(http://www.telemarktips.com/FS_WhyGearMatters.html)
Mitch makes a lot of good points that I agree with, like when he talks about being apart of a revolution and making the breakthroughs as we go. The gear was and still is a huge factor in what is happening in telemark and I myself would not switch until the boots went plastic and the bindings got burlier because it was then that I was able to make the turn the way I wanted. Not because the gear was really slick, but because of the turning styles that I could get into. I watched the park movement of the past try to bring telemark to the youth and all of those things he wrote about. But, the truth and future to me lies in the turn. Mitch goes on and on about gear because that is the niche of this niche industry in which he fits. His site is almost all gear, and gear talk. He criticizes Josh Madsen for trying to make a celebrity class and so on, but the truth is we all must realize that it is not just the gear, or just the celebrities, but the turn. The turn is the celebrity, it is the coolest kid in town. People have told me that they want to try it because I make it look fun. The keyword being, "it", the turn, the reason. It is what brought me to telemark. It is what brought everyone I know to telemark. All the people I know who love telemark do it not for the celebrity status or the intricacies of the engineering of the latest binding idea, but the turn. IT IS THE TURN. THE TURN. THE TURN. THE TURN. We are not in competition with AT, we are not in competition with Alpine or snowboarding for that matter because they don't have this turn, we focus on the turn and they can't argue with that.
First of all, the stigma that divides telemark from alpine and snowboarding is gone. DEAL WITH THAT. These days the kids are all riding together on all kinds of boards. Some are boarders, skiers, and telers. The reality is that there is little distinction as to how you choose to ride because now we are all riding the same terrain, snowboarders have split their boards, alpiners have released their heels to ascend, and tele skiers are trying to have releaseable and step in bindings. It appears to me that all the disciplines are combining with the exception of how one chooses to turn. If there could be a better example it would be the boys of Sweetgrass who are realizing that all of the disciplines are connected by something bigger and that is the mountains that we all answer too. How you choose to ride is up to you, we all can get caught in avalanches. A very good friend of mine once said to me that, "it is all about turnism... everything." He was not only talking about how we ride down the mountain, but how the world works and everything we know to be true revolves around a cyclical type of schedule. Everything turns. Everything. Not just snowboards and skis. So the new K2 line of skis that draws no distinction between telemark and AT is not something I view as alarming or a sign of the death of telemark. It is actually a sign of the reality that I have known along with the rest of the new generation of telemark skiers that Mitch Weber seems to forget about. There are no distinctions, just riders. Todays crew of youngsters are a very diverse group that includes alpiners, snowboarders, and teleskiers all riding together. Imagine that.
I love the telemark turn, and I have experienced the transcendent powers that it holds, much like my friends who have chosen the transcendent powers of snowboarding or alpine skiing. I can try to explain the telemark turn to them, but they just know that it must be something similar to the way they feel when they make their turns. It may or may not be the same feeling, but it is the turnism that rings most true to me and they have a deep respect for that. Because it is not about how you choose to turn, but that you turn. So when I look to the kids, I am seeing crews that rip and makes no distinction between whether that one magic turn was a laid back hand down tele turn or a back foot pressed down cutback turn, but that the turn was magic none-the-less. And that crew of kids have snowboards, alpine skis, and telemark bindings all turning together. Just like me, and my friends.
ONE LOVE.
Feasting on pow in Niseko, Japan with my Sweetgrass friends who ride all kinds of different boards connected to their feet in many ways. Photo: Mike Brown (Alpine skier)