A short history and a couple of definitions by Mark Music So here we are, a stone’s role down the slope away from the new season. Some of us have been closing our eyes in the languid August heat dreaming of the deep white.

As we enter fall proper, some of us look at the stack of skis or boards in the entry/foyer/genkan and our heart rate changes nary a beat. If the latter describes the latent ambilivance that many of you feel, perhaps a change is in order.

Last season, you might have noticed a handful of restive types making turns that look a wee strange, a semi-genuflection and a shuffle of the feet between turns. Maybe they were stemming or paralleling just like you, but seem to move along the flats and in the lift lines with a bit more ease. Perhaps you’ve been up in Niseko and noticed a bunch of locals ripping up lines off Annapuri that lead to seemingly nowhere. Matter of fact, if you followed them down on your alpine gear or board, you’d be at the front end of your payback in sweat equity slogging back to the area as the price exacted for the ride down. This other crew would have slapped on some climbing skins or maybe even cross country away leaving you to snow shoe or posthole, wallowing in their wake. What you’ve been seeing much more of late in many places here and abroad is the resurgence of free-heel skiing. So what is free heel skiing?

First off, let’s make a semantic distinction between "free-heeling" and "telemark" skiing. "Telemark" is a turn style, "free-heeling" simply refers to the gear that let’s you ski without the heel of your boot attached to the ski, though not to be confused with "randonee" ski mountaineering gear which allows you to release your heel to climb, but must be attached to ski. We’ll talk more in detail about both "telemarking" and "free-heeling" in a minute. In Japan, the word "telemark" and "telemarking" are what you need to get you into the right area of the gear shop.

What attracts many to free-heeling is the ability to make parallel, or telemark turns, as well as being able to walk in a natural stride along flat stretches, or while "skinning" up for turns.

"But why should I bother to learn something that knocks me back down to a beginner or intermediate level after all the alpine skiing or boarding I’ve done...", you ask? Indeed, there is no logical answer, but think about it. Remember all that waning interest, ennui, and the consequent drop in the number of days on snow? Have you got the black diamonds wired to tears and frost collecting on your tonsils from yawning on the lift ride up? There’s your answer...you’re willing to knock yourself down a few pegs in order to rekindle an interest in an activity that you know and love. Yes...alpining, boarding, free-heeling, randonee...it’s all just sliding on snow when all’s said and done...master them all if you have the chance. Now that you’re up from the couch and you’re interest picked, let’s take that look at those two words mentioned above.

"Telemark" or "telemarking" describes a turn style invented in the latter 1800’s by Sondre Nordheim in the Telemark region of Norway. If you’ve watched a Nordic jumping competition, you know the classic stance: a deep genuflected, or kneeling stance for stability fore and aft on boots until recently resemble high topped trekking shoes. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, two schools of thought about how to make turns developed in two locales. The telemark turn in Norway took advantage of the lack of an attached heel to move efficiently up and down across rolling Scandinavian geography, while the Arlberg stem turn in Austria where "fixed heel" equipment meant greater control on the steeper terrain of the Alps. The development of the metal edge in Austria rather than Norway, and the claims that the turn style and not the edge technology was the key to controlled skiing in technical downhill terrain was the beginning of the end of the telemark turn. The Norwegians then pursued the "free-heel" idea to its’ logical refinement into cross-country for moving across the snow, while the Arlberg area became the birth place of parallel skiing that came to dominant "downhill" turning technique. The consequent advent of ski lifts by Mr. Averill Harriman and his Union Pacific Railroad work shops in the US nailed the lid on the coffin of the telemark turn much beyond nordic jumping and cross country skiing until it’s re-birth in the early 1970’s.

As the US ski industry in particular brought about an ever more accessible and more managed environment, skiing enjoyed its’ years of greatest growth and prosperity. But for some in North America, the soul of skiing seemed to be becoming more homogenized and certainly more adventure adverse. What lay beyond area boundaries became the prime destination of a hardy few. Skiing lift serviced laps burdened by rules and etiquette had grown too distant from the roots of sliding on snow. Alpine gear allowed great control, particularly with advances in plastic boot technologies and laminate skis, but was ill-suited for moving across and up terrain that was not mechanically accessible. In Colorado, a small group began experimenting with the "dead" telemark turn as a way to balance fore and aft in flimsy leather nordic boots on light cross country style equipment . The gear had it’s flaws, but the relative ease and speed of covering distances over snow in the Colorado backcountry was the genie that just couldn’t stay corked, and the telemark turn was re-born. Even the relative lack of downhill control has changed during the past three decades, and what was initially one of the first "alternative" winter activities with a cult following is poised to become mainstream.

What’s brought free-heel skiing from obscurity into daylight has been advances in gear made to transform the telemark turn a more precise and powerful instrument for moving downhill. The low leather of nordic boots, and narrow skis of the 70’s and 80’s have been almost entirely replaced by plastic boots and much wider skis. Recent changes in alpine ski design has made many "downhill" skis very suitable for the telemark turn on free-heel gear as well.

One of the only components to undergo relatively little change has been the free-heel binding. Originally, the only choice was the standard 3-pin Nordic norm binding which is still seen today, though the demands of newer and larger boots that generate much greater leverage on skis require greater input to control are gradually making the 3-pin a rarity. You might even hear telemark turners referred to as "pin-heads" in reference to the humble 3-pin, not to mention the relative fool-hardiness of the original users. Most bindings now include a heel cable and have done away with the three pins, but the 75mm Nordic norm toe is still the standard (though not for long) for steering free-heel equipment. The next step in binding evolution, a step-in releasable free-heel binding is as of last season a reality, though the design will be little more than transitional until the Nordic norm toe is abolished. Boot and binding manufactures in the US and Europe are currently working to develop a new standard for this eventuality.

The single greatest revolution in gear technology that has made the telemark turn accessible to more people has been the reinvention of the telemark boot. Telemark boots now bear a very strong resemblance to alpine boots with the exception of a flex point or "bellows" near the toe of the boot that allows the boot to bend at the ball of the foot. Leather boots worked well in this respect, but lack torsional rigidity needed to keep wider skis on edge on hard snow surfaces, not to mention an often painful break-in period. The move to plastic began only a few seasons ago, but with the writing on the wall, nearly all manufactures have stopped leather boot production. Traditionalist will lament this, but the advantages of plastic are numerous. No break-in period, longer life span, greater torsion stiffness, and enough rear support to allow an experienced alpine skier but free-heel neophyte to link parallel turns almost straight out of the box. The Al Jolsten "mammy" telemark turn has now been replaced by a tight and highly athletic stance that allows the control and mobility to ski nearly any terrain.