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The telemark turn is not just a single movement. At its height it is the constant, improvisational execution of dynamism on snow; each lunge, each lead change an act of exhilarating energy. And it’s exhausting. Without some degree of aerobic fitness and whole-body strength, the telemark skier is relegated to fits and starts punctuated by doubled-over hyperventilation. But it doesn’t have to be this way. And though the road to peak fitness is long - possibly never-ending – it’s a journey in itself, and an integral component of the telemark path.
In a world now wrought with the instant gratification of social media–where clips without context show only the microsecond of achievement–the role of fitness and its long road deserve reiteration. And the function of fitness has been closely tied to telemark since the beginning. As a Nordic, cross-country technique, distance traveled has long eclipsed many tens of kilometers. And as a downhill method, the telemark has always required a rich mix of dexterity, explosiveness, and strength.
No matter your personal approach to free-heel skiing, fitness is key.
And our trusty companion books don’t ignore the role of fitness. “Often people overlook one essential area in preparing to ski–getting in good physical condition,” says Steve Barnett in Cross-Country Downhill and Other Nordic Mountain Skiing Techniques. Barnett approaches telemark’s requirement of solid physical conditioning.
True to his philosophy (and the milieu the book was conceived in), Barnett’s fitness tips dovetail with not only his Nordic-leaning vibe, but also with the gear of the day–light, low boots paired with long, skinny skis mounted with eminently neutral bindings.
But just as that gear paradigm necessitates the most astute of technique, it also lends itself to peak physical form. “To do Nordic skiing safely and well, you must have good cardiovascular endurance and strong legs, and your ankles must be strong in order to help compensate for your soft boots,” Barnett says, continuing: “A strong upper body will help you effectively use your poles both for fast striding and for strenuous downhill maneuvers.”
In the heady vein of the time, Barnett brings the slackline and its role honing balance into the fold. “One exercise (which is recommended by several outstanding skiers) for helping develop your balance is to practice walking a slack rope – one that is tied between two trees, for example,” Barnett says.
Barnett also notes the part that resort reps take for the telemark skier–even the backcountry one. Speaking to riding lifts to advance technique, Barnett says “there is no easier way to make the thousands of turns that you must experience in order to develop a strong personal technique in a relatively short time.” This time spent on-piste pays dividends in the backcountry. “More skills will mean more enjoyment in wilderness that can confront the skier with severe and varied problems,” says Barnett.
Paul Parker takes to the fitness dialogue as well in the vein of more aggressive, downhill-oriented skiing. “The best training for skiing is skiing,” says Parker in Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques. “But we don’t all have the luxury of skiing year-round. Besides, you need to participate in exercise other than skiing to develop the muscles that aren’t so important to turns but that just might stave off fatigue and injury while skiing.”
Parker’s approach to exercise in Free-Heel Skiing is of a more contemporary bent, drawing on modern fitness paradigms like heart rate range, anaerobic threshold, and intervals. Still, Parker also brings a cross-country vibe to his training, saying “the evolution of classic cross-country technique to skating has done more to improve my downhill skiing than any other activity.” Talking of Nordic and inline skating as cross-training, Parker continues: “It’s not only fun, but it’s muscle specific for downhill as well as cross-country ski training.”
Parker also delves into the ever-important if possibly more neglected role of strength training in telemark. “Those of us who enjoy aerobic sports are often on the scrawny side, but as skiers we need strength for leg-pumping crud, packing a big load into a backcountry cabin, or squeezing off that last desperate turn,” Parker says. “More important, specific-strength training makes a skier more resistant to injury.”
Parker suggests not only core strength development via ab work, squats, and leg curls, but also training with resistance tubes, what he refers to as sport cord. “Sport cord was developed for athletes’ specific-strength training and is used both as a preventive against injury and as part of a recuperative program after injury,” says Parker. “It provides a great workout.”
And Brad English dives deeply into form and strength in Total Telemarking. “The often complex sequence of actions involved in skiing must be executed on several different planes at the same time,” says English, continuing, “thus balance depends to a great degree on a powerful and flexible form.”
Borrowing from a martial arts background, English also elicits the mind-body connection through an Eastern perspective, saying “to many cultures, the midsection is considered the center of the spirit , as well as the center of mass. Here is thought to reside another source of power, an inner strength known as prana, chi, or ki, which is said to be an embodiment of the universal life-force.”
While his use of Eastern philosophy in skiing may seem possibly out of place by today’s standards, his earnestness is no less palpable. Regardless, he takes to telemark fitness with a holistic approach, proclaiming that “although difficult to describe, ki manifests itself when the power of the will works in complete cooperation with the strength of the body, so that the total energy of one’s being is focused on a single goal.”
English delves into other philosophical realms, like breathwork and its rhythmic necessity. As such Total Telemarking brings a balanced perspective to free-heel fitness, focusing also on stretching, technique, and fundamentals, which his incorporation of the ethereal only buttresses.
English’s incorporation of mindfulness to fitness and strength is not only endemic to his book, but was also pervasive in the more Aquarian sensibilities of the early telemark movement, something that has unfortunately not only been mostly lost on the modern ski world, but at times even disparaged - though his notions live on in many a heady free-heeler.
Thus telemark fitness–and fitness in general–takes its many forms. While the goal of full-body strength and dexterity may be of a more finite, measurable nature, the mindset taken in concert is of a decidedly more fluid form. The path to physical fitness, one integral to the telemark experience, can take many routes and can take inspiration from many places–it is neither confined to a gym nor the snowbound mountains. It is what the journeyer makes it.
Regardless, our trusty companion books implore the free-heel skier not only to hone their physical fitness, but in doing so to incorporate any number of other symbiotic notions – those of goal orientation, enjoyment, and even spiritualism.
For a full immersion in free-heel technique, pick up a copy of Paul Parker’s Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques , still in print and available. And keep an eye out for Steve Barnett’s Cross-Country Downhill and Other Nordic Mountain Skiing Techniques and Brad English’s Total Telemarking, both of which can occasionally be found used.
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