powda tele

Miteyak - Shhhh. LaPonte. Hallowed ground. Speak softly please. Do you know the name of the BC store with the legend? Never been there. Lots of nice places to stay up there. The Anupuri Youth Hostel (don't imagine smelly backpacker establishment) is one of my faves. Mostly shared rooms (but not at all dorm style) with some private rooms. Great manager who built the hostel, his skis, and his canoe himself from wood. Not much Eng, but enough - mixed in with a massive dose of hospitality and a healthy love of life. Woodpeckers Lodge, over at LaPonte (hush now) is a bit more 'bas

Yeah baby!

Oh, major anticlimax Miteyak. Thanks me jane. Not sure what it's worth, but I appreciate the sentiment. OK, I just rated you too. Mostly because you're interested in finding out about other forms of riders, because I have a healthy disrespect for such ratings, and because I'm feeling kind of groovey.

Yeah. I was up in Niseko one day when I read the short snippet about him and Yvone Chuinard skiing Niseko pow. Freaky. That was in an older (borrowed)edition. You're right. I have a newer edition. Paul was a guest on the Couloir forum a few weeks back. I posted to let him know that some of the locals still talk fondly of him. He is a bit of a legend I guess. He replied saying he'd love to come back for a visit. The best thing about that link above, aside from about a million pieces of trivia you could pull from it, is that you can see Sondre Nordheim's wife's knitting! Sick dude!

Seems you are right Miteyak. Quick skim of this site confirms it: http://www.sondrenorheim.com/ Way too much information there though. My definition refers to significant subcategories as we see them today, I guess.

Could be right on that one Miteyak, but I believe the telemark "turn" was invented back then (and there). I was kind of refering to 'telemark skiing' as a snowsport subcategory. Good point, though - it does get a bit messy in definitions. I was trying to keep it relatively simple. For history's sake, I think the telemark position first caught the public eye when someone landed one of those huge jumps (think olympic ski jump) in a tele position. Of course, they still land that way for front-back stability. (Have you ever seen their skis? They're FAT!) Paul Parker's instructional book has a

Yeah baby! Welcome to Japan and the snow. Know nothing about Honshu resorts, but there's plenty of places up here in Hokkaido. If you need to rent tele gear in Hokkaido, you might be limited to Niseko, but I'm not sure on that. I'm guessing TTips meant NAC, not NAS. I could be wrong on that too, but I know Niseko Adventure Center rents tele gear, and they have English speaking staff (Japanese and foreign) who tele. There could be other places too. There are actually five resorts at Niseko, though the main section consists of three. Niseko Hirafu has probably the most telemarkers. You

Me Jane - you're certainly not alone in confusing tele and cross country. A small group of tele skiers in the States are trying to rename tele as 'freeheel' skiing, just so we can break away from that dirty, sweaty, hippy, long-haired, meusli-munching image of cross country. Most of us don't care, and we think we've broken away from that anyway (at least we think so). Basically, cross country skiing is for touring around the mountains. Think hiking on skis. The skis are long, thin and straight, because that shape is efficient for moving forward. Unfortunately, that ski shape isn't very go

I've got a pretty sore wallet, what with all the new ski gear I bought this year!

Ah, why don't who publicise what, Smiler? I'm not having a dig at you here. I'd like to answer your question. A lot of people still seem to confuse cross-country skiing with tele skiing, and I can understand why because of the historical links. If your question is 'why don't telemarkers publicise themselves as being significantly different from cross country skiers?' - we do. Our numbers aren't huge, and our voice isn't very loud, but we do. There are telemarkers ripping up the big lines in the mountains (have been for donkeys years of course), telemarkers carving like there's no tom

I think we've all made our points. Let's just let it rest and let this new avo section get back on track, survive, and thrive. I don't think any of us (wherever you stand in this - and I'm not excluding myself) is achieving anything by dragging it on. I'm voting with the moderator. Give the section a chance by letting it all rest.

Sorry. I don't know where to get the Niseko avo maps in Niseko. If you ask in some of the shops/guiding places there, they may have some. If you are in the Sapporo area, I think the main outdoor (Shugakushio & ICI Sports) have them. Again, they don't tell you where is safe, they only mark the known, high-risk areas. Have fun.

