Agreed! I got up to advanced intermediate level in downhill and then took up took up X-C. I’ll do whatever I have a chance to do, all sadly rare for me at this time and place and age! You missed one key point: only rarely when downhill skiing do you get those transcendent moments in nature; too often you are busy with the lifts and lines, the exception being when you have fresh powder it’s midweek and you go off piste . But with cross country no matter what the conditions you’re in the middle of nature it’s quiet and beautiful. And if you happen to get great snow, tree skiing on gentle slopes ,up and down is a wonderful experience. Thanks for the video, it brings it all back up.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

Great point!

@johns3106

4 ай бұрын

I consider myself an all-around “freewheel” skier…spending time doing everything on the spectrum from aggressive downhill tele skiing while riding the lifts, to big backcountry ups and downs, to xc skiing in the woods behind my house, to zipping around groomed tracks at a nordic center. But some of my favorite days are doing a long tour out in the quiet woods by myself, enjoying some long uphills and moderate downhills and lots of trail breaking. A chance to use all my skills and enjoy being part of my surroundings.

I followed a similar path starting with a love for hiking with my dogs on the abundant public land here off the shore of Lake Superior. Away from the crowds and rules of the nordic track and definitely don't miss riding a chair in the cold plus the $$$ of alpine. Coming mostly from nordic, once my skis got fatter the fun of the down has me always eyeing new untouched slopes. Tom M and Jared Manninen helped me with learning and stoke as well. Cheers and that video on poling technique still cracks me up!

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

Nice. My dad grew up in Escanaba. Wouldn’t mind visiting family with an aim of skiing out there sometime. Good to know that there’s public land to the north.

@mobilewintercamp7515

6 ай бұрын

I watch Tom and Jared too, nice stuff

@carminealfano8559

6 ай бұрын

Cheers to the Great Lakes folk!

No need to explain. XCD is for people of a certain neurological predisposition. You either get it… or you’re neurotypical. My set-up is Fischer S-Bound 112 (whopping 78 underfoot!) with BD01 bindings. Freaking perfect for the Uintas. Mostly skied with Scarpa T2s, but sometimes with my Crispi leathers (when I desire the ultimate in lightweight perf… er, torture). Cheers!

Thank goodness for KZread and the Interwebz-where if you look hard enough you can find good information and experiences outside the mainstream-which is always good! Case in point: I've been an XC skier for years, and like SO many other XC skiers, I've grappled with downhill skiing (either crashing and burning, sidestepping down forever, snowplowing when possible, etc.) Finally (at age 61) I'm learning to do telemark turns. As soon as I started learning more about telemark, I was overwhelmed with "the telemark mainstream," which is nothing but expensive tele gear, $600 Scarpa boots, and endless discussion about how to shred steep slopes at resorts and on ski mountaineering trips. I knew right from the start that none of that was why I wanted to learn telemark. My sole reason for learning was to use the technique on my XC skis (backcountry Nordic skis) during long-distance skis over **varied** terrain-which might include some longer, gentler slopes, shorter, steeper slopes, rolling terrain, and long flat stretches. Like you I've spent countless hours at resorts snowboarding-been there, done that, and don't want to spend the money on it anymore (nor do I want to spend half my day sitting on a lift). So thanks for this video! :-)

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

4 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing! Very relatable.

Well met. Re: Age It's doable if you're excessively aged, just takes longer. I took this up last year. I was 70. I can go up, I can go down. Not too steep in either of those. I spent 40 years alpine skiing so maybe the learning curve is flattened a bit for me. On Fischer 88s and Fischer BCX GT boots I can snowplow and parallel mostly. My goal is to learn to telemark. I'm gonna buy a season uphill pass at Hesperus Ski Hill outside Durango this year and see how that all goes. I figure learning somewhere groomed (for alpine) will flatten the tele curve (pun intended, yes weak I know but I'm old) and be safer should I screw it all up. Quite enjoying your posts. ;)

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

Thanks for the perspective. I’m interested to hear how your progression continues. Sounds like you all [finally] got some new snow to go enjoy.

@Freepowder

5 ай бұрын

Heheh, yeah. New snow. Also kickass new headcold from hell and a bunch of domestic issues that need sorted and Hesperus ski hill is closed for the season. BUT hope springs eternal in the human breast. . . @@GoTeleOnTheMountain

Now I want to do this. Dunno how I got here. But I want it

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

Haha. I feel lucky that I got here as well.

