Hello Again, Telemark

Well, here we are again. Another autumn slowly slips toward winter, and for those of us skiers, our attention turns to the approaching season indelibly tied to our passion. And perhaps for those of us free-heelers, maybe a little prone to obsession, we dive in not with a toe in the water, but instead head long.

So turns my attention toward skiing, too. While I've been writing articles all spring, summer, and fall to run on my column at POWDER, I'm unavoidably drawn toward the actual act of telemark again, now only months away. Both personally and professionally (well, as a side gig), my focus is turned toward that one thing.

Admittedly, it's an odd time to be looking toward both skiing and writing about it. With a world so hampered by tumult and belligerence, it's hard to know whether to turn into the storm or away from it. Skiing is so often framed as escape, after all. And the skier in me wants nothing more than to return to the routine--pre-dawn resort tours, weekend skiing with my three-year-old, occasional laps and beers with my friends.

But a dissonance emerges from the writer inside. Not only is the wider world wrought with seemingly unending problems, even the ski world--never prone to much introspection--barrels onward, its media rarely taking a step back to look in the mirror and wonder if things could be, or even should be, different. I often feel the need to pick up that mantle and ask aloud; is the skiing culture too consumerist? Too social media obsessed? Does the subculture want, even need, a subversive voice?

Alas, no matter how thoughtful or well intentioned, all of that is simply ancillary to the activity we now all look forward to: skiing. Specifically, telemark skiing.

Indeed telemark itself has had an interesting few years. Where a long-running if muted ire toward the free-heeler seemed ever present not so long ago, there now resides a more widespread acceptance--even admiration--for our genuflecting technique. I find it's no coincidence that in this thaw has emerged the most significant inflection point in recent telemark memory: the release of modern boots from Scarpa, arguably the leading force in all of telemark equipment. For a telemark world that long seemed on the ropes--and whose emergence into a modern equipment paradigm long seemed far from guaranteed--this is no mere gear release, but the sport's long-awaited entrance into modernity.

Perhaps that's a bit maudlin, but as more brands within and outside of telemark bring newer equipment to the fold, always at least somewhat mirroring demand, and as a new guard rises, telemark indeed seems to not so much be back--it was never gone--but to be rising again.

And that makes the coming winter seem all the more interesting as our little sport evolves onward. But, again, the true power in the Turn is in the turn. No cultural ascendence and no analysis of such can ever hold a candle to the long sweet spot granted from telemark skiing.

But I'll still try. This winter my goal is to post at least one article a month on Telemark Voices, along with with a companion newsletter. And I'll keep things rolling over at POWDER as long as they let me, where I hope to add nuance--and even occasionally a little subversion--to the conversation.

Regardless of my own occasional, torn feelings, I still love to write, especially about telemark skiing. And I implore my fellow skiers to take to the snow, but also to write about it. Because the more voices we have in the telemark discourse, the more flavor and character it gives our subculture. And ever so occasionally, we do need to look within.

So here's to the coming winter; here's to making telemark turns once again.