Advanced lesson

 

Steep Tele Turns: The Sequence

 

Many great tele skiers will tell you that it is all about the hands. Get your hands in the correct position and the body and legs will follow. We broke these still pictures out of a video of Big Tim (the "Steep Turns" movie in the Tele-Vision Archive) to illustrate the point.

 

In the first shot Tim is compressed from the last turn and bringing his new downhill hand and pole forward, in frame 2 you can see that his uphill hand is beginning to drive forward and around before he even plants his downhill pole and his upper body is beginning to open up and face down the fall line, in 3 he has fully extended his legs, or nearly so, and his uphill hand is driving around hard, his torso is following and his legs are about to "unwind" beneath him.

 

Just milliseconds later in frame 4 you can see his skis have indeed unwound, notice how much his skis have rotated from frames 3 to 4 without moving downhill in relation to his planted pole. In 5 he lands on the lead ski first and in 6 stomps that back ski hard. He may be leaning into the hill a little more than he would like to be, a common problem. See how he lands in the fall line and finishes the turn on the snow. He does not jump all the way around and waste energy.

 

In the last three frames you can see his new downhill hand moving forward to plant his lower pole while his new uphill hand is moving forward and the sequence begins again. You can see that he has recovered his stance, leaning more out away from the hill.

Tim skis the steeps efficiently by landing in the fall line, compressing to harness the energy from the turn then rebounding upward while driving his hands downhill. You can clearly see that his hands are leading the way in frames 2 and 3, again, take special note of the fact that in frame 2 his uphill hand has begun driving forward and down before his downhill pole is even planted. Many tele-ers get into trouble by planting THEN driving the uphill hand around, if you wait that long you will have lost a lot of energy and your skis will not come around fluidly and quickly.

Every once in a while I get a chance to find out that the things I think, read and write about actually work. This happened most recently last week when I was at the end of a two-day- old-powder run. There was a short, sun exposed, 5 turn steep pitch with a nice little crust over it. I thought about moving over to the shady aspect where the powder was but decided instead to try the old breakable techniques.

I summoned up all I had heard and all I remembered about. I discarded the hop turn and hope approach in favor of something more fluid. I tried this: compressing real low into the first turn (real low) I exaggerated my upward motion (a lot) and drove my outside hand toward the fall line and up. The skis actually came up through the mank to somewhere near the top of the crust layer. I made a very quick lead change and instead of dropping right onto the rear ski like I usually do, I punched the front ski down and applied a bunch of twist to it, then I powered the rear ski. I cut the turn short (coming too far around is an invitation to disaster in this stuff) and repeated the sequence.

The key is the real low compression and the dynamic extension as you stand up. The rest of the moves are important too, neglect one and the sequence will fail.

I'll be darned if it didn't work! I was able to link all five turns. I never really got going all that fast and felt in control the whole time. It was actually kind of fun. I suppose fifty of those turns might be a different proposition, but it was great to know that this technique would work in at least some kinds of death crust.

Even advanced telemark skiers can benefit from an examination of their hand and pole position. If you get lazy and let this fundamental slide a bit, you will not be able to realize your full potential on the slopes.

Good skiers, alpine or telemark, keep their hands under control never flailing. Your hands should be at the edge of your vision at all times, if you can't see your hands then they are too far down and back. Get them up and forward. This is usually more of a problem when making GS style turns, it is easy to get complacent and let those hands drift back. Short radius turns usually find us working the poles a lot more, although it is still easy to let the off hand go.

 

A ski partner that I often hook up with at Tioga Pass in the spring ( an experts expert: he is the Masters Program race coach at Squaw Valley ), once told me to think of "frog gigging". "Have you ever been frog gigging?" he asked me. "No, I don't believe I have" I answered. "Well, you gig frogs with a flashlight and a spear, you point the flashlight at the frog to freeze him and get him with the spear. As you are getting ready to make your next pole plant you should have your poles in the frog gigging position, the downhill pole is the spear and the top of the grip of the uphill pole is the flashlight, the 'frog' is downhill, reach down with the spear/pole and shine that flashlight/pole grip at him, then your hands will be in the correct position!" It was good advice, whenever I find myself wondering what to do with my hands I think back to Scott's "frog gigging" analogy and I am back on track.

 

Keep you hands moving forward, roll your uphill hand over to get the top of the grip pointing at the "frog", fight the natural inclination to let it drop back and you will be on your way to consistent, powerful hand position.

In powder, equal weight distribution is a key factor, let that back leg go doggie and the rear ski will have a mind of its own. Exaggerated up/down motion (flexion and extension as it is often called) is also key. With a strong up/down motion you will not be as tempted to sit back as you might otherwise be. This tendency to sit back in powder is very common, it is the inexperienced pwder skier's futile attempt to "keep the tips up" that leads to "backseatitis". Extending and retracting the legs aggressively in powder will keep the skis rising to the surface between turns. This up/down motion is what allows expert powder skiers to ski the light and dry even on skinny skis. Press your toes down into the snow at the bottom of the turn to build a platform to extend off of.

Stay in the fall line, I can't emphasize this too much. Cut your normal turn down by as much as half, speed is your friend in powder. Face down the hill and keep your hands out front. These are all basic skills that need to be re-emphasized in powder.

Be aggressive and concentrate on exaggerating the basics of the telemark turn and you will find the almost spiritual bliss that powder skiing is all about.

