| Free-heel skiing, Nordic skiing, Telemark skiing, XC, Nordic downhill, on-piste skiing, langlauf, backcountry touring, ski-mountaineering, cross-country skiing, Nordic touring, ski de fond, ski biathalon, off-piste skiing, ski-touring ...
This article is designed to answer a few questions we often get about what we do, or to clarify some of the confusion about the nature of our activity.
A classic is: 'Ah, telemarking – you mean you go off into the woods and shoot things?' Hmmmmm! Another area of misunderstanding, for example, is the difference between 'telemark touring' and 'ski mountaineering' or the question of what a telemark skier can and cannot do. The following is based on an original article by Bonny Masson – read it, and all will become clear!
What is 'this' (Nordic, telemark, cross-country, etc.) skiing?
Just for the moment, if we can call 'this' skiing 'free-heel' skiing. We can think of 'free-heel' as the all-inclusive family name and then it is easier to describe and explain the various 'sons and daughters' of 'free-heel'.
Free-heel skiing is any form of skiing where the heel is not fixed down as it is in Alpine (commonly known as 'downhill') skiing. Often people will say, 'Oh, you mean cross country skiing ... but you can't tackle any slopes ... you can't turn'. They have an image of going along the valley bottom on very skinny skis and soft, low boots. This is only true of beginners at the gentlest end of the Nordic skiing spectrum but within the free-heel family there are several vastly different types of skiing.
Continuing development in technique and equipment has allowed and/or produced more specialization and very high standards, particularly in Free-heel downhill or Telemark skiing. Each speciality has its particular appeal: some tackle steep descents, others concentrate on speed, others are to do with travelling and touring but all share ease of travel compared with Alpine skiing. This ease of travel is entirely due to that essential characteristic of the boot to ski binding – the free-heel.
Free-heel bindings attach only to the front of the boot but it is a strong enough attachment to allow no lateral movement of the boot. The bindings and skis become heavier and the boots higher and more rigid as you go from Track skiing through Skating and Nordic Touring to Telemarking. All the footwear allows the mid-foot to flex and the heel to lift. As your foot and lower leg are not held in a rigid system, there is a fantastically natural and unrestricted feeling to all kinds of free-heel skiing. (How often, in Alpine/downhill boots, have you longed to be able to ski across flat stretches of snow or walk about in comfort?)
It is also worth pointing out at this stage that you can do any technique on any specialisation of free-heel equipment – i.e. you can do telemark turns on skating equipment and you can skate using piste telemark skis, but if you are on skating equipment you are at an advantage when travelling on undulating, machine-groomed tracks and if you skiing on-piste or off-piste in the Alps you would be far better off on shaped telemark skis and plastic boots!
In summary, within the 'free-heel family', we have the following two main styles of skiing:
• Nordic skiing, or track skiing, XC, cross-country skiing, langlauf, skating, biathalon – read more >
and ...
• Telemark skiing or telemarking free-heel downhill – read more >
As a ‘cross-over’ between Nordic and Telemark skiing we also have:
• Mountain touring, hut-to-hut touring – read more >
So, to give the quick answer to 'What is it we do?' – we do everything within this 'free-heel family' of skiing, i.e. everything we do is on free-heel equipment! Easy! Or forget all the terminology – it's all 'sliding'!
Article continues >
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Cross-country track skiing in typical Norwegian terrain and conditions
– the best!
Telemark on-piste |
