Free up your heels!

After Friday's aborted ski plans, I was a wee bit nervous heading into Sunday. But all went well, and I had a wonderful day of telemark skiing with my friend Traci. Around two years ago, Traci and I decided to free our heels. We jumped into the world of tele skiing at a clinic run by the "Backcountry Babes", a group of women who teach other women how to tele.

We were both a bit frustrated by our first Babes class. For my part, I felt like the instructors were more interested in showing off and hawking gear than really teaching us anything. But I knew I needed some instruction before the Great Yurt Adventure coming up over New Year's Eve, so when I saw an announcement for an all-day women's tele clinic this Sunday, I called Traci, who agreed to give the Babes another shot. The experience was wonderful, and the group obviously has fine-tuned its operation over the past two years.

We were asked to reserve demo gear in advance, so they had all the right sizes and equipment for each of us. And what great gear!! I got to try out the exact set-up I'm coveting, this year's models of the Scarpa T2 boot and the K2 She's Piste skis, with quality bindings. I loved it all, and wish I could afford to buy the new stuff now.

After registering, getting our gear, and receiving a cool goodie bag, we peeled off a few layers and warmed up with a martial arts stretching session. I remembered this as the best part of the clinic a couple of years ago, and it was even better this time. After 45 minutes of bouncing, twisting, and stretching, I felt relaxed and centered, ready to hit the slopes!

Happily, Traci and I were in the same group, along with five other women. This group was a bit larger than I'd have liked, but with two instructors we didn't end up standing around TOO much. And the instructors were great. One of them seemed to struggle a bit to speak "beginnerese," but the other was able to translate her directions into terms we relative neophytes could grasp. By the end of the day, I was linking turns pretty comfortably (albeit not so beautifully) on moderate terrain, and was feeling far more confident than I anticipated. After sharing a beer and some success stories with the group (and winning some nice goodies in the raffle), I left feeling that I'd gotten my money's worth and excited to try another Babes' clinic later this season.

Tele is amazing -- so much more rhythmic and athletic than alpine skiing. While it's somewhat disconcerting for me to be back on the groomers, the whole experience is more satisfying than alpine. And learning in an environment geared towards women was great. I'm not usually one for women-only events, but this clinic worked so well precisely because it was focused on women introducing other women to the joys of free-heel skiing. Maybe it's because tele skiing attracts a certain type of person, but I walked away from the clinic feeling like virtually all of the women I'd met, instructors and students alike, were the kind of cool chicks with whom I like to hang. Several of the women in our group were climbers, and all of us shared active lifestyles and a love for the backcountry.

My only disappointment came today. I'd spoken with the head Babe about buying a pair of last year's demo skis for a great price, and called her this morning ready to buy. Though she didn't give me any sense of urgency yesterday (or I would have pulled out my checkbook on the spot), she e-mailed me this afternoon to say she'd sold the skis to someone else, who apparently had made an earlier offer on the same pair. I'm terribly disappointed, and am now trying to find a comparable deal elsewhere (so far, coming up empty). In any case, it's time for me to invest in tele gear, and to devote some serious energy to improving my skills.