Is Telemark Skiing Still Nordic Skiing?
By xcskiworld.com Contributing Editor Andrew Gardner
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The word “ski” comes from the Norwegian word “skid” which is a split length of wood. With four centuries of skiing history, including a pioneering history of the words used to describe sliding on snow, it should come as no surprise that the Norwegian national cross country teams continue to sustain high levels of success, that the world’s first recorded (non-military) ski competition was held in Norway in 1843, or that the image of the original Birkebeiner, the birch-legged transportation of Haakon Haakonsson , from Lillehammer across the mountains to the neighbor valley in east, Østerdalen is as ubiquitous in cross country ski culture as hot chocolate and extra blue. However, one decided permutation from Nordic skiing’s homeland has claimed the namesake of the Telemark region. Telemark skiing is hardly the sport it was in its origin, even less the sport it was but a decade ago. This begs the question, Is Telemark Skiing still part of the cross country world?
A young (you guessed it) Norwegian in the mid 1830’s is credited with inventing the telemark turn. Sondre Norheim is described in history as a restless soul, a wild ski dancer and a great innovator on skis. It’s written that he gained notoriety by jumping his families home on skis. The greatest legacy he left was “a turn in skiing in which the outside ski is advanced considerably ahead of the other ski and then turned inward at a steadily widening angle until the turn is completed,” this is how Webster defines the telemark turn. Other dictionaries add, “ a turn performed on cross country skis.” Herein lies the bastardization of the sport.
Kayo Ogilby coaches the only junior telemark team in the country, along side me at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School. Of the times, I’ve seen Kayo aboard his telemark skis, I’ve yet to encounter anything that I would say is definitively “cross country.” Kayo was recently featured in a ski company ad bearing a caption, “They used to make fun of my tele gear, until I dropped the 720 on them.” Kayo is seen suspended thirty feet in the air, his hands grabing for the back of his rather wide ski.
This is where skiing’s forms blur. The picture below bears an image of equipment similar to that used by Kayo and other new school tele skiers. The ski in this image is roughly twice that of a typical Nordic racing ski. Bindings, once wire, leather and other homegrown materials are now resistant cables and bulletproof four-buckle boots.
“Many folks aren’t making actual telemark turns.” Explained Justin Morini, Nordic product manager for Alpina-Sport. He continued, “They have the mobility to move if they need to but many just make alpine turns.”
Why, then, bother with a free heel at all?
I asked frequent telemark and Nordic skier Jeff Banks, originally from Vermont, now living in Crested Butte, CO. Is telemark skiing still Nordic?
He answered my call from his cell phone, “Yeah its got a free heel, its NORDIC!” Banks then pointed out that telemark skiing was once the enclave of the elite- a small collection of great skiers who dared to combine alpine and cross country. Banks bemoaned telemark skiing’s recent boom in popularity,
“You can tell a sport has gone mainstream because the masses are asses and they have massive asses! What was once the domain of an elite few on 215cm Karhu XCD GT’s is now open to anyone with a Visa card.”
The Visa card got me thinking
“Yes it is still Nordic skiing regardless of the equipment.”
