Long ago, during a time much different than today, telemark wasn’t just en vogue. It held the distinction of being the technique of the backcountry skier in North America. That cachet stoked strong demand, and the telemark marketplace of the new millennium teemed with gear. Years before social media and smartphones, when ski towns were quiet and affordable and the jamband ethos still had strength, legacy free-heel models abounded while new SKUs routinely came to market–even from alpine brands. In those halcyon Y2K days, several boot manufacturers offered entire stables of duckbilled footwear, and a slew of companies new and old then stocked myriad binding and ski options for the free-heel skier.
To speak of that era is to almost invoke dinosaurs and Bronze Age civilizations. The current telemark retail landscape so little resembles this bygone zenith of commerce that it seems fantastical. But that hasn’t stopped the misty-eyed nostalgics of the telemark world from dreaming of its return.
Because it wasn’t just boutique free-heel brands that were ascendent, like the renowned companies Karhu and Garmont, who were then so eminent that a few of their models survive to this day, quietly living on, though under new banners. Both brands are now long since gone.
In a reality that now seems fanciful, mainstream ski companies that would later find themselves far from the telemark world were actually integral to its rise. Black Diamond, the climbing outfit built from the ashes of Chouinard Equipment, not only carried a line of bindings; their relationship with Scarpa made them an essential force in the creation of the first all-plastic telemark boot, eventually leading to their own well-remembered if now departed line.
Even a plethora of skis, from Rossignol’s Sickbird series to Mike Hattrup’s definitive K2 models, gave telemark skiers specific options marketed for their entire rig: boot, binding, ski and all. And all could be found far and wide–from the shelves of core retailers to the many skiing publications then still in print; telemark advertisements gracing their glossy pages for the skiing masses to see.
The paradigm has indeed shifted. Even as the sport seems to be in resurgence, telemark retail hasn’t meaningfully recovered from its precipitous fall at the hands of alpine touring bindings and a skiing populace fatigued by free-heeling Deadheads. The time before with its assemblage of mainstream outfits bringing telemark gear to market now seems not only twenty years removed, but light years from the current gear landscape.
But the dream of rekindling the attention of larger makers has long danced in the telemark hivemind. Maybe, just maybe, a scenario could play out where tele skiers wouldn’t just get new gear from their own steadfast makers. Perhaps the titans of the fixed heel world would jump in again with their gigantic manufacturing capabilities, and inject lowly telemark with a massive dose of R&D.
So could a bigger manufacturer come back to telemark?
Jason Quintana–an engineering graduate of both Dartmouth and Stanford who was the chief designer of Scarpa’s T2eco boot in the nineties–has long been tapped into the business of telemark gear development. His experience includes a long stint as a consultant to Black Diamond’s telemark department, where he authored two patents. And to this day he designs and 3D prints his own releasable telemark bindings.
Laying out a vision of a big alpine player going for it in the telemark boot space, Quintana invokes the hypothetical example of a mainline manufacturer hiring a telemarker to lead the department.
“It would have to be something like that, where somebody that's the ski boot line manager just loves telemarking and sees an opportunity for a minimal investment,” says Quintana. “Because they’re doing this full line of alpine molds anyway and the boot happens to be well set up so that they could do an insert in the mold to put a bellows in and then just use the more expensive Pebax material for the telemark version.”
But Quintana sees this possibility as fraught with the dearth of telemark skiers not just in general, but in design and decision-making roles at the larger manufacturers.
“If it's an alpine-based company that doesn't have any history of telemark, it doesn't have any passion in the engineers and the managers there. It's just not going to happen,” Quintana says. “Because it's still not going to make any business sense to come out with a dedicated telemark boot, it would have to be something that they leveraged other investments to enable. I could see it happening, but it has to be the right personalities at the right time.”
