How I Came to Know and Love the Backcountry

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How I Came to Know and Love the Backcountry
The Basics of Telemark Skiing

By Abrahm Lustgarten


	Backcountry bliss in British Columbia's Garibaldi Provincial Park (Abrahm Lustgarten)

One of the first things you'll notice when you take up telemark skiing is the sharp edges and curved tips of your skis pressed inches from your nose as you lie face-down in foot-deep powder; there you'll lie, sputtering snow and trying to comprehend: A) What just happened? B) How can my toes fold at a 180-degree angle while wearing skis? C) Has anyone seen me yet?

The position is much like an Olympic ski jumper in perfect form, except that you're lying flat on your stomach with your heels pointing into the air and the two waxed planks you were trying to master splayed out on either side. If you have alpine skied for any length of time, you will believe that you've broken both gear and limb. You will immediately doubt that the free-heel style is the graceful, versatile, and preferred method for backcountry snow travel. And it will probably hurt. Then you will try again, and you will be converted.

Backcountry skis are to a resort skier what car keys are to a 16-year-old boy with no curfew.

Backcountry skis are to a resort skier what car keys are to a 16-year-old boy with no curfew. Once you learn to drive on a pair of telemarks, those vast white ranges you’ve stared at beyond the "ski area boundary" placards become your own private back bowl. Those off-piste drifts that teased you while hundreds of weekend warriors tracked your favorite run into shredded moguls and marshmallow lumps are suddenly within your bounds. If you've ever longed to power through a run, then stop to look back and see one precise set of curving S's in a hundred-acre drainage, then mastering the art of telemarking will make this fantasy a reality. Wave goodbye to the cocoa-sipping tourists on the sun deck, the over-crowded lift lines, the novice whose bravado ill-advisedly led him to the double-black slope.... You're going skiing.

Next Page: Telemark 101

Abrahm Lustgarten in an internationally published, award-winning photojournalist whose work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, and Men's Journal magazines. He most frequently covers social, travel and outdoor adventure subjects, and is a regular contributor to Away.com. You can see more of his work at www.abrahm.com

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