Telemark Skiing

I started out cross-country skiing in the winter of 1999-2000, after moving to Seattle. I started telemark skiing more seriously in the winter of 2000-2001. At ski areas, I ski mostly black runs, and get into the backcountry whenever I can find partners. The little backcountry skiing I've done has shown me it is a lot harder than skiing in area.

This is what happens on the day after Christmas, when Santa is off work (63K JPEG). I am posing on the Muir Snowfield of Mt. Rainier, looking towards Mt. Adams.

This movie from early 2003, primarily goes to show how much I've improved since then. I am showing off my dreadful pole and hand position, and lack of edge control (1.1Mb MPEG). The video was taken using my old camera, a Canon PowerShot S200, edited using VirtualDub and then converted with TMPGEnc.

By late 2003 my technique has improved significantly. This video clip was taken using my new camera, a Canon PowerShot S400 (3.4 Mb MPEG).

Just occasionally, it snows enough in Seattle to ski! This is what happened during the January 2004 snowstorm (3Mb MPEG).

Sometimes I get in to the backcountry. Here I am skiing in the Mount Rainier National Park (48K JPEG). Photo copyright Ron Jarvis, January 2004.

I am regrettably accident prone. This spectacular crash would have been funny, had it not hurt my knee again, and stopped me from skiing for a while. My stance was a bit low, and a bit spread out, but I don't think I did anything too stupid. Just bad luck, I guess.

Last modified on 12th February 2004 by angus@harlequin.com