This winter the Sun Valley Telemark Race Series rings in its 27th consecutive year as the longest continuously run telemark series in the country! Our series today evolved from the original 3-pin Downhill and “Pins of Fear” on Baldy in the early 70’s.
The 2006-2007 series consists of four events including a GS on Dollar Mountain, a Classic Terrain Race on Bald Mountain and Soldier Mountain, a night race at Rotorun Ski Area and the infamous Hawaiian Nationals showcasing the Tandem Telemark Challenge - two skiers on one pair of skis negotiating a modified slalom course (Three intrepid skiers launched their own class years ago). Snowboarders are also welcome to participate but, sorry no alpine.
The Telemark turn came to the attention of the Norwegian public in 1868, when Sondre Norheim took part in a ski competition. Norheim’s technique of fluid turns soon dominated skiing, and in Norway it continued to do well into the next century. Starting in the1910s, newer techniques based on the stem gradually replaced Telemark in the Alpine countries. Newer techniques were easier to master and enabled shorter turns better suited for steeper alpine terrain andskiing downhill. The Telemark turn became the technique of ski touring in rolling terrain.
The technique is named after the Telemark region of Norway, just as the Stem Christie turn was named after Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. Not only did Sondre Norhiem and his fellow skiers invent the telemark turn, but they used and refined parallel skiing techniques as well. Thus, while the telemark is part of early skiing’s foundation, so are parallel techniques of equal importance.