Yes! Perfect description of the advantages of cambered, free-heel gear.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

Thanks, I’m flattered that folks are appreciating this.

As you said early in the video I like the solid compromise of telemark skiing that offers a lot of mobility and a great challenge! I like the workhorse nature XC downhill skiis. I just pushed off on some asnes and alico double leather boots yesterday in the blizzard here in the midwest, very exciting once you get the first glide in!

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

5 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing. Glad to hear the snowstorms are spreading the love to the Midwest finally.

We call this category "Trail Skiing" out here in the Central Sierra Nevada. The ski shop I've been a part of for 24 years rents/sells Alpine skis, snowboards, snowshoes and Trail Skis. Basically XC skiing outside a groomed XC ski resort . . . exploring gentle forested terrain. As opposed to Backcountry (Telemark or Alpine Touring) where a couple thousand feet of earn your turns is part of the days agenda. XC skiing I would break down into 3 general sub categories. Groomed XC (Skate versus Classic) Light touring . . . which falls within terrain of this video (none metal edge to metal edge, system boots to leather 3 pin . . . emphasis on longer distance making your own tracks). Backcountry . . . (tele or AT) . . . plastic boots, skins, avy gear, etc. Over the past 40 years of skiing I've acquired a 20 ski quiver which ranges from a pair of skate skis to a phat pair of telemark powder skis (130 underfoot) and 4 pairs of Alpine skis for lift riding days, and one odd ball pair of Karhu Meta's (before Altai and BD Trekkers). They all have their place . . . conditions, terrain. But if I had to choose only one pair for the rest of my life, Fischer E99 (65-45-55) . . . handles everything from set XC tracks to Trans-Sierra Tours. Lastly, most of my ski peops are Backcountry, mostly Tele, a few AT and one snowboarder.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

5 ай бұрын

Nice. I’m surprised the tele tribe outnumbers the AT crowd where you are. In CO, AT seems to be the default and tele is something folks do for style points (I don’t share this view).

I have a pair of Solomon Xscapes with heavy duty XC binding and boot. In addition to Minneapolis metro area park skiing (including sled hills) I also am comfortable on green runs at the local downhill resorts. Sometimes I show up early and they let me ski up and down a few times ahead of the running the lifts. Glad to see there are more people getting into this. Thanks for making this youtube channel!

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

5 ай бұрын

Sweet. It’s great how the simplest terrain becomes fun on xc skis.

@edvogel56

5 ай бұрын

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain I just went to my local ski hill (Hyland) with old Fischer BC half metal edge and 3 pin binding set up. I got about 30 minutes of up and down in on the beginner hill to warm up before "the complaint." First it was "those are skate skis", then it was "they have to have metal edges" then of course "brakes, you must have unremovable brakes." Turns out a leash would be fine according to the rules I looked up when I got home. Unfortunately - the rules allow telemark skis but disallow XC skis...which is pretty weird word play but that's life. Afton Alps is nearby and they are fine with a variety of gear including XC. Extra weird - I took a telemark lesson at Hyland in the same gear I had today. Thanks again for your youtube site. It is helping me get back into downhill XC after a two year hiatus.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

5 ай бұрын

@@edvogel56 Hmmm. I wonder what they would say to a scaled tele ski. The line is definitely blurred.

@edvogel56

4 ай бұрын

My latest little adventure now that we have kzread.infoN7XtJQ6xwio?si=ye_Xz08nnANA6Gvksome ski able snow in Minneapolis. @@GoTeleOnTheMountain

Well said! Curious as to where in Colorado you are. XCD is about all we can do here in the Southeast (North Carolina in my case). The high country a couple or few hours drive away gets snow, but it's sporadic and doesn't last long. But when it's good, it's good, and XCD gear makes the most of it.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

4 ай бұрын

Thanks. Having grown up partly in Florida, NC was always our escape to the mountains. One spring break in college, some friends and I attempted a backpacking route in the area of Clingman’s Dome. It rained so hard on the first day, which then froze overnight and turned out to be feet of snow higher up. As Floridians, we were absolutely unprepared, unsuccessful, and completely humbled, but it was memorable! Hope you skied that day. I now live in a small town in NW CO. I mostly ski in the Flat Tops and their surroundings.

