I am looking to learn to telemark ski. What is the best plan of action? Where can I take lessons?
Timberline has an excellent Telemark Pro Staff. They have at least one full day clinic per month that is very reasonable. They have some rentals. Couldn't recommend them more highly.
in addition to the great psia tele instructors at timberline, you might additionally consider attending a NATO clinic with Dickie Hall on Jan 18th-19th (Usually at whitegrass, but if no natural snow, it will be at tline or canaan) I think going to both the tline and nato clinics will be a great combo since they are very different aproaches. you will also learn some good uphill skiing and manuevering tips which is valuable for versatility.
and most important, here is 10 good reasons to tele from beansandricefreeride.com :)
http://vimeo.com/77350014
Agree with Chaga's comments but I have one more to add. Spend a full day or two skiing beginner slopes on rented tele equipment using your tried and true alpine techniques. It may sound pedestrian but it will help you find your balance and comfort zone on free heels. Canaan has a nice beginner slope with its own lift for this. You can rent the gear at Whitegrass. If you get comfortable, take it all over the mountain. Then take tele instruction.
^^^^^ What Dennis said. My suggestion is to start at a place with a chairlift, so you can save your energy for the lesson and working on technique. Hiking back up the hill isn't where you want to want to spend your muscle power when you're starting out. Plenty of time to earn your turns once you figure out how to make them.
Definitely agree with what Tom says. Check out the Tele clinic days at Timberline. Where else can you get a full day small group lesson for $67? The first one is coming up on Saturday Dec 21st.
Oh yeah, rent from Whitegrass. Timberline's rental fleet is not so hot.
Check out the NEXT EVENTS at the bottom right of Timberline Snow Report: www.visitcanaan.com/timberline and you'll notice plenty of dates made available to you. I suggest:
TImberline for lessons, and after your 3rd lesson (lots of instructors, few students) then ALSO take you knowledge to White Grass (5 minutes away) and even take your knowledge then to Canaan Valley to explore some more. If you have a lot of endurance, you could spend one day learning, and the next playing hard with your new knowledge. Priceless!
Rentals & Food: WIthout a doubt at White Grass touring center / White Grass Café.
The best learning area: Canaan Valley beginners lift
The easiest way to learn to Tele: TImberline (a French person even managed to learn that funny looking technique once).
i'll also recommend tele clinic days at tline...exceptional instruction and the price is ridiculous...there are usually more instructors than students in those clinics, so you are almost gauranteed a full day private...observe other posts for info about rental gear...personal opinion is to hit lift service first and get some mileage on a maintaned surface...
Don't forget... when signing up at Timberline for Telemark workshops, DO NOT purchase your lift ticket until after you sign up for your workshop (this, just so that you can save a bundle on lift ticket price). You'll be amused as to how cheap this really makes your lift-access tele lesson.
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