"Telemark: If it were easy they'd call it snowboarding"

After trying telemark skiing for the last three days I would have to agree. I rented a pair of K2 World Piste skis, bought a book about free heel skiing and went out and tried it. It is a lot of fun, but it is very difficult. The technique is quite different than alpine skiing. In order to execute a telemark turn you have to be smoother, have better balance and be stronger than for alpine skiing. After 3 days of telemarking my legs hurt. You would think that after more than 100 days of skiing my legs wouldn't get sore. Telemarking is almost like doing lunges all day long. It is a lot of fun though and when you get a turn right it feels really good. I have a lot of work to do before I master the technique, but I can see myself doing it more in the future.

Skiing and working on my tan

The weather, even at 12,000 ft has been really warm. Today I skied the afternoon in a T-Shirt. Still plenty of snow though.

Back on the Slopes II

In case you didn't figure it out from the last post, I have resumed skiing/riding. To protect my nose I bought a downhill bike helmet. I feel stupid wearing it while riding, but it is better than sitting at home. I snowboarded a few days last week and got pretty good at it. This week the challenge is learning Telemark skiing.