Telemark skiing celebrated at Whitecap

By TOM LAVENTURE

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UPSON, Wis. — It was a celebration of the “FreeHeelers” and the “tele-turn” this weekend as skiers from around the region attended World Telemark Day at Whitecap Mountain Resort.

Keith Opperman, the designated “Midwest Telemark Ambassador” for Telemarkdown, a ski manufacturer in New Hampshire, said he and fellow telemark skiers Steve Benson and Matt Menders, organized the free demonstration event with equipment provided by the manufacturer.

“It’s been six years since there was a demonstration event in the (northwest Wisconsin) area,” Opperman said. “Now we’re just kicking it off.”

Opperman has been telemarking for 30 years but he said there’s always something new to learn. It was was very popular in the 1980s but fell out of fashion, he said. Improvements in equipment has helped bring about a resurgence in popularity along with the skiers desire for new challenges.

“It gives you more freedom for one,” Opperman said.

Telemark skiers enjoy the versatility of being able to ski the resort hills or the trails and woods of the back country, he said. Skiers traverse like a cross-country skier but have control on the big downhill runs.

“When you get bored with the small hills it creates a whole new thrill,” he said. “There are so many variations of the telemark turn.”

Olaf Kirsten, of Washburn, Wisconsin, said he wanted to try out the new telemark skis and equipment. His older gear was made when telemark skis were thinner and skiers wore leather boots that fit into cable bindings.

“It was totally old school,” Kirsten said.

The new skis are shorter and wider to allow more control of the telemark turn. This is where the skier moves one ski forward with the knee bent and heel up, which causes the skis to change direction.

Which gear does he prefer?

“I’ll tell you after a couple of runs,” Kirsten said.

Anthony Tschann, of Duluth, said he’s been telemark skiing since 1994. At that time it was just about being more affordable, but then he saw telemark skiing as being well-suited for smaller Midwestern hills or even to go ice fishing.

Tschann said Whitecap is a good hill for telemark skiing.

“I like the layout of the hill,” Tschann said. “They’ve got challenging runs; they’ve got easy runs, and it’s laid back.

Shawna Monroe, of Park Falls, said she watched an employer telemark ski and thought it was beautiful to watch. She was searching for a class and thought the Whitecap event was a great setting to try out the latest demonstration gear on actual slopes and in the company of experts.

“It’s a whole different system,” Monroe said. “I’m just going to go up a little hill and try these out.”

Randy Lundberg has a long history with the resort and spent part of the summer thinning out trees on a hill between slopes. The telemark skiers showed how the skis safely navigate the tightly wooded spaces and Whitecap Hardcore, a regional snowboarder group, recently organized the Blades of Glory extreme boarding event.

“They made the equipment safer and more fun at the same time,” Lundberg said. “They work really good with carving. The better you get the more fun it is.”

Nate Stephenson, of Wrenshall, Minnesota, said this was his second time at Whitecap and his third time at a World Telemark Day event.

“These events are about the people,” Stephenson said. “You come to stuff like this and there are people from all over. Some of these guys you see once or twice a year and so you just talk about life, I guess.”

After chatting it up outside the Wine Hut, where they were checking out gear at the demonstration area.

“It’s the way it feels, I guess. More freedom,” Stephenson said. “Telemarking means it doesn’t matter if you’re going up or down the hill.”

David Dziuban, resort owner, said Whitecap is unique in that it has a varied terrain. It has some of the steepest terrain in the state but also has very nice cruiser trails for beginners.

“This gives an excellent experience for everyone, whether they are alpine skiing or telemark skiing or snowboarding,” Dziuban said.

Telemark skiing is enjoying a resurgence with advances in composite materials and design, he said. The skiers also enjoy the get-away-from-it-all resort setting with a hotel and rental residences, music every weekend and a restaurant, and of course, the Wine Hut out on the slopes, he said.

“So we are very happy to host this event here and we look forward to many more in the future,” Dziuban said.

Matt Menders organizes the Midwest Tele-Fest at Porcupine Mountains ever second weekend of February. The 30-year-old event draws a couple hundred people with a lot of competitions.

“We like to say it’s the most fun way to slide down snow,” Menders said.

He also enjoyed the less formal start of the Whitecap event. It’s a more appropriate venue for National Telemark Day, he said.

“It’s one of the biggest acreages of ski area in the Midwest and we want to help them be successful here as well,” he said.