The luck of having the right personalities at the right time has seemed instrumental in recent telemark manufacture and innovation. Kim Miller, Scarpa North America CEO–himself long a telemark skier–has been credited for playing an outsized role in the telemark bootmaker staying on the free-heel path. Their revamped TX Pro marked the first meaningful upgrade to telemark boots in nearly a decade.
As ever, the business case of a new telemark model was unavoidably necessary to vet. “There always needs to be a business case,” Miller says.
Miller details how manufacturing and business strategy in something as esoteric and small as telemark comes with unique nuance, even for a company as dominant in the space as Scarpa is, creating a specific scenario for feasibility.
“It seems like a very small market, that’s certainly how it appears,” says Miller. “But here’s the deal–it’s not just about the size of the market but it’s about the market share from a business case perspective. We’re basically the only ones doing telemark boots–there’s a few other brands out there doing it but I’d say not to the level we have. So small market but big market share is the relationship that makes it economically viable, if I can be so bold to use that term,” Miller says laughing.
While this allows a larger company with a free-heel background like Scarpa to continue taking the plunge into telemark, no other mainstream-adjacent maker stands in the same shoes, making the entrance into the realm daunting–and risky–for other makers.
But one mainstream player did indeed have a dominating presence in the telemark world, and their free-heel arc is to this day seen as the exemplar of a mainline ski company changing the scope of telemark. That company is K2, whose telemark and randonee ski division–legendarily led by Mike Hattrup of Blizzard of Ahhhs fame–impacted the sport writ large. And Hattrup’s insights bring to light not only how much the manufacturing landscape has changed for telemark equipment, it also shows the challenges a mainstream maker would have diving into that space today.
In the nineties, as shaped skis began to take off, Hattrup and K2 were bent on innovating, and were amongst the first brands to drop straight skis and offer only the cut hourglass planks of the new era. And as a hard-skiing alpiner and late convert to the free-heel technique, Hattrup also saw the promise in Scarpa’s Terminator–the first all-plastic telemark boot–launched in 1992.
“I knew that shape was better and it didn't matter if you were making a tele turn or an alpine turn, shape was superior. And so I leaned into it right away,” remembers Hattrup. “And I also recognized that as an alpine skier that plastic was better than leather. So we really steered our whole collection towards plastic boots and shaped skis.”
K2 would lead the charge on the telemark-specific ski front during the second wave of free-heel skiing precipitated by those plastic boots, a reign that would make the brand ubiquitous as the sport rose. They were early or first to market with many telemark offerings, including mid-fat, fat, twin-tip, and women’s models.
The brand would come to dominate the telemark ski world, where for a time they accounted for nearly half of all skis sold in that market. But that time wouldn’t–that time couldn’t last. When asked to parrot Scarpa’s Kim Miller that there must have been a strong business case for K2 to go all-in on telemark models, Hattrup smiles. “Well, yes and no,” he says.
“Part of the reason we were able to do it is because all those molds had been built by the alpine demand, right? So, we couldn't have done what we did if we had to pay for all the back end of it from an engineering and development standpoint,” Hattrup says, echoing Jason Quintana, the developer of the T2eco. “So we were able to piggyback on our alpine department from that standpoint. That helped us against companies like Tua or Karhu that were telemark-only. They just didn’t have the resources of a big alpine brand.”
While that position allowed K2 to take advantage of the strong vibe telemark then enjoyed, it was beholden to the economies of scale of the alpine end of the business, and was never designed to be sustained by telemark sales. And as skis got wider, and alpine touring bindings progressed and became more available (Hattrup references the Fritschi Diamir) demand for telemark–before viewed as the standard gear for accessing the backcountry–cratered. Hattrup remembers that legacy telemark shops themselves began to pivot as the market shifted.
“Eventually our telemark dealers were asking for some of our alpine skis and more and more they were looking for stronger, burlier skis,” Hattrup says. As telemark fell out of favor as the aughts turned late, and K2’s swelling lines of alpine, randonee, and telemark skis became redundant, the fate of the division was sealed. “That's when we blended the line. We killed K2 telemark–which was a sad day–and started K2 Backside,” Hattrup recalls.
