race skis

Question
I am an advanced telemark and alpine skier and intermediate rider on carving boards, with some recreational racing experience. Now I am working on snowboard style lay down carves in telemark. I use an Atomic Metron 10 but would like more grip without excessive stiffness. Can you suggest some high performance skis that I can flex and there is some way to mount a telemark binding? I prefer to not have to buy an alpine binding with the ski but will sometimes switch them for variety.

Answer
Hey Warren,

With so many skis to choose from it is difficult for me to recommend any specific ski for you. My best suggestion would be to test ride some demos at your local ski area to see what works best for you in the conditions you normally ski in.

As for mounting a telemark binding, unless the skis have specific binding mounts (ie; integrated ski and binding), you should be able to mount a telemark binding on just about any ski. The question is, will the ski perform as designed with a tele binding vs. an alpine binding? The other thing to consider is the weight of alpine skis vs. tele skis. There are tele skis out there that are as stiff as many alpine skis but are lighter weight with all the control of an alpine ski.

If you are wanting to use one ski for alpine and telemark, you should consider AT bindings. The heel will release from the mounting plate and allow you to tour and tele ski, but will also lock down for skiing alpine style. You also get the benefit of releasable bindings.

Another recommendation for hard carving teleskiing is the Bomber Bishop binding. It is a full on tele binding but is much stiffer than any three pin type binding. They are a bit heavier than most tele bindings but because of such a solid connection to the ski, they make the uphill ski much more active for serious hard carving. There is also three mounting positions for the binding to let you set it for the exact type of skiing you want. You can also get a second plate kit to mount on a second pair of skis. It takes about 2 minutes to remove 4 allen bolts and place the bindings on another pair of skis. I use my longer fatter skis in the a.m. until the powder is chewed up and then switch at lunch to my shorter carvers and stay on the goomed to rip turns for the rest of the day.

I love to carve turns on my skis and snowboard too. I used the standard three pin bindings for a couple of seasons and just never felt like I had the boot to ski connection that I wanted. When I went to the Bombers I was hooked from day one. They performed so well that last year I got rid of all my downhill gear and now only tele and snowboard. Take a look at bombertele.com.

Hope this helps.
Keep on skiing,
Windlover