1. I recently tried the Folkrm long-grip style poles. Among its qualities: the lip at the top of the handle is helpful for adjusting the Lynx binding’s front level and heel risers.
2. I also recently demo’d the 2020ish model of Black Crows Camox, which were set up with OutlawX bindings and using 2026 Tx Pros. The Camox skis snap telemark turns on a dime. I could make twice as many turns in a given space as usual, making for extra joy in bumps and tight trees. Brings to mind the old saying, “we get more done in a day than most people do by noon.” Good telemark skis, those Camox.
3. Speaking of the 2026 Scarpa Tx Pro, if anyone out there knows of a lightweight automatic crampon that is compatible with the new models, please post a comment or send us an email. Inquiries to Scarpa have proven inconclusive. (One friend of the website reports that the Grivel g-rider magic evo is a tight fit but seems to work.)
4. Taking the many-worlds theory of physics to its logical conclusion, a universe exists where telemark skiing is the most popular recreation activity. Better still, a universe where telemark permeates art and culture.
Consider, for example, a universe where all the members of the Corleone family, of the Godfather movies, are avid telemark skiers. Imagine Fredo ripping tele turns on Rubicon Peak in The Godfather Part II.
5. Lake Tahoe should be the Lurk Capital of California. How can we make this happen?
6. Are you personally going to start constructing lightweight and inexpensive lurks for the Tahoe market?
7. SOLOZZO: I’m going to speak Italian Telemark to Mike.
8. By now you may be asking whether I randomly made this a list of ten items and then tried to fill it, rather than coming to this space with ten important things to say.
9. Have you written your Haiku yet, thus earning your place on the email distribution list of this website? As promised, join us to receive an email sometime between once a month and never.
10. Send us a photo of you skiing Tahoe in the oldest telemark gear or the newest telemark gear you have ever owned. Rainey super loops? Merrell super comps? Super tele-tech bindings? We would love to see them. Send them [email protected].
Also
11. The 2025-2026 Camox also turns out to also ski well on telemark. (And yes, this one goes to eleven.)
I’m on a quest to try a variety of skis and figure out if I want new ones. This quest is challenging, as few places rent tele gear. Fortunately, Watta Bike in South Lake Tahoe (run by tele skier Kent Wattanachinda, also an excellent bike mechanic) demos Bishop telemark skis.
Bishop’s special sauce is the “TELEM-ARC TECHNOLOGY” technology, which I assume we are supposed to yell because it is in all caps on their website. It is based around making sure the ski can bend correctly for a tele turn. A tele stance puts the weight at the ball of the foot instead of across the whole boot. As a result, the ski should be designed differently, they say. I rented the Chedi skis.
The skis themselves have an aesthetic blue mountain design with orange highlights. More importantly, they are inscribed with the words “We care that you tele,” which made me feel seen. I am 190 pounds, 6’1”, and I rented the 184cm skis. For those of you who like numbers, these skis have a 130mm tip, 100mm waist, 116mm tail, and a 23.1m turning radius, and they are a relatively heavy 3,630 grams.
It was an old snow day at Kirkwood, as we hadn’t had a storm in about three weeks. Some of the gullies had soft white stuff, and it was warm enough that some bumps and aspects were fun in the afternoon, but suffice to say, I have no idea how these skis would perform in powder.
My first impression is that I really liked turning on them. On the groomers, I felt like I could really carve and there was a snap to each turn. Is this the TELEM-ARC TECHNOLOGY? YES I THINK IT IS AND I LIKE IT.
That said, I had my friends video me and look at my stance. We soon discovered that I basically don’t know how to ski groomers, as I kind of do a hockey stop/slide at the start each turn. You can see that in this video — I’m the first one (with my wife providing commentary on how much she cares that we tele). I think this has to do with how I learned to ski, and also the fact that my go-to skis are Black Crows Camox, which are fantastic at quick turns, but not so great and carving (yes, I will write a review of these later for those of you hungry for more Tele Tahoe content).
With this advice from my friends, I worked on my turns through the morning, really loving these skis on the groomers.
This was also my first time on the BMF bindings. It’s hard to disentangle what is the effect of the bindings versus the skis. I’m in Scarpa Pro TX NTN boots, and usually ride an Outlaw-X or Meidjo binding. The BMF did feel smooth, but the biggest difference is just how easy it was to step in and out. So easy. If I were always skiing at resorts and weight was not an issue, this would be the best binding. It felt smooth to ski, but again, I can’t tell if that was just how much I liked the ski. A minus, though, is that it is harder to share this ski with friends who have NTN boots. Even with the NTN boot, the binding attachment loops behind the boot and holds onto the rear like the old duck bill bindings. As a result, you have to size it to your boot instead of sizing it to the duck butt under the boot, and I can’t just switch out skis on the slope with my friends who also have NTN (something I’ve found that is useful for for my quest — and something you might get to read about in another post).
My favorite run of the day was skiing off the Vista T-bar toward Chair 4 after hiking over some rocks. The sun had softened the snow, and it was one of those runs at Kirkwood where you almost feel you are in the backcountry because no one else was there.
We then skied Thunder Saddle off Chair 4, finding some light bumps first and then dropping a small cornice and into a narrow gully. In this situation, I missed my Camox skis. The Chedis were still fun on the bumps, but less smooth and also harder in the gullies. I don’t think this is fair, as my Camox are uniquely suited to those conditions, but I really noticed the difference and wanted the ski to be slightly easier to turn. I fell twice, maybe because I’m not actually that good at skiing, but I also don’t think I would have fallen on my Camox. It was still, though, really fun — here’s a video of my turns.
Talking with my friends, I think the Chedis turn less well because they don’t have as much of a rocker tail as the Camox, and they are also a bit heavier with a longer turning radius. Given all the chutes and bumps at Kirkwood, I think I prefer the Camox for most runs. However, it really wasn’t that much worse in the bumps than the Camox, and it was much, much more fun on the groomers.
The skis made me want to try Bishop’s Blitzen skis, which have a more rockered tail and a tighter turning radius. I think that might be a better sweet spot for me at Kirkwood.
IN SUMMARY, I REALLY LIKED THIS SKI. IT EXCELS AT THE GROOMERS AND I LIKE HOW “IT CHARGES DOWNHILL” IN WIDE OPEN STUFF, BUT IT IS NOT AS GOOD ON BUMPS AND NARROW GULLIES AS MY CAMOX. I WANT TO TRY OUT THE BLITZEN SKIS NEXT. ALSO, I SHOULD LEARN TO SKI BETTER. ALSO, SKIING IS REALLY FUN AND I WANT TO DO MORE OF IT.
When the AI apocalypse comes, it is probably best to take to tele skis, as it appears that AI cannot yet identify the sport.
I asked Gemini “Make a picture of someone telemark skiing” and it gave me this:
I suppose the sweater may be accurate, but those are definitely not the right bindings. If the machines come for tele skiers, you can feel safe — they won’t be able to identify us.
22 Designs will be demoing gear at Mt. Rose March 1st as part of their demo tour. As Tele Tahoe’s leadership is based in South Lake Tahoe and has Epic passes, we will only report on the event by looking across the lake at Mt. Rose and making guesses about what is happening.
Well, it really isn’t much of a contest. Basically, submit your poetry to [email protected], and if it meets the extremely high standards of the teletahoe editors, we will post it on this site. That’s it.
Belly On up to the bar And I’ll answer Your unasked questions About the way that I ski, Free, At the heel, For real. Someone once said (While listening to the Dead?): Free the heel and Free the mind, but They also said: Tele til your smelly. And you may have noticed, At the bar, That We seem to have taken that line of advice just a little too far.