Much has changed since then. Notions of telemark-specific skis have more or less evaporated in the free-heel world, with most skiers finding what they need from existing alpine models–though Bishop Telemark’s boutique line marks an interesting counterpoint to that. Moreover, while the sport appears to be rising again, telemark remains a backwater to the wider ski industry.
Asked if it might be possible for a mainstream manufacturer to enter the telemark space again, Hattrup shakes his head. “No. Sorry. Short, blunt answer,” he says laughing.
Hattrup elaborates: “The market's not big enough. The market shrunk since back when I was doing it. The early 2000s was the heyday of telemark. That's when it was as big as it has ever gotten. And it was still tiny. Even for K2, which was the number one ski brand, it was a tiny business.”
Alas, the fantasy that the mainstream makers could return to the telemark world may yet ever remain a dream. Not only has the notion of telemark as touring gear par excellence been turned on its head, so, too, has the elder industrial paradigm telemark previously existed in. Even as the sport seems to be rising anew, there still appears to be little appetite–or free-heel passion–from the mainstream companies to return to the fold and leverage their alpine prowess toward telemark models. Telemark was previously a desperately small part of the alpine makers’ business, and a still-diminished modern free-heel scene would amount to even less now.
But that certainly doesn’t mean all is lost. Telemark is still blessed with its own cadre of manufacturers. Some–like Voile–have not only been with the sport through ebb and flow, but, not unlike the bigger firms, even make gear for other pursuits. The Turn even still has its very own long-standing mainstream-adjacent maker ever keeping the lights on in the footwear department–Italian bootmaker Scarpa. And while it may be a long shot to see telemark attract the big manufacturers again, it nevertheless seems to be enjoying a renaissance, one even apparent to those now outside the scene.
“There aren't nearly as many ski retailers that are selling tele now, but every time I talk to somebody who is, they're doing well with it,” says Hattrup. “So I think it's all just concentrated to a few shops in different locations and those guys are getting all the business. But it's good to hear that it's still viable for those shops.”
As ever, telemark is left to its own devices–the silver lining of its isolation from the mainstream being that free-heel skiing retains its legacy of independence and autonomy. That’s long been part of an ethos built around a harder turn taken to by a nucleus of do-it-yourselfers who above all else want to ski in–and make gear for–the genuflecting style.
While their resources and R&D budgets make dreamers out of many a telemark skier, free-heel skiing neither lives nor dies on the whims of the alpine makers.
And maybe that’s not just the modern reality. Perhaps it’s also a good thing.
More must-reads:
Get the latest news and rumors, customized to your favorite sports and teams. Emailed daily. Always free!
A team that has gone through several changes already this summer, the Vancouver Canucks remain active, currently engaged in discussions with unrestricted free agent forward Jack Roslovic. According to reports from Rick Dhaliwal and Cam Robinson, the organization has spoken to Roslovic on several occasions and are still interested in potentially signing him to a free agency deal. Roslovic posted 39 points in 81 games for the Carolina Hurricanes in 2024-25. He is reportedly seeking a two- or three-year deal worth just over $3 million annually. Roslovic could be a solid middle-six contributor for an NHL team, but there is some concern over whether he’s a needle mover. He could be a solution for Canucks, who need a true third-line center, but some wonder if he’s the best place to be using the little cap flexibility Vancouver has. A Roslovic signing would take up much of the $3.2 million available to add to the roster. Can the Canucks work the math out on Roslovic? At this stage of free agency, it’s about finding value in overlooked talent. Roslovic likely won’t be a dynamic top producer, but he has value. The question is if Vancouver can make the math work. He could provide reliable depth scoring, but is that where the money should go? Some believe the Canucks would be better served by taking a bigger swing. On his own, Roslovic likely doesn’t move the Canucks into contender status.
