Monday, November 10, 2008

Early Season Backcountry Telemarking in Basque Spain

As I noted earlier, this season has been off to a slow start. This is especially true for the backcountry. I've been itching to get back up into the alpine after the trail running season came to a close a couple weeks ago, but we just have not had the snow cover. A few places have seen some coverage, but it really has not been worth it to skin in and get some good turns in. Hopefully soon. Instead, most telemarkers in Colorado have been relegated to the famous "White Strips of Death" that show up on A-Basin and Loveland every October. Luckily, that season is over, although it was fun (here is some footage from this year's A-Basin WSOD - telemarking switch keeps it interesting).

It looks like our friends over in the Basque country of Europe have beat us to some good backcountry off-piste telemarking this year. Here are a few photos from the Bask Telemark Klub on a recent outing in the Basque area mountains. Wish we had that kind of coverage here in Colorado. Soon...

Telemarking in Spain

Spain San Lorenzo Telemarking

Telemarking in San Lorenzo Spain

2 comments:

  1. Pete, Thanks for making me feel a little better for owning so many skis. I find admiration and intrigue in indigenous cultures. I wonder at your ability to delve into it. learning about indigenous peoples makes accepting my role in the western civilized world increasilngly difficult. Do you know what happened to the Arapahoe Tribe(s) gene pool? I've worked in Niwot(Chief Left Hand's town) for 2 years. I have only ever witnessed one native looking person in the town, the guy carving the statue.

    P.S. I hunted down some turns on Vet's day! http://gooneyriders.typepad.com/gooney_riders/2008/11/sneaking-one.html

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  2. Nice to see some people getting early turns. We went up to a small stash on Wednesday near the Urad Mine. More hiking then skiing, but still a beautiful day.

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