Welcome To The New Age -Telemark Evolves Into Its Modern Form

What that might mean and why it might matter

On Christmas Day of 2012, my parents gave me a present I didn't expect; a five pack of local's telemark clinics. Ignorantly thinking I didn't need lessons--that me, the confident alpiner, could pick up The Turn myself, thank you very much--I arrived at line-up on the first day both intrigued by free-heel skiing and somewhat disappointed that my twenty-five-year-old self would be spending five Saturday's that winter not with my new girlfriend (now wife of nearly ten years) but in ski lessons.

But while I didn't notice it at the time, and frankly wouldn't have much cared then, those telemark clinics were something of a bellwether for where the sport was, and where it was headed.

We lined up at the first lesson because there wasn't just one instructor; enough folks had signed up for two full fledged classes, and there were indeed two telemark instructors still working at the resort, organizing us into groups. I paid little attention to that, but the fact there was then telemark lessons offered at Steamboat--something no longer the case in this telemark stronghold, let alone most other ski areas--spoke to a sport then barely relevant, but still alive enough for a certain level of interest and resources. Something that would prove on borrowed time as telemark would dwindle into obscurity for the better part of a decade before rising anew over the last few years.

That subsequent ebb and the current flow has been witness to a whirlwind of evolution. Little did I know at the time, free-heel had already entered its retrograde, something us tele pontificators estimate began in the late aughts with the arrival of modern alpine touring equipment, an ascendence that dismantled the notion that telemark was best-in-class touring gear. The epoch finally ended in the early 2020s as the second wave of newschool telemark skiing took root. From the telemark is dead lows to the current rise of the scene in gear and culture, its been a span that has been both exciting and dizzying.

But here we stand at a new crossroads; telemark is back. While the cultural infrastructure that the sport enjoyed at its height in films, available lessons, retail-ready equipment, and participation is yet--if ever--to be replaced, we seem to have arrived at a new day for telemark; it's long awaited entrance into the modern fold seeming complete. Gone is most of the anti-tele ire endemic of the past, replaced with a muted yet growing intrigue in things free-heel. The sport has even found a modern footing, anchored by social media accounts, full-fledged influencers, even new films and athletes, like CJ Coccia's touring TELE COLO movie house, and skiers like Will Houskamp, a park-skiing free-heeler pushing the envelope in ways rarely seen in skiing, regardless of discipline. And now makers are coming to market with new equipment--not least of all Scarpa with their new, modern line of telemark boots, years in the making.--whose emergence seems to speaks to not only a rising subculture, but maybe even the chief tell of growing participation: increased demand for telemark equipment.

This is a surprising turn of events for those of us who came up in the telemark's retrograde years. I cut my teeth when The Turn seemed ever destined to oblivion. Some of the early advice I received circa 2015 was even to hoard my favorite 75mm gear because it, and perhaps all telemark equipment, would soon be unavailable. However naive those millennialist days may have been, at the time it seemed prudent. Not only did there seem to be almost no one telemark skiing anymore, lending credence to the preppers apocalyptic message; a then palpable anti-telemark vibe--a vestige of the blowback that ensued in reaction to the apparently overly dogmatic pinners of telemark's glory days--remained. When asked by someone I had just met the most classic pf mountain town questions--if I skied or snowboarded--I for years simply said I skied. Better to avoid what was then a surefire staid joke.

Whether the retrograde was borne on external or internal factors--or both--those days are gone. And while the sport remains insulated and modest, nothing I have been part of before has seen its fortunes turn so dramatically as telemark's have of late. Alpine's steady state rises and falls in broad but almost imperceptible waves, while things like mountain biking and its often painfully peacocking radness grants that pursuit a cachet--perhaps overbearingly mandated--that telemark may have once had, but could hardly dream of returning to. And, to this telemark student of the modest retrograde years, for the better.

True to form for a mellow, niche endeavor, tele's whiplash-inducing rise has been something different. But it may yet tell us that things will never quite be the same for our hitherto forgotten pastime.

For one, it seems that a nascent gear revolution at retail (not to be confused with the modern and protracted tele DIY revolution that has been in-progress for more than a decade) could be nigh. Not only is there a complete (if threadbare) modern complement of bindings, boots and skis, rumors have swirled for years of new innovative gear waiting in the wings, perhaps next to come to market. If any time makes sense for the plunge, it seems to be now. Even mainline, alpine brands appear ready to enter the fold, with ATK, the darling of the alpine freeride scene, making plans to release a new telemark binding, perhaps next season.

Moreover, a fresh new guard has emerged that has bucked the perhaps overplayed free-heel stereotype, illustrating that the sport has left the retrograde behind for good. After attending a TELE COLO film a few season's back, one of my non-telemarking friends noted, with surprise, that the showing was full of young people. To his surprise it wasn't just graying dads in attendance; cool kids indeed seemed to be telemarking again. And while leaning into 'the scene' too heavily is perhaps anathema to some free-heelers, the fact that many fresh faces are taking to The Turn--and its culture--speaks to revitalization and evolution in progress, perhaps framing the identity of telemark's reemergence; a hip, new take on the sport that younger folks may gravitate to.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, telemark has reemerged into the wider skiing consciousness. While some may lament that, having enjoyed tele's long dance in the shadows, this may speak more than any other point to an inflection for free-heel skiing. I've seen this first-hand as a writer focused mostly on telemark. After years without much mention in more mainstream and mainstream-adjacent titles, the skiing discourse is finally reintegrating the lunging turn into it's pages. And that isn't just because telemark skiers and pushing the narrative. My column at POWDER wasn't borne on my ambition, but was spurred by the then gear editor there, who offered the opportunity elsewhere before it came to me, showing not only a broader thirst for modern telemark content from telemark skiers, but also a rising interest from outside the core telemark culture to showcase it. I've even had an article run in the Canadian publication Forecast Ski, a newschool-leaning mag edited by Jeff Schmuck, one of the first editors at Newschoolers, about--of all things--XCD skiing. Elsewhere, telemark has long had mention in Adam X Sauerwein's podcast at The Out of Collective, in all showcasing that telemark, long sequestered from the mainline skiing discourse, now has a seat at the table again.

But what does this all say? It seems that telemark has entered a new, modern facing. While still modest in both numbers and gear availability, for the first time in perhaps a decade--maybe a generation--telemark is enjoying not just a moment, but a sustained vitality that has sent The Turn on a new trajectory, forever pointed not just toward gear hoarding and insulation, but toward the future.