Customer Reviews

Free-Heel Skiing: Telemark and Parallel Techniques for All Conditions (Mountaineers Outdoor Expert)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Paul Parker wrote the definitive discourse on off-the-run skiing with his first edition of this book. Time has only improved it. Every skier from the expert backcountry telemarker to the improving bunny-hill snowplower MUST read this book. What Mr. Parker has done is to condense all the theories and techniques and observations of the skiing community into a simple, progressive instructional guide. He starts with very basic snowplowing and ends with telemarking, and in between shows how all the different styles are linked and flow into each other. All of it is described with marvelous clarity and engaging style. The 2nd edition adds stories, commentaries, and pictures which motivate the reader to get out into the snow and play! My only complaint is that they don't publish a waterproof small-size edition that I can take out skiing with me!

The author does a good job providing tips and lessons for all levels. What I like most about it is that the author does all this very concisely making this book a quick and effective read. After reading this book, I've experienced some 'breakthroughs' and have taken my skiing to the next level. My only minor complaint is that the illustrations are somewhat lacking but I would not hesitate to buy the book because of this.

Anyone interested in learning more about free-heel skiing would benefit from reading this book. Tips and discussion about technique, various conditions, and equipment make it a valuable resource to students as well as instructors. It also covers BOTH turn options: tele and parallel. Remember - it's a turn, not a religion. For what it's worth, I highly recommend it.

The book is wonderful.

It is abound with simple, practical, and easy to remember helpful hints;I call them little golden nuggets of information that you take with you on each run, or even turn, as you practice your downhill ski skills On or Off Piste.

It also has a wonderful introduction to the history of skiing and a very honest analysis/assessment of telemark gear.

It is incredibly suited for all beginner and intermediate tele-skiers.

This book has an informal, yet competant, style. I have found it useful from my beginning training to my current intermediate level. Paul seems to really know the sport and how to teach it, and includes a number of interesting stories that relate technique and practise through his own (top)touring experience.

Great book that all free heel skiers should read. Eye opener is that "Telemark" is just a turn - free heel skiing is hell of a lot more. Good reasoning why you should do the tele the way Mr Parker is proposing. This book changed my free heel skiing for good.

I am pretty sure a new edition will come out soon, given the rapidity of gear evolution. The basics remain the same --- the technique just gets refined and simplified over time. Except for the telemark technique, this book can be read with profit by any skier, alpine or nordic.

This is an excellent and ambitious book- assuming the reader has practically no experience, it systematically takes the reader through wedge christies, stem christies, and ends up in the telemark turn. What I find even more appealing, however, is the author's philosophy that he repeats throughout the book- telemark is a TURN, not a sport, and it finds its place among the many other turns in a modern skier's toolbox. He therefore teaches parallel turns as well, which in my mind is a terrific approach. As the author states, and as even the most evangelical telemark skier will admit if pressed, there are situations where the parallel turn is simply more stable and desirable (for example, in icy, hairy terrain), and the versatile skier should be able to move fluidly between techniques as the skiing demands. This idea is integral to Paul Parker's book. I wish more telemark skiers would adopt it.

I give it four stars only because the gear section of the book is substantially outdated, although it's still largely applicable.

If you read this book and put the time on your boards to back it up, you will become a better skier!

Using only this book and a few random tips from strangers, I picked up telemarking in two days. (I also started with 25 years of alpine experience.) This book is clear, concise, and effective. It made all the difference in the world in getting me skiing expert trails reasonably well by the end of my second day. I am nowhere near handling moguls, glades, ice, cornices, etc., but I did have twenty or so graceful, linked turns in a steep bowl

If you are an intermediate Telemark skier, and wants too ski down that steep-brakable-crust slope: this is the book for you.

Very good book in describing different techniques for all conditions. There is an extensice beginners-part as well.

Thank for the book, Paul