Oh, and I forgot.... "self importance"? Sheesh! Informing others with the aim of reducing fatalities doesn't rate as 'self importance' in my book. And there isn't anything that suggest the author was rating the advice in the last paragraph in any order of priorities. Take it for what it is: great info to have that'll help you make sesible (and hopefully) life saving decisions. Whew! I usually don't get hot in forums, but I'll take all the avo information I can get thanks. Here's a big thanks to anyone out there sharing info - those here, or those I meet on the hills.

I agree, and thanks.

If you are in the Niseko region, there's a free map with known high-risk areas. Note, they are 'known high-risk areas'. Avalanches can happen anywhere if the conditions are right, even when the avalanche warnings say 'low'. That's why the warnings never say 'safe' or 'nil'. Safe sliding. Have fun.

I'd actually have to agree with Fatty on this one. Ocean's, I've read only two threads about avo's on this site (one on avo courses, and then this one), and you've made ill-informed comments that denigrate both. The danger is that others, who are new to the BC or avo awareness, may not take the good information onboard. Questions are good. Derisive comments from an uninformed position are dangerous for others.

Me Jane... Are you talking about telemark skiing or cross country skiing? Huge difference. Cross country does have special areas (and the back country). Telemarkers are happy on any normal resort slope or the back country. Telemarking may have grown out of cross country, but it's like the difference between a mountain bike and a touring bike. Zenzen chigaou.

Starting to feel happy with my efforts. I just ticked off #15, and I can't ski weekdays.

Oceans 11. The stats certainly support what you're saying. It's often the experienced, and those that are highly trained that are caught. At the same time, I think that's because those with a lot of experience and training are more likely to be pushing it on really big lines in pretty severe terrain. I think that stat left alone on this site, without any supporting explanation, would argue against doing an avo awareness course, and may even put someone off. Personally, I've learnt more than I can express from the basic avo course I did, the books I've read, and the online reading I've don

Nice one. Sounds good. Wish I could get there, but it's too far without major planning. I'm off for some back country action and powder. Have fun there. I'd love to go to a telefest in Hokkaido.

Sweeet!

Lots of BC trips around if you have the knowledge and the equipment. Am I reading it correct in assuming you need a guide? (Good idea if you don't have much BC experience and/or all the avalanche gear etc.) If you need a guide, I've heard good reports of something like "Niseko Powder Tours" (something like that). Also, Niseko Adventure Centre (NAC) do good trips. NAC may be more true BC than the former, but I'm don't know much about Niseko Powder. Both of them are located in Niseko. It'd be a good idea to specify you want an Eng speaking guide if that's what you need. Good luck.

I saw the 5 min clip of the new tele vid from Tough Guy Productions on TeleTips (they gave it a pretty huge review) but it looked pretty choppy. It was a bit like watching something your friends filmed and edited (except with amazing skiers and powder). That kind of filming/editing is great if it is your friends, precisely because your friends make it cool and entertaining, but it's not something I would pay Y4,000 for. I have a dodgey copy of Freetime and Unparalleled 1 on vid. Freetime packs a LOT of instructional tips into it - more of an instructional vid with some good tele footage

As George Orwell said: "Two sticks good. One stick bad." (Animal Farm) Oh, you forgot that us skiers wouldn't have parabolic skis if it wasn't for snowboard technology, and you forgot to call me a beard stroker. I always ski with a snowboarder, and we have a friendly rivalry in this area. It's all an excuse for lame humour. But I like what K2 said: "Telemark - If it were easy, it'd be called snowboarding." Now's your chance to start a whole new thread dissing telemarkers as 'granola munchers', etc.

Thought I'd start a new thread for the tele-heads. What telemark videos do you like, and why? I'm wondering what the newer Unparalleld vids are like. I get bored watching lots of jib and park stuff, so I'm guessing it's not my style. I like the Icon series. They aren't actually tele movies as such. They're BC movies with tele skiers, boarders and AT skiers. The teleing is great, but all the riders rock. The Icon series are Japanese vids/DVDs that are fully BC, have a good vibe, and are proffesional (they're up to #4 now). Probably the first ski vid I could sit down and watch. I think