Telemark is Alive and Well! By Jim Shaw

Jim Shaw PSIA-AASI RM Telemark Chair

Telemark is alive and well! You may not have noticed but there are more telemark skiers on the hill and interest is growing. Last season, all RM Telemark events ran successfully! Companies like 22 designs and Scarpa are adding to their lines and introducing new products. New festivals are popping up at Breckenridge and Winter Park. Things are alive and growing!

So, what’s new in the PSIA-AASI Telemark world? As with every other discipline and specialist we are moving towards national alignment and will see this after the end of the 25-26 season. The biggest change RM Telemark will see is the move towards a more modular certification assessment process. Currently RM Telemark operates with a more integrated assessment process. We have not separated the various modules (Skiing, MA, Teach) by day. As we move forward, the standards will not change but the various components will be slotted into a specific schedule rather integrated throughout the assessment process. This will certainly make it clear as to exactly where we are in the process and what’s next. We have been offering certification assessments every other season. This season will be at A Basin in late April. The last before moving to a more modular process.

Last season, Tele Fest in Steamboat was a great success with Tele Trees, All Mountain Performance, and Precision Tele clinics offered something for everyone. It’s sure to be a success again and a true hot spot for telemarkers.

There are several other opportunities if nothing else fits. There’s always a clinic at Spring Fling and at Angel Fire at the Southern District Spring Fling this season. There was some truly amazing skiing at the Extreme Tele at A Basin last year; maybe again this season?

Tele is the original way to slide down the mountain. It’s been around for more than a thousand years. Alpine may be a faster way to get down and snowboarding has many advantages as well, but we still Telemark. There are many reasons telemarkers telemark. At the foundation of it all we put one foot in front of the other. It’s the most natural of movements and something we all learned to do around the time of our first birthday. Come give it a try and join us at one of our other events and share a few ideas on how to put your best foot forward!