Mike Matheson may not be in the Montreal Canadiens’ long-term plans, but he fits the lineup now Dan Rosen of NHL.com: Montreal Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson has a year left on his contract and it still an important piece to their blue line. Lane Hutson will need a new deal after next season, and it could exceed Noah Dobson’s $9.5 million. Ivan Demidov will need a huge deal in two years. The Canadiens top four beyond next season will likely consist of Hutson and Kaiden Guhle on the left side and Dobson and David Reinbacher on the right. Right-handed Alexandre Carrier has two years left, and they have LHD of Jayden Struble (RFA) and Arber Xhakaj (one year away from RFA). NHLRumors: Rossi and Wild at Contract Impasse Potential trade destinations for Jason Robertson Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet: A look at seven teams that could be potential trade destinations for Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson. The 25-year-old Robertson carries a $7.75 million cap hit for one more season. He’ll be an RFA after next year and would be a UFA the following year. He doesn’t have any trade protection but does have some leverage if he were to indicate whether he’d sign an extension with a potential team acquiring him or not. Los Angeles Kings – Hometown team, and they could be looking to add more scoring. Immediate business for the Kings is that they need to re-sign RFA Alex Laferriere, and Adrian Kempe is extension-eligible. Carolina Hurricanes – Already signed Nikolaj Ehlers, but could use some more scoring. Could the Stars reacquire some of the picks they sent in the Mikko Rantanen deal? Washington Capitals – Would need to move out some salary, and could be some scoring insurance depending on Alex Ovechkin’s future. Additional scoring for next year would be welcomed. Columbus Blue Jackets – Would the Stars be interested in winger Dmitri Voronkov? The Blue Jackets made him available in Noah Dobson trade talks. Detroit Red Wings – The Red Wings may need to go the trade route to add scoring, as they weren’t even able to talk to UFAs they would have been interested in. Seattle Kraken – The Kraken could use some high-end scoring. Have the cap space and multiple first-round picks in the next two drafts. Utah Mammoth – If the Stars are looking for a current NHLer in the return, maybe Nick Schmaltz at $5.85 million could fit into their top-six. The Mammoth have three 2026 second-round picks and prospects as well.
New York Yankees top prospect Spencer Jones is absolutely scorching hot at the plate right now, as he's hit three home runs in the first five innings on Thursday for the Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders. With 29 home runs, Jones now has the minor league lead in home runs. He's played only 67 games this season between Double-A and Triple-A, making his season even more impressive. He's hitting .308 for the season. SPENCER JONES THREE-HOMER GAME! and it's only the 5th lol The @Yankees prospect ties, takes and extends the MiLB HR lead with a big day for the @swbrailriders. He has 29 this season. Ranked as the No. 4 prospect in the organization by MLB Pipeline, Jones is an interesting conversation point for the Yankees right now. Do they bring him up to the big leagues and let him try to help a team that has fallen to four games back in the American League East? Do they let him stay in Triple-A, where he's only played 18 games, and continue to develop? Do they include him in a trade at the deadline in order to go get help for the MLB roster? Or, do they make him off-limits in any talks? It's all part of the calculus for general manager Brian Cashman as the deadline looms on July 31. The Yankees are off on Thursday but they will resume play on Friday night against the Philadelphia Phillies at home. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. ET as Ranger Suarez (PHI) pitches against Will Warren (NYY). Related MLB Stories DOMINANT OUTING: Cristopher Sanchez threw a complete-game against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday night, making rare history among Phillies lefties. CLICK HERE: 20/30 ONCE AGAIN: Jose Ramirez just keeps doing things that no player in Cleveland history has ever done. CLICK HERE: TURNING DOWN AN OFFER: According to reports, D-backs star Corbin Carroll will not play for Taiwan at the World Baseball Classic. CLICK HERE:
