Thursday, September 29, 2011

Yet another attempt at sliding down a hill

I have completed the alpine trifecta today by trying telemark skiing for the first time. 

Don't know what telemark is?  I'm not surprised.  It's hardly mainstream. 

If you're old enough to remember the Lillehammer Olympics back in 1994, you would have seen skiers telemark down a hill as part of the opening ceremonies. That's when I first saw it.

Basically, telemark skis look like a hybrid of downhill and cross country skis -- The base is the same, but the bindings don't attach in the back, so your heel lifts up as on a cross country ski.  To turn, you bend the knee of the leg in the direction you wish to go and do a bit of a lunge.

Here's a video!



I actually went to dinner last night and the Biff guy from this video was there.  Too funny

Working on the ski hill I've seen a few telemarkers in person, but had never planned on trying it. 

Anyway, Dave has a bunch of extra telemark skis and boots for some strange reason, and with not much to do today, he basically forced me to try.  It was fun, but I wasn't really doing it properly.  Oh well. At least I tried.

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