In these uncertain times, we all miss normality. We miss trivial things like eating out, going to the gym, work, or even sitting in traffic – didn’t see that coming did you? Before all of this went down, I was stoked to spend my favorite holiday, World Telemark Day (duh!), with a bunch of great people at my home mountain doing what we all love…telemark skiing.
With a perfect bluebird day on deck, we set out to do the day right. The usual TELE COLO crew plus a ton of new faces (and a 24 pack of donuts) joined in to make it a memorable one. The lovely folks at Eldora Mountain Resort were kind enough to allow us the up-front beach spot for the day, and boy did we make it our center stage. What was on deck you ask? Telemark party waves, free telemark demos and clinics, telemark limbo for a killer new set of skis, and après to boot.
It seems silly, but there’s just something about a tele party wave that brings a smile to all who are lucky enough to drop in, regardless of the conditions. That said, the conditions this particular day were goooooood (queue Uncle Eddy from National Lampoon’s). It’s always great to see the different styles and takes on the classic turn. If you haven’t had the pleasure, we at Telemark Colorado highly advise joining us or your local tele-fam for an all out blast of a time ASAP.
At the base, the fine folks at Confluence Kayak and Ski were awesome enough to bring a myriad of skis, boots, and tele bindings from their demo fleet. They offered free demos all day that had everyone interested! If you’re reading this, you probably have at least a little gear nerdiness in you; Confluence had a set of sweet DPS Alchemists mounted with the newly released Lynx, 22 Designs’ NTN tech toe offering, so I had to take them for a spin. Tons of people took advantage of the demo and why wouldn’t they? At the grand ole price of nada this is an amazing way to see if you like a setup, a binding or boot, or just the experience of dropping a knee for the first time and being the coolest person on the mountain! Can’t beat that, thanks Confluence!
Since we had such good people helping out at the TELE COLO tent, CJ and I did what we do when we have a chance to grab some sunny laps together: park time. I miss skiing, we all do; I miss sunny spring park laps more than I knew. Rails were hit, Triple Dukes were spun, and fun was had, as always.
Speaking of the park, we snagged a couple alpine park rats who took out telemark gear for their first time ever. Armed with a free clinic from TELE COLO, Alex and Max were total champs, and maybe a little TOO good for their first time (see video for proof). It was no doubt refreshing to see such rippers giving the ol’ bent knee style a try. They may be converts, or maybe not. But without these demo days and the awesome turnout, we’d never know, and they’d never know!
TELE COLO capped off the day with an outrageously fun event now known as the inaugural Bishop Tele Limbo contest (yes, Bishop of the Bad Mother F***ers…err BMF telemark binding) to give away a pair of primo Bishop Gonzo 170 skis; now that’s some motivation if there ever was any. Come one, come all: five rules made it straightforward, and trust me, this turned out to have an incredibly high fun factor. Techniques were discovered on the fly and adopted by the remaining tele-picipants; it went low and got impressive. In the end, we all won and will definitely do it again so start training. Thanks so much Bishop for the support and the good times!
Thank you to everyone involved in making this such a great day: Confluence Kayak and Ski, Eldora, Bishop, and Telemark Skier Magazine for starting this tradition! And most importantly…thank you to the mountain, the sun, the snow, and the turn. Days like this remind me of how powerful, and completely dorky, our telemark community really is and it will always leave me coming back for more. I look forward to more tele-shenanigans with you all next year!
See y’all out there.
Cheers,
Brian – Telemark Colorado
© 2020
He’s not kidding you. It was a totally awesome day – even for the shoes on the ground peeps
Looked like a great day!