I do basically the same thing you do. Great video.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

4 ай бұрын

Sweet. Over on the west coast or something?

@dirtsurf1

4 ай бұрын

@goteleonthemountain7779 Yeah, in Bend oregon.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

4 ай бұрын

@@dirtsurf1 Nice. Seems like an area that has it all when it comes to the outdoors.

I used to freak out and just put my butt on the snow every downhill. Snowplow was about useless due to full/traditional length skis and risk of crossing tips. Then I used to step/skate turn like mad when crossing fall line, and could get down with 2-3 falls. But when I started Stem Turns, I could get down Alpine greens and mildest blues every time. No edges no sidecut.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

All good technique suggestions! On summer snow when climbing the high peaks, most people seem to love the chance to butt-scoot. Seems like it should still be a valid strategy in the winter.

Ive done this with skating skis. Here at polar circle conditions are much different. My favourite is when its 1-2m snowdepth, the top being hard/ice (march/april) and a small new snow coating 1-5cm. Hard/ice makes the skis not to dive in. Small amount snow makes it gentler for the skis, specially if you want to drifting. Skating skis are by far the easiest and lightest way to move when forest is quite dense. Imo even better than snowmobiles. They tend to get stuck with trees. If youve good condition that will be somewhere around 20kmh with gentle uphills. 1m+ snow thickness softens the bumbs in forests / tundra ( high hills "tunturi" / fjäll ), so the skis wont break so easily. Hills I mostly go have only about 100-200m vertical, and arent that steep. There are higher and steeper hills, even real mountains (2km+) Within few hundred km. But skating skis wont survive them. If skating skis had metal edges like downhill skis, and were little bit more durable when there are bumbs that would be a big plus, but havent found such. Maybe teleskis could be, but I dont think they will do so well with skating. Done this for a bunch of decades. It is extremely good hobby for conditioning oneself.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

4 ай бұрын

I’m jealous. Backcountry conditions are rarely ideal for skating here in CO, but it looks like a lot of fun.

@i7Qp4rQ

4 ай бұрын

@goteleonthemountain7779 I can see, but it is better than nothing. Here we had a trouble that temps were down, even close to -50c over the last two months. No sign of global warming... But now at least sun is once again visible, and I can feel spring is coming.

This looks amazing!!! I've tried alpine a bit this year and just don't like it as much as XC. All the people, the lines, lifts, expensive resorts, etc. I'd like to invest in skis that I can use at nordic ski centers on groomed trails as well as on forest roads, hiking trails, etc., like you're doing here. I'm wondering what your recommendation is for gear? Should I get skis with metal edges? And just narrow enough to still fit into tracks?

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

5 ай бұрын

Wonderful. Hmmm, I like my waxless (scaled) skis with metal edges for both xc and some downhill turns, but most of them are too wide for the tracks. You can still ski them outside of the tracks at the groomed trails, though. If you want something that will probably fit in most tracks but also work off trail, maybe go for the Fischer E99? If most of your time will be spent on forest roads and hiking trails, you may want something wider and shorter than the E99 in order to have better flotation and quicker turning. Look at the Fischer S-bound line or Madshus Panorama skis if that’s the case.

❤TELEMARK...!!!

Great video. I've always loved the mobility of xc skiing but I've never done much downhill. This definitely convinced me to invest in a new pair of skis. Do you have any recommendations for gear?

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

It’s so customizable and personalizable that it’s hard to give a pithy answer. Since you already know xc, I would look for a fatter version of an xc ski (maybe 78mm - 125mm+ in the shovel), and most likely with metal edges and a fish-scale base. It could also be a downhill ski with fish scales. If the ski has a bit of an hourglass shape, it should be turny on the downhill. I would recommend NNN BC or 3-pin boots/bindings for xc with some downhill, xplore bindings for slightly more downhill potential (although more expensive and pretty similar to 3-pin with a beefy boot), and 3-pins with a cable or hardwire for the most downhill potential. Softer boots would be more xc oriented, and stiffer boots more optimized for downhill. You really want to make sure the boot and binding interface will be compatible. Here are some more specific setups you could try to put together if you’re buying new, otherwise you could take these as themes of what to look for in the used market: Fischer Sbound 98 with NNN BC bindings and Alpina Alaska BC boots. Madshus Panorama 78 (also Annum or Guide) with 3-pin Voilé binding (possibly with optional cable/spring for the heel) and stiff leather boots or a Scarpa T4. Altai Kom with 3-pin hardwire binding and a Scarpa T4 boot. I like adjustable poles as well with a wider basket.

