Voile Switchback Failure and Factory Tour

When you're a guru, people are always asking you stupid questions in hopes they can cheat their way to telemark enlightenment.

"Guru Gered, how do you get your beard so long?"
"Guru Gered, should I make parallel turns after lunch or will people think I am a pussy?"

"Guru, what is the most perfect telemark binding?"

Google Latitude is not an Avy Beacon

Nothing says I love you at your favorite seasonal gift giving holiday than the gift of an avalanche beacon. My wife purchased one for me last year. Given the annual snowfall we had already seen by January 1st 2011, my new BCA Tracker 2 Beacon was a very thoughtful and appropriate gift, and one we both wanted me to have. She wanted to know I might not die of my own stupid designs, and I wanted at least a slight chance of living through all the future bad lines I might pick on wind-loaded northeast facing slopes above 35°.

Around these parts, 2012 is not shaping up to be a big year for the avy beacon business. Not a single storm where you couldn't measure precip with the stick that god gave you.. ahem... a ruler. Even with these pitiful snowfall amounts and non-existant upper elevation snowfields, I'm now a convert to the avy beacon of hope. So do me a favor.  If you're too unloveable to get one from someone else, run out and buy one for yourself. You never know when some other ski dummy (like me) might need your help.

Five Steps to Buying a Cheap Telemark Ski Setup

Gered makes his own climbing skins out of snow.

November is a tough month for skiers. Your mailbox is filling up with ski magazines, your inbox is getting blasted with announcements for ski movie premiers and resort lodging specials, and you've already dusted off your gear and put the ski rack back on your car. Still, the season still seems so very far away. Sure, you may get an October treat to tide you over for a few days but pretty soon it's brown and bleak again and you're counting down the days until you can make some real turns.

Drop a Knee and Ski for Free

Although Andy will try to tell you that AT is a perfectly acceptable way to earn your turns, we all know a high tech AT setup is really just a hackjob attempt to blend the beauty and simplicity of telemark with the weight and RAD advertising dollars of alpine. I mean, when was the last time you heard of anyone being sponsored to TELE?? Get with the program people. Tele is the real deal. It is cheap(ish) to get into, cheap to maintain, free to ski, and the fastest way up and down. If you know how to flex nutts and like to stare knowingly down at your ski buddies as they dick around with their locking mechanisms and climbing bars, then tele is for you. This is what Andy looks like after said dicking.

What's the Difference Between an Alpine Touring Ski and a Telemark Ski?

Aren't you just sick and tired of hearing this question from your friends and family members and not having a decent answer?  Well today is your lucky day.

Now be forewarned.  This is one of those situations where more knowledge equals more complication.  Before I reveal this mystery, let me be clear that manufacturers don't always clearly label when a ski has been manufactured for telemark or alpine touring performance. Furthermore you begin to notice the downright contradictions in most ski reviews.  You may end up doing a lot of digging to determine whether a ski is "ideal" for a particular type of endeavor. You may be better off just not knowing.  Read on at your peril.