telemark skier in a powder cloud

Tele (Until You’re Smelly) Tuesday

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Lets get this straight. I am no tele skier. It seems foreign and old fashioned and I envisioned myself crying going down the bunny hill like I did when I was five. The whole “drop a knee” concept seemed out of touch with modern alpine skiing.

However we all have to challenge ourselves because that’s part of growing up. So one night I “challenged myself” and strapped on some tele boots and nabbed some skis from White Pine Touring and hit up their weekly Tele Tuesday.

Tele Tuesday is a cool concept. You get your skis, rentals are not included, and you have to have your own pass to Park City Mountain Resort or a night ticket. And you get a  free two-hour session with a guide at on the bunny hill. I learned how to drop said knee in a fashion that would get me safely down the hill. I also learned that tele skiing is really just trying to make doing lunges fun. Lunges are still not fun, nor will they ever be.

As much as I hate on lunges or doing anything healthy for that matter, learning with a guide under the cover of darkness was a really cool experience. The best part was that there were people there that were as awful as I was and that made everything easier. We were able to share the experience and help each other out.

So try it out. I did and it ended up being not only a great workout, but a great excuse to try something new and meet new people. So check out this page for all the necessary info to get your tele on!

Who knows, maybe you’ll look as badass as the girl in the photo above.

And for the record. Many telemark skiers will tell you to “free your heel, ski for real” or “free your heel, free your soul.” Neither of those works. Tele skiing is just exhausting until, I’m assuming, you’re really good at it.

– Paul Boyle, Marketing Specialist