@reubenwiering1679

6 ай бұрын

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain Awesome I'll look into these, thanks!

Well said!

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

Thanks, man!

1:04 you just made a smiley face 🤯

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

Haha. I understand how the mouth came about, but the eyes came out of nowhere.

@impact0r

6 ай бұрын

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain Don't forget about the nose. You could almost ID a person with that unwitting sketch.

1:07 lol. Illuminati confirmed!

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

2 ай бұрын

Better keep a low profile, the deep XCD state is gonna come after you now.

@stvbrsn

2 ай бұрын

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain let them come… especially if they’re bringing all the “deep” with them! The deep snow, amirite? •slaps knee•

Just be careful. I pulled my groin and might have severely injured my hip when I skied down a relatively steep resort run on some really skinny, lightweight rossignols with of course no release mechanism on the bindings. One ski went one way, one went the other, and I did a rather painful split. And I am not very flexible. 2 years later and it ain't right yet. Oh well, live and learn.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

I’m also rather inflexible, but so far it seems to somehow help prevent injuries 🤞

👍

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

6 ай бұрын

🙏

What kind of skis and boots are you using? Im looking into possibly changing my setup

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

5 ай бұрын

I used a variety of skis, boots, and bindings in this video. What’s your current setup and what direction are you hoping to take with your changes (more vertical in the backcountry, for instance, or a lighter setup for distance in rolling terrain)?

@andrewhicks6712

5 ай бұрын

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain Salomon Combi Boot with Salomon Outpath 60mm. I like how light they fill, but part of me wants to upgrade to a BC setup. Where Im from there are no groomed snow, and typically when we do have snow its usually 3-5” and a bit crusty. Im trying to spend more time this winter working on downhill techniques on xc skis. In particular, turning and deacceleration. Im open to any tips and suggestions you got!

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

5 ай бұрын

@@andrewhicks6712 Okay, that seems very much on the cross-country end of the spectrum, so there’s a huge range of options you could choose from to improve the downhill experience by a lot or just a little: If you really want to go all the way to the downhill-optimized end of things, you could look at the Altai Koms with a 3-pin binding with optional heel attachment (like Voilé 3-pin hardwire or cable). For boots, something along the lines of a Scarpa T-4, T-2, or T-3 (sometimes you can find these on the secondhand market). The new Voilé Endeavor ski would also probably be a good choice. To land near the halfway point between xc and downhill, you could look for something like the Fischer S-bound 98 or Madshus Panorama line of skis. Something that’s about 68-78mm in the waist and 100-110mm in the shovel would be fairly turny while staying light for the tour. These could be skied well with a simple 3-pin binding (not the flimsy ones, though) and stiff leather 3-pin boots, or maybe the newer xplore binding and a somewhat stiff leather/synthetic boot made for that binding. Be careful, it’s a lot of fun hunting down this kind of gear and can become quite consuming!

What type of gear? I'm about to buy backcountry, but that is because what comes up the most in the area that I'm at- help me not spend $2000+ that I don't need.

@GoTeleOnTheMountain

3 ай бұрын

Yeah, no need to spend $2000+. Spring is a great time to find deals on secondhand gear, but you do have to know what to look for since the retail folks aren’t usually helpful when it comes to this kind of skiing. What climate/terrain will you be skiing in? What proportion of mileage to vertical is your ideal outing? These are some factors that will affect the gear you choose. A good middle-point in the spectrum I mentioned in the video can be achieved with skies that are ~100-110mm in the shovel and ~70-80mm underfoot. On the more xc end, that means Fischer S-bound 98 skis or skis of similar dimensions, generally with fish scales and metal edges. On the more downhill end, maybe Altai Kom skis or Voilé Objective/Endeavor. Between the two ends, perhaps the Madshus Guide/Annum/Panorama 78. A 3-pin binding with cable option and a burly leather boot, or Scarpa T3 or T4 or T2 (for the downhill skis) would work. All this stuff can often be found used if you’re in an area with plenty of BC skiers and keep an eye out on Craigslist, FB marketplace, or secondhand stores.