Tele Clinic at Apex

Not really a trip report per se. On Saturday we went to a telemark clinic at Apex that was organized by the ACC Okanagan section.

The instructor was Fred Waldron, a fella we ski with regularly. He raced for the national ski team a few years back and has a very groovy "Canada" logo on his ski pants to prove it (chicks dig it).

It was a good chance to get some mileage on the new skis and bindings (Jak BC's and 7tm tours) in a more controlled environment. In deep snow I've been struggling a bit with the skis -- mostly bad tip dive but also just general weirdness (read "bad skiing"). It's odd -- I didn't have that problem when I tried Damon's skis in the spring (same bindings and skis although his skis were 179 vs 174).

I'm a little suspicious that the bindings are mounted too far forwards. Although they're mounted with the pins at Karhu's recommended location there has been lots of chatter on Telemarktips about this point being kinda wonky. That and the stickers that are used to mark the recommended mounting points were slightly different on each ski!

Anyway they worked really well at the resort so it isn't a problem inherent in the bindings or skis. I'll give it a few more weeks before thinking any more about moving the bindings further back.

Why is telemark gear such a pain in the ass? You always need to file this or Dremel that or modify the other thing just to make it work the way it's supposed to work in the first place. Yurgh! More on this later.