Telemark Skiing in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico Resorts
If you are burned out on the typical snows sports and looking for another way to revive your love of the winter outdoors, check out Telemarking. This is the sport where the ski allows the heel to come out giving the skier greater flexibility.
The telemark idea was started by and Scandinavian Sondre Auersen where he attached a heel strap to his cross country skis.
Because the foot is only attached to the ski at the toe, the front and back movement of the legs gives you forward movement. Putting the outside ski forward and turning it slowly inward while going downhill achieves the turning motion in telemark skiing.
The great thing about the telemark style is the versatility of having the heel free from the ski and in using this advantage to control the connection between the human body, the skis, and the snow.
Telemark skiers have more ability to deal with different kinds of snow that they may run into. There just is more ways of flexibility in movement in dealing with the different conditions.
Some telemark skiers call this style “Like Dancing with the Mountain”
Although this style may not be for everyone, it is truly a “Born Again” style that challenges your body, and soothes the mountain spirit.
Telemark Ski Clinics are offered at Ski Santa Fe. In Santa Fe you can rent telemark skis at Sangre De Cristo Mountain Works.
In the Taos area, we did not find any of the resorts offering rentals of the telemark skis, but you can rent the equipment at Taos Mountain Outfitter.
Eileen Richardson
