The Norwegian skier Sondre Ouverson Norheim developed a new style of skiing. In 1886 he impressed the skiing community with his new turning technique. At this time Norheim was able to jump on skis about 30.5 m (aprox 100 ft) and he organized the first Nordic Downhill competition. The term "Telemark" for his type of turning was given by the residents of Christiana, today's Oslo. Norheims home the little town of Morgedal was located in the Telemark region west of Oslo. In a race at the "Huseby Hill" the athletes from Christiana couldn't compete against Torjus Hemmestveit, one of Norheim's students. An other reason for the new name was to differentiate between the two turning techniques. This created an ongoing competition between the Telemark turn and the Christiana turn. In 1884 Norheim immigrated to the United States and taught his Telemark turn in the new world.

Norway and specially the region of Telemark counts as the birthplace of today's modern skiing. Skis were already known for a long time and used for walking across the snow. It made transportation for farmers and hunters in the northern European countries with long and cold winters possible. Residents of the little town of Morgedal in the Telemark region were gathering regularly on Sundays to enjoy some fun times on their skis together in the surrounding hills. Some of them entertained with jumps from snow covered roofs of little farm building. One of the ski acrobats was Sondre. He was improving his ski equipment and his skiing technique to become more efficient and faster on skis. His style of turning is known today as the Telemark Turn. Sondre was an excellent craftsman as well and he was building skis and incorporated new technology into his designs. Sondre was the first who crafted skis with a side cut in order to make them turn more easy.

At the turn of the century in the European Alps the "Parallel Technique", which was taught by Mathias Zdarsky, became more popular over the Telemark turn. The Tele-turn disappeared in the regions of the Alps almost completely until it had a revival in the 1980's lead by American skiers who rediscovered the Telemark technique in the 1970's.

Today

Telemark Skiing in the Alps is not as widespread as on the North American Continent. One of the biggest differences between both worlds is that in America many of the Backcountry skiers are on Telemark gear compare to Europe where Alpine Touring equipment dominates. In the beginnings of modern Telemark skiing in Europe it was very challenging to find gear. If someone was looking for bindings or boots, you needed good connections to find ski shops carrying Telmark equipment. When I started Telemarking in 1990 the group of local Telemark skiers in our town counted about 20. Since then the group grew just a little bit to maybe 30 individuals.

In the 90's the development of modern telemark equipment came to it's peak. The first plastic telemark boot was introduced to the market and revolutionized the technique, control about speed and pushed the limit of Big Mountain skiing. The stiffer boots required different bindings to optimize it's advantages and to transfer the forces better to the ski. More about TM hardware on the Gear Page.

Telemark Technique - The main feature of the Telemark technique is the free heel. The ski boot is connected to the ski only at the toe. Telemark boots need to be flexible at the bellows to execute the distinctive telemark stance. The proper telemark stance will require to push the outside ski (of the turn) in front of the other and bending the forward leg. The rear leg will drop the knee under the skier's body weight. The forward ski will lead into the turn and falline followed by the rear ski. After crossing the fall line the skier will alter the ski position and anticipate the following turn.