Telemarking at smuggs

At Smuggler's Notch, Looking at Madonna from Morse

My friend Adam wanted to build some telemark skills today, so I jumped on the opportunity and joined him. Sinc my M.O. is helping people learn, and because my skills are somewhat past his, I filled his head with too much information and told him to focus on the best nugget and ignore the rest. I have a lot of respect for instructors who seem to know the right thing to say in the first place.

Adam, learning telemark turns

I also got to thinking about crossover skills. Like how practice alpine skiing teaches upper/lower body independence that translates to the teleboard so well. Or how being used to the quick-turning teleboard makes me more nimble on a snowboard. Today I noticed another crossover skill. Riding a teleboard has made me a better telemarker bygetting me used to always being on edge. I think being on only one board with such a pronouned sidecut has ensured that I naturally make an effort to keep the teleboard as much as possible. It prevents catching an edge and is a good way to keep your speed up in the flats. Today I found myself keeping my skis on edge, which served a different purpose. The parts of the trail that would have been merely runout were instead a place to practice carving telemark skis. And that is quite a valuable skill. Even so, I'll be back on a teleboard next time.