All eyes continue to be on New York Giants rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart, who continues to acclimate to life in the NFL. Over the past two days, Dart’s has had a mix of ups and downs, some of which were not necessarily his fault. Regardless of who was at fault, head coach Brian Daboll, who has used every play as a teaching moment for the young rookie, has been pleased with Dart's response. “Every play, you have something to teach a player, correct a player on," Daboll said. “So, to get into every detail of every play, 'You should have done this. You should have done this.’ It happens for every position. “You go to the meeting room, you watch the tape, coach up, ‘Hey, this is what you could have done differently,’ and then you go on to the next play.” On Day 2 of training camp, Dart, continuing to share second-team reps with Jameis Winston, had another up-and-down day. Unofficially, he was 4-of-8, with one touchdown (Jalin Hyatt) and one interception (Tre Hawkins III). Dart was also “sacked” twice, including once on a corner blitz by Nic Jones, who continues to have a solid camp. He also had one pass that just went off the fingertips of running back Dante Miller. So far, though, Daboll has been pleased with how Dart has responded following a negative play. “Absolutely, yeah. I mean, we're talking about practice here, so that's what those are for. He's going to make those mistakes,” Daboll said. “Everybody's going to make them. There are plenty of other mistakes that happened, and there are plenty of good things. He did a good job coming back. You don't want to throw picks, but that's why we're practicing.” Camp Observations The focus of today’s practice was the high red zone. There were also 1-on-1s. I mentioned the unofficial stats for Dart, but before I give you the other quarterbacks’ stats, a couple of things I noticed with him is that when he’s under the slightest bit of duress, instead of using instinct or feel to avoid the rush and keep his eyes downfield, he appears to focus on the rush around him as he attempts to escape. By taking his eyes off where his receivers are down the field, he tends to lose track of them, and the ball ends up being either overthrown or thrown short of its intended target. That could be why some of his passes seem to be delivered late. This play here on play-action was probably his best throw of the day. Wan’Dale Robinson had the catch of the day, making a diving catch against slot cornerback Dru Phillips, who was in close coverage. I’m still not sure how Robinson came up with the ball, thrown by Russell Wilson. Not to be outdone, Phillips later picked off a pass intended for Robinson, on what I had as Wilson’s only interception of the day. Speaking of Wilson, I had him 7-of-13, with three touchdowns (two to Robinson, one to Malik Nabers), and one interception, along with one drop (Nabers). He was also pressured by Kayvon Thibodeaux, who continues to get the better of left tackle James Hudson III. I had Thibodeaux down for four pressures today. Jameis Winston was three of three, his best pass of the day a strike to tight end Greg Dulcich (who had two touchdown receptions on the day) in the corner of the end zone in tight coverage. The offense ran the ball frequently with Winston under center, which is why there were low pass attempts. Another of his pass attempts went to rookie running back Cam Skattebo, who continues to impress with his soft hands and smooth transition into his runs after catching the ball. Speaking of Skattebo, there’s a lot to like about how when he carries the ball, he squares his shoulders, runs with two hands on the ball, and just plows through traffic. Some running backs will leave an arm free for balance, but Skattebo just has tremendous balance when he runs with both hands on the ball. Tommy Devito only threw three passes, completing one. He overthrew on all three, but the one he connected with was to Dalen Cambre, who had TJ Moore and K’Von Wallace in coverage. Dulcich did some work as a fullback on the running plays. Abdul Carter continued to look like he was shot out of a cannon with that lightning first step. This defensive pass rush, which has done a little bit more blitzing so far this year, is going to be a handful indeed. The defense was a little sloppy today. There were at least three times when they jumped offside in anticipation of the ball being snapped. We didn’t see much of that on Day 1, so it’s certainly something they’ll look to clean up. In the 1-on-1s, the highlights included Malik Nabers putting a nice spin move on Tyler Nuboin for a touchdown catch, and a sliding reception by receiver Montrell Washington against cornerback T.J. Moore. What happens next with the NY Giants? Find out! Follow and like us on Facebook. Visit our YouTube channelfor the latest videos. Want to send a question in for our mailbag? You can do so here.