Telemark Skiing

Myrna sent me an email yesterday to tell me that she "googled" a friend from highschool to find his name in a few articles on the web. He's an outdoors person and one thing that was mentioned was "telemark skiing" I knew basically what it meant but I wanted to find out the details. Here's what I found, figured I'd share my new found knowledge.

The sport of telemark skiing is similar to cross-country skiing, but with more of an alpine ski and boot. This type of skiing offers the gentle gliding over flat terrain of cross-country skiing, as well as the ability to navigate steep snowy hillsides. Telemark skiing originated from Norway, from the Telemark region, where skiing was a natural mode of travel due to the long winters. Sondre Norheim, of Morgedal, Telemark first demonstrated the telemark turn in 1868, later called the Christiana turn.
Telemark skis are shorter, stiffer and a little wider than cross-country skis and offer more control especially when traversing down a steep hill. While ski resorts see lots of telemark skiers intermingle with alpine skiers on the hill, most telemark skiers search out the solitude of the quiet winter backcountry for miles of untracked powder. However, with the freedom to travel down steep snowy slopes in the backcountry comes the responsibility to carry the proper avalanche and safety equipment.