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Telemarking... I think I can...

Written by in-between on

From: ms-in-between.blogspot.com

My husband is a huge telemark skiier. Wait, that sounds bad - see him above - he isn't HUGE, he is big into telemark skiing. I can ski, you know, regular ski. Like, I don't fall off the chairlift or anything. So I threw it out there that maybe I could learn how to telemark. Our friend Kellie is also telemarking and I thought - well, if Mike can't teach me then maybe Kellie can help me learn. And for some reason, learning to telemark ski really didn't scare me at all.
We went to Pine Mountain Sports yesterday (btw, if you are in Bend, I HIGHLY recommend them .... amazing customer service) to rent some gear and do a little shopping. Once the owner Dan, found out that we - a married couple - were going up to the mountain and that my husband was going to try to teach me how to telemark, with fear in his eye he quickly pulled me aside to do a quick land lesson as Mike went off to shop around. It was great! He told me about stance, why telemarking is a bit more stable, where to hold my hands and eventually he and I were doing a little "first dance" side to side dance action. You know the one, where you just kind of move your feet side to side and snap your fingers randomly. If Duran Duran had been on, I would have been right back in sixth grade!

We made our purchases went off with well wishes and were on our way.

Mike and I headed up to the mountain this morning and got ready to go. Mike helped me get my kit all together (I'm a little like a child when it comes to ski clothes.... need to make sure I'm all tucked in). And then he helped me understand these new skis and bindings. Once I was in, we made our way over to the bunny hill. As we were headed over we said hello to one of the gals working at the mountain. I joyously told her that I was learning to telemark ski and she was quickly interested:

"Oh, and is this your partner here?

"Yes, that's my husband..."

"Well, you know, in order to keep everything happy in your marriage, we have a great ski school instructor named....."

"Oh ok, thanks, I think we'll be ok..."
She came in a little more closely, pretending to be interested in my very sweet -and I'm not being sarcastic here - rental gear.

"Seriously, his name is....."

If she had been wearing a trenchcoat, I would be thinking I would be getting a great deal on some knock off watches....

We both laughed.... probably a little more hesitantly since we had just gotten into a tiff on a hike the day before...

We thanked her for her recommendation and got on our merry way.

Luckily when we hit the lift it was still early and we were some of the first on the hill. We did a quick first run to just get my feet under me - I am used to alpine skiing and you can use alpine turns on tele skis. I happily told the ski lift operator, a man in his mid-fifties, that I made it down and only fell when I fell on purpose!! He laughed at me - yes, I'm sure it was AT me - and we were back on our way. Mike gave me some tips on how to make a tele-turn and I started practicing. I had it to the right but needed work on turning left. It felt fairly natural to me, unlike alpine skiing which was always a struggle for me. My low center of gravity and my being vertically challenged were on my side. Our friends came down the hill to see how I was getting on - Mike took off with them to do "real skiing" and I took a few more rides up and down. I'm not saying that I'm off the bunny hill yet, but I feel like I can actually do it and move on to the next level! I love it!

Needless to say, it was a great day. Mike was a great coach and no tiffs, fights, or troubles to be found. Well, that was until a guy almost plowed my husband over in his SUV on our way to the parking lot.... but even that was settled after a few words....

And we are back tomorrow AM - hopefully it goes as well as today :)

My sweet rental gear - I could only hope for skis this nice...

Showing off my tele stance on the flats

Getting deeper into my lunge...

Falling down because I was trying to be funny.... that's what I get!

Tired from skiing and some cute hat head!

Giddy after a good day!

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