then giving telemark waning attention as it fell from its previous apogee, regardless of the release of a new binding platform. BLISTER’s coverage illustrated not only how telemark was receding, but also reflected how the free-heel world itself was only tepidly taking to the new norm, a reality that the sport still grapples with.

Then, in 2022, as telemark was arguably at its lowest point, but when a smidgen of energy seemed to be coming from somewhere, the BLISTER crew was at it again, this time in video format, taking to the turn as a sort of dare from their listeners.

While the video’s treatment of telemark lacked seriousness, arguably even earnestness (the post seemed to appeal to alpiners looking for a laugh, not those seriously considering the free-heel method), its lighthearted if ironic treatment of telemark was prescient. Perhaps knowingly, though likely not, BLISTER’s nonchalant attempt at free-heel skiing would soon have a corollary, this time in telemark itself. A nascent newschool was then rising, themselves prone to stoke and laughs first. Snowblading telemark Instagram accounts came to life as a social media-bound new guard emerged, cat memes and sardonic humor to boot; a vibe not unlike what the BLISTER crew themselves took to in their tele farce. Did they know something even we telemark skiers didn’t?

But to their credit, BLISTER hasn’t just revealed the modern free-heel zeitgeist; the site has also allowed for sincere telemark introspection. Perhaps as encompassing as a thought piece could be on the topic, Scott Conarroe’s post “Sweet Turns: Tele May Save Us All,” an article that ran on the site’s Open Mic blog in January of 2023 (what was still a remarkably quiet time in telemark coverage), exemplified the modern metacognitive free-heel discourse then happening in real time. The sport indeed seemed to be coming back, and this time for real, with more folks trying it, fewer bashing it, and a new guard rising to take the place of the elder statesmen and women of the free-heel order. In that milieu many a telemark skier then wondered what it all might mean for the way forward, and what the muddy past telemark had recently waded through meant for those next steps.

“This willingness to reconsider tele skiing is encouraging. It bodes well for the sport,” wrote Conarroe on the BLISTER crew’s seeming interest in the tele turn in their Crash Course video. But deftly, and with incredible consideration, Conarroe mused on how the wider ski world’s view on telemark as amusement had unavoidably framed how existing free-heelers related to their own sport.  “More importantly, it may signal a return to thoughtfulness more generally. This will take some time,” he continued. “Apart from emotional dimensions, an institutional understanding of telemark has been eroded. The crowd BLISTER sourced was likable and more or less informed, but the ratio of 3 skiers who tele-ed back in the day to 1 with an active practice gave the conversations a rote throwback vibe.”

Moreover, Conarroe delved into how the free-heel method, while getting wider attention, still was prone to misinterpretation, even diminishment. “Rather than outing myself as a fastidious Besserwisser a-hole by rebutting each dated, evasive, and incorrect point,” he noted, “I’ll address the fundamental shortcoming: no one dared champion tele when invited to do so.”

Conarroe’s piece reminded the reader in rather introspective, free-heel fashion that the eminent review site had perhaps accidentally turned the mirror on telemark itself. In that vein Conarroe referenced Sam Shaheen’s prediction aired in the 115th edition of the Blister Podcast, saying that the sport would see a resurgence. Though initially muffled amongst the other podcaster’s laughs, Shaheen was poignant in that 2020 episode. “I do think that we’re going to see a resurgence of telemark skiing, not probably a large one in the next decade, but I think–we saw a huge tail off because of how good AT gear got. But there’s still all those people who want to go out and slide on snow in a different way,” he said. That novelty factor has been rekindled anew as telemark has reawakened on social media, with influencers abounding in the park and elsewhere, granting those looking for another take on skiing an algorithm-framed path to free-heel exposure.

Most recently, from the rarefied air and high production values of the BLISTER’s 2024 Summit, attendee Bishop Telemark, a small, core brand of the free-heel movement, found itself front and center, profiled amongst large alpine brands as the “Modern Gear for Traditional Skiing.” Twenty-one-thousand YouTube views seemed to say that telemark may indeed have come back around, even in some small way. And, while they didn’t quite mean to tell us that, BLISTER was the one to break that news.

So if BLISTER has accidentally chartered telemark’s recent arc, what does the eminent reviewer seem to say for the sport’s future?

For one, BLISTER has seemed to keep telemark at least somewhat close to the fold–not only in their very occasional focuses on the sport, but also in their more off-the-cuff discussions on the free-heel method. In a 2021 edition for the Blister Podcast, Jonathan Ellsworth asked Season Eqpt Co-Founder Austin Smith about trying telemark, who stated that he had taken to the turn for a reason many cite today–simply because they wanted to try something new.

And Ellsworth’s chat in February of 2023 with artist Geoff McFetridge touched on free-heel skiing at length, talking about where the limit of performance lies in telemark versus alpine, or if it’s even operative in the choice at hand, a philosophical free-heel discussion that rarely sees the light of day in the mainstream dialogue, or even in free-heel circles itself. In all, these more recent forays into telemark seem to say that while the sport may not be primed to come back in any groundbreaking way, it is part of the conversation again. And that somewhere between novelty, earnest pursuit, or silly interpretation, the telemark palette remains small, but varied. And, maybe more than anything, is present again in a way it long wasn’t.

Still, the future for the heady, weird turn is yet unknown. But perhaps the best tell on its direction won’t be from the telemark-specific outlets or the free-heel talking heads, but from a site with a wider purview known as BLISTER–whether they mean to or not.