Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

"But I don't like to ask people to take my word for it)."

*3 thumbs up button

Nice skiing above.

I was trying the B tele focus while alpine skiing steep groomers. “Straight down the fall line, pivot and skid, less about turning.” Seems cool…Very different from the two footed carve.

"I guess the bottom line is, do what's necessary, mix and match if you need to. A, B, whatever. If it works, do it."

Exactly how I look at it. Think I've added that comment on a few threads here over the years. More importantly, I'd like to say your skiing looks very good, Montana, and especially given what you're dealing with.

phoenix wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 15, 2024 12:57 pm

"I guess the bottom line is, do what's necessary, mix and match if you need to. A, B, whatever. If it works, do it."

Exactly how I look at it. Think I've added that comment on a few threads here over the years. More importantly, I'd like to say your skiing looks very good, Montana, and especially given what you're dealing with.

Thank you. That helps.

I read this whole thread over days…. Whew. I’d say a lot didn’t make sense, sorry.

The B tele school seems rooted in Japanese culture, the zen mentality etc. which makes it rather mysterious.

But the mechanics seem to really boil down to a few things to focus on. High stance, little up/down movement, quick transitions (lead changes), and minimal turn out of the fall line for speed control, but instead focus on braking as needed, either skidding or “burying” in deeper snow, especially braking with the tail of the rear ski.

I liked this quote: “A-tele believes that those who can turn are great. B-tele thinks that descending more quietly is a priority.”

Seems like good advice to at least try out.

A lot of great discussion on B-tele. I thought to chime in, as I believe I discovered how to B-tele and when to, on my very recent ski tour through the length of Norway.

As mentioned a few times, it does not work that well in deeper snow. Then also A-tele required somewhat good conditions to execute on narrow and long 210 MR48s I was skiing with XP bindings.

As I had no idea of B-tele or how to do it before, I thought it had to do something with spring snow, which TH mainly skis. I was never great on heavy slush or corn.

Until I had skied about 2500km, and suddenly found myself on mixed crud and slushy snow on steep and windy snowmobile tracks, mixed old and new tracks. I managed to execute a long series of very short turns, that made the difficult snow conditions very manageable. I was not able to snowplow, and found that out too late and at too fast speeds. I aimed mid ski on the worst of the snow formations, and then turned like I was going to do a parallel turn, but released the mountain side heel before skidding too much. Definitely not carving the front ski. All of a sudden this style of turn absorbed the uneven snow with ease, and I had complete control, could slow down but wanted to go faster. Kept my feet relaxed and I do associate this with skiing softer boots. I don't think I would have discovered it with the Pi Tech I had before, those boots allowed me to force the turns too well. Pi Pro however was noticeably softer and made the turns smoother. I think my backpack also helped me find the technique.

Not sure if I can repeat it next season, but I'll try. Probably more fun on other skis, though