Spotting telemark skiers on Central Oregon slopes — a rare sight these days — is akin to glimpsing a mountain quail or a sage grouse. Sure, they live here, but they’re rare birds indeed.

Telemark skiers are nearly indistinguishable from alpine skiers, but once they begin making the discipline’s signature turn, the outliers quickly reveal themselves. The “tele turn” features a lunging motion that takes weight off the uphill ski and lifts its heel. The result is an unmistakable motion.

Bend resident and ski instructor Greg Dixon has an eye for telemark skiers.

“Every day I ski, I see two dozen tele skiers. Granted, I have good eyesight,” he said of his time at Mt. Bachelor ski area. “But they’re out there.”

Telemark skiing is named after the Telemark region in Norway, where Sondre Norheim innovated alpine — or downhill — skiing in the 1860s, according to the U.S. Telemark Ski Association. In the 20th century, the contemporary “parallel turn” was developed and became the alpine norm. By affixing the ski boots’ heels to the bindings, skiers were able to scrub speed by shifting their weight and carving on their ski edges. In the 1970s, telemark skiing experienced a revival among skiers who wanted to trade over-crowded ski resorts for adventures in the backcountry.

Dixon runs clinics for the Professional Ski Instructors of America, an organization that trains ski instructors throughout the country, including at Mt. Bachelor. When Dixon, who is 43 and has telemark skied for 18 years, spots a fellow “tele’r” or a “telemarker” in a lift line, he often grabs the same bench so they can chat on the way to the top.

“I think people like that. There was a time when telemarkers were bonded together,” said Dixon, a member of the organization’s telemark division, who telemark skis almost as much as he alpine skis. “We’re a tight-knit community. I do feel like that has been lost a bit.”

Telemark skiing still enjoys pockets of popularity, such as at the Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado, Grand Targhee Resort in Wyoming and Alpine Meadows Ski Resort in California, said Dixon, who travels the country’s resorts for work. There, telemark festivals and clinics dot event calendars, yet at Mt. Bachelor, demand for telemark lessons has dwindled. The Mt. Bachelor ski area stopped offering group telemark lessons, called “Tele Tuesdays.” The only option for telemark instruction is to shell out for a private, one-on-one lesson with an instructor, Dixon said. But all Mt. Bachelor instructors — who are all Professional Ski Instructors of America-certified — can teach telemark skiing.

“If you already know how to alpine ski, there is no reason to learn how to telemark ski. There’s no benefit to it,” Dixon said. “But telemark skiing is a lot of fun.”

An endangered discipline?

Over the past decade, alpine touring gear manufacturers scooped much of the backcountry skiers who’d previously used telemark gear by creating an almost identical binding and boot system, according to a recent article in Powder Magazine. Alpine touring bindings mimic those for telemark in that they feature a free-able heel and boot hinge that allows for the same classic ski shuffle that had previously only been possible with telemark skis.

Despite telemark skiing’s legacy, there is no real advantage to telemark skiing over alpine, although the discipline has its appeal. Accomplished alpine skiers who want more of a challenge will turn to telemark skiing, Dixon said. Accordingly, telemark skiing is also attractive to alpine skiing parents whose children are learning to ski — mastering the “tele turn” gives parents something to do while gliding at kid-friendly speeds.

“People who pick up telemark skiing just like the essence of it. A lot of people look at it and think it’s a more beautiful turn, more artful and more individualistic,” he said. “Everyone I know who telemarks is very passionate about it. It’s a niche sport that not everybody is into, and they like that part of it.”

A love of telemark skiing has given way to a pride that can sometimes border on arrogance. Prickly bumper stickers have cropped up at ski resorts: “Nobody cares that you tele.” Some telemark devotees responded with gender-specific stickers of their own: “Your boyfriend cares that I tele,” Dixon recalled seeing. “The joke is: ‘How do you know if someone is a tele skier? They’ll tell you.’”

‘Free your heel, mind’

Dixon said the spectacle of a skier making telemark turns can be a conversation starter. For many people whom Dixon had taught to telemark ski, they were first inspired by seeing others make the iconic drop-knee turns on the hill. The “tele turn” requires practice and balance. Dixon begins his lessons by explaining how telemark skiing requires a completely different stance than alpine or snowboarding, which both rely on the athletic stance that lines up the head, knees and toes. The telemark stance, which a skier assumes while turning, involves a deep lunge, with a boot’s length between the leading foot and the rear. An upright torso, necessary to apply sufficient pressure to the rear ski, gives the impression of the skier sitting in a chair.

“(Typically) with telemark, you’re not concerned with how fast, and efficiently, you can get down the hill,” Dixon said. “It’s more about the turns. For a lot of people, telemark is about making each individual turn and the feeling you get from that. It’s really hard to tell somebody, ‘Nope, your technique is wrong.’ There may be a more efficient way to do it, but I’m not going to tell you that you can’t do that movement that you like to do. I tell my telemark coaches: Don’t be so concerned about making sure people are making the perfect turn the way you want them to do it. Allow for style. Allow for people to enjoy whatever kind of turn they want to throw out there.”

When he conducts a group telemark lesson, students show up with a variety of set-ups. They range from classic skis to wider backcountry touring skis whose base features fish scales. Sometimes their skis also feature three-pin bindings, which was the go-to binding system for decades but is primitive by modern standards. Accordingly, people who pick up telemark skiing don’t mind sticking out from the crowd.

“A lot of telemark skiers are the kind of people who don’t want lessons. They want to figure it out by themselves. They’re athletic people who are go-getters, and they don’t want to be told, ‘This is how you have to ski.’ That’s why I don’t think telemark ski lessons have been a big thing.”

Forever niche

Several Bend ski shops carry telemark equipment. Webskis carries the traditional three-pin binding, which fits a variety of new yet classic-styled “duck bill” boots, which Gear Fix stocks. Pine Mountain Sports and Mountain Supply offer the modern New Telemark Norm bindings, which are more closely related to modern alpine touring bindings. Modern alpine skis — which feature side cuts and single camber — round out a telemark ski set-up.

Dixon believes telemark skiing will always exist — in a niche.

“People say tele is dead, or in my world, they say ‘How do we grow tele?’ And neither of those things are ever going to happen. There is no need to make tele bigger, and it is never going to die. It’s always going to be in its own little world. The people who telemark ski are super passionate about it, and they’ll keep the sport going.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@bendbulletin.com