 

"Oh man, how am I going to get down now" I remember thinking. One third of the way down a 2000 plus vertical foot descent of Bloody Couloir, I had just managed to arrest a 150 foot slide, half of which was head first, and I was now shakily standing upright on the 50 degree slope, rocks on either side and a huge rock prow in the middle, trying to figure out how this had happened. You see, up to that very moment I had always believed that my rock solid jump parallel turn, my "turn of last resort" would see me through anything. This turn had gotten me out of hairball situations and bad snow for years, why was it failing me now?

On the climb up, things looked good, about 4 inches of what seemed to be fairly dense fresh on top of a solid base. As we cramponed up, the wind began to build and the snow was swirling around some, not that unusual in a narrow Sierra chute at mid-day. We summited, had lunch and started down. The first twenty turns were challengingly steep and fun. Then the snow became very inconsistent, the wind had been blowing it around, there were now areas of sticky powder and patches of hard ice. I would jump, land and turn through the fall line, gain speed on the ice and then hit a patch of sticky snow, which would throw me forward over the tips. A couple of recoveries and then came the big slide for life. I was in desperate need of a turn I had never bothered to learn: the telemark jump turn. The answer to dealing with this snow was fore and aft stability, and in parallel mode I did not have it. I got down that day and even managed to have a little fun, but I new I had some work to do. Below, the scene of the spanking.

 

 

 

The Basics Of The Telemark Jump Turn

 

The power to execute the jump-turn comes from creating a platform on the snow to rebound off of at the end of each turn. So to start, we begin with a little mini-turn. Traversing a bit you make this first turn, almost like a garland, push down firmly to form the platform, sinking and edging hard. Your upper body should be facing down the fall line, leaning out, reach down the slope and plant your downhill pole firmly. I make this pole plant just a bit behind my hip, reaching down and slightly back helps get my upper body in the right position and, as always, the upper body is a key factor. Now push up hard off the platform you created at the end of the mini-turn and begin the jump, up and around the planted downhill pole. When you first begin the jump, slide your lead ski back and let the new lead ski take care of itself, don't worry about moving it forward, if you move the old lead ski back it will be in the right position. Punch that old uphill hand around and down the slope, this helps speed up the rotation and get this pole in position for its own downhill plant. Suck up your knees a bit on landing, absorbing the shock and storing some of that energy for the next turn. You should have now landed in the tele position and be ready to begin another sequence.

 

The Steps

 

• Traverse
• Platform
• Pole plant
• Jump
• Lead change
• Land
• Traverse
• Platform...

Once you have mastered the steps above then you can begin to experiment with shortening up the traverse. While you are traversing you dissipate the energy that you have stored up from the last turn, this is good for learning, it gives you a moment to recover and get your bearings, but it is an exhausting way to ski. Instead of letting that stored energy go to waste, shorten or even eliminate the traverse and pop from one turn to another. Land the turn, sink, edge, platform, pole plant, pop up and turn.

The telemark jump turn is much like an alpine style jump turn with the key point of difference (and the thing that largely determines the success) being the quick early lead change at the start of the jump portion. Remember, slide the old lead ski back early. I like to think of myself sliding it back and landing on it, leaving the new lead ski to largely take care of itself. Drill the sequence into your brain and repeat the moves over and over until it becomes easy, and don't worry, it will.

Practice the jump turn whenever you can, it is actually easier to perform on steeper slopes where gravity and the slope angle work to the your advantage. Practice it on the steeper groomers and on backcountry mixed snow conditions, everywhere you can. The telemark jump turn is a necessary and valuable tool in the quiver of turns. It is the only effective free heel jump turn for certain situations, take it from me, I learned this the hard way!

..We all know that no matter where you live and ski, the snow is often less then epic. Even on a great morning, we can be just an hour of strong sun away from the subject of this lesson: heavy snow. Old and/or heavy pow, cut up stiff crud, bottomless mush, a little technique adjustment and the fun can keep on coming.

.The major key to turning this kind of snow into fun is weighting that rear ski. .Always important, it is absolutely mandatory in the kind of conditions we are talking about here. This kind of snow is where all that practice of good fundamentals comes into play. Here is where a solid upright stance, allowing you to get more weight then ever on that back ski pays off. Concentrate on the basics, remaining fluid at all times. Exaggerate your up/down motion a bit, try to ski it like real powder, but with more emphasis on the rear ski, staying in the fall line and keeping your turns short and powerful, keeping the rebound meter pegged.

..One of my ski partners talks about riding the back ski and using the front ski almost like a brake, extending his front leg a little more when nearing the end of the turn and pushing the front ski down into the snow, slowing himself to remain in control and building rebound energy for the initiation of the new turn, then immediately getting back onto the rear ski for the carved arc portion of the new turn. I like his brake analogy because it really drives home the point, the power in modern telemark skiing comes from the rear ski, especially in this kind of snow.

..Another adjustment for this type of snow that you might want to try, is to make sure you are not using a lot of upper body angulation out away from the slope. This is good technique for harder snow but could leave you with a pretty thin margin for error when being buffeted by heavy mank. Don't lean into the slope either, again think powder.

..Sometimes I see telemark skiers looking so smooth, too smooth even, and then I see why, they are really not skiing very dynamically, they have gotten into the habit of skiing with very little up/down motion. This has got to be one of the most deadly sins that will come back to haunt you in stiff snow. When we ski powder we use a very dynamic approach, and so it should be with mank and other stiff snow, try to muscle this stuff and you will not win. Flow with it.

..Try skiing the stiff snow just like powder, adjusting your technique as outlined above and see if that mean old snow can become your friend and put a smile on you face.