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"FREE THE HEEL; FREE THE SPIRIT";
Telemarking thrives in Crested Butte
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MT. CRESTED BUTTE, CO--"Free the heel; free the spirit." The sticker, on a townie bike lugging telemark gear in its PVC-pipe ski holders, doesn't draw a second glance in Crested Butte. Just another truism here.
In this place three decades ago, a handful of ski hearties, led by Ric Borkovec, studied old Nordic ski pictures and, with much athletic floundering, reinvented the telemark turn on their edgeless cross-country skis. Today, after telemarking has quietly spread to the far corners of the globe, the sport claims a limited but passionate local following that grows steadily each year. And, among similar diehard subcultures that have formed far and wide, Crested Butte holds almost mythical status.
Ross Matlock, one of four members of the PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) National Telemark Demo Team, has connected with fellow free-heelers in half a dozen countries. "Crested Butte is well known everywhere as a meaningful place for telemarkers. Not only was it reborn here, but Crested Butte has a reputation for its hard-core mountain and the devoted telemarkers who can actually ski the terrain."
Telemarkers are attached to their skis only at the toes of their boots. In a classic telemark turn, the skier bends deeply at the knees and slides one ski in front of the other, combining smooth knee-dip with swooping arc.
The re-born telemark first gained popularity among backcountry enthusiasts, who could glide to distant slopes on cross-country skis and then telemark down through the powder. As the gear grew more sophisticated, telemarkers began dancing down the groomed ski slopes as well, captivated by the turn's intricacy, versatility, aesthetics and step outside the norm.
"I still love the fluid nature of that turn. When it's done well, it's so graceful," said Ian Hatchett, Crested Butte Mountain Resort rental operations manager. Hatchett, who divides his snow time between telemarking, alpine skiing and snowboarding, said, "Each discipline has its own subculture of adherents. It's great fun to hook up with the local telemarking diehards. They're so enthusiastic."
MacKenzie Mailly, 15, traded her alpine skis for telemark gear on her tenth birthday, thanks to a gift from her free-heeling dad, Art Thilquist. After a little wobbling, Mailly fell in love. "I haven't put on a pair of alpine boots since," she said. "I love the freedom you have on telemark skis; you can move so much. And I love the challenge; there's so much technique. It's also more fun than doing something everybody else does."
Jeff Moffett, CBMR's director of central reservations and revenue management, grew up alpine racing in the East, then switched to telemark gear when be began mountaineering in the Cascades. For the first few years after moving to Crested Butte, he alternated, but eventually his loyalties swung back to free heels. "Telemarking is more flexible and versatile, and you have a lower center of gravity. There's also a certain feel to it. To me, it's the way."
Matlock, who grew up cross-country skiing in Australia and moved to Crested Butte for its telemarking, also values the flexibility of the sport.
"Once you've mastered the balance, there's a huge range of ski opportunities. With one set of equipment, you can parallel or telemark turn, in the backcountry or at the resort." Telemarking also tests athletes in ways that other snow sports don't, he said. "In snowboarding, alpining and telemarking, balance is the key, but you have different balance problems with each. The hardest is telemarking. Throw in different terrain, snow conditions, equipment changes, and there's always a next level to reach for."
That especially holds true in Crested Butte, where the steep, ungroomed Extreme Limits keeps things interesting.
"I love the skiing here; there's so much hidden terrain," Mailly said. "I find new places every time I go out."
Big-mountain fans like Mailly are skiing ever bolder lines through Crested Butte's cliff-strewn steeps, as showcased every year in the U.S. Extreme Telemark Championships.
"We've had the only extreme telemarking event in the country the last few years," Moffett said. "It's filled with passion and excitement."
Moffett, who helps organize the telemark extremes, has seen steady growth in participation, sponsorship and media attention for the competition. "Telemarking isn't a huge percentage of the skiing population, but it's thriving in its niche," he said. "The extremes help keep the excitement level high."
Mailly and friend Francesca Pavillard, among the few local teens who telemark, took first and second in the junior division of the 2006 extremes.
Another free-heeling Crested Butte native, Max Mancini, is pushing the sport in another arena - parks and pipes, the realm of big air, twisting tricks and sketchy landings. "Max is doing unbelievable stuff in the parks on telemark skis," Matlock said.
Matlock, who coaches both Mailly and Pavillard, has seen a leap in the number of young telemarkers entering the extremes. In 2006, 50 juniors signed up. High schools from Vail and Steamboat sent competitors, who were awed by Crested Butte's wild skiing.
"They had good technique, but they weren't used to the terrain," Mailly said. Very few of her own classmates telemark, but some Crested Butte grade-schoolers have jumped to free-heeling. "They wanted to try something new, since everyone else is snowboarding."
Both Matlock and Hatchett have noticed an increasing crossover from snowboarding to telemarking. "Snowboarders reach the point where they feel, 'I've got this figured out.' They reach a plateau. And 'the enemy' is downhill skiing. So they try telemarking, which no one ever completely figures out. There are so many variables, it's an endless challenge," Matlock said.
As a telemark instructor, he sees the free-heeling demographic changing. "It used to be the hippie fringe, people in leather boots with woolen pants," he said. Now he might find a suburban father trying out telemarking so he can learn something new while skiing with a slower family member. Or he might teach the turn to a skier who wants to venture more into the backcountry. The stereotypes no longer fit; his clients might have shaved heads, expensive coifs or ponytails.
Many new converts to telemarking share certain characteristics, though; they are often fit, athletic outdoorspeople who enjoy distinguishing themselves from the main pack. Moffett compared it to kayaking: "Anyone can get in a sea kayak and paddle around, but not just anybody can get in a whitewater kayak and run the Taylor River. It sets you apart."
The influx of new telemarkers comes partly from the huge improvement in the equipment. Matlock recalls beating himself up learning to telemark "in glorified tennis shoes, on long skinny skis with no metal edges." Equipment has evolved from wobbly, lace-up leather boots and double-camber toothpick skis to supportive plastic boots and alpine-profile skis. Bindings will be the next area of revolution, Matlock said, with releasable, step-in bindings in the offing. Modern equipment allows new telemarkers to "get the hang of it without years of abuse" and veteran telemarkers to control and guide the ski in almost any conditions.
"Twenty years ago it was incredibly humbling to learn to telemark," Hatchett recalled. "You were relegated back to the green runs for a long, hard apprenticeship. Now in one season you can be skiing the whole mountain."
Equipment improvement and telemarking's increasing popularity feed each other. Crested Butte Mountain Resort's rental shop carries a quality fleet of telemark gear to meet the broadening range of skiers who are taking up the sport.
"Crested Butte remains an epicenter for telemarking; it's full of life and energy here," Hatchett said. "The telemark reps tell me Crested Butte is a totally different marketplace from other resorts. It's still the happening place for telemarking."
Free-heeling has spread throughout the world, but mostly in small, avid clusters. When he travels to other ski resorts and even other countries, Matlock finds pockets of driven athletes eager to connect with people who share their passion. "The smallness of the whole telemark world I find pretty amazing," he said. "When they hear I'm from Crested Butte, they say, 'Crested Butte, oh yeah!'"
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