Section 6 of 6
The lead change, the drop knee, and the body of published research on what free-heel movement asks of the skier — described, never taught.
4 pieces · all sections
Lead piece
A close description of the telemark lead change as a movement pattern — the sequence of foot positions, the role of the trailing ski, and how the change reads visually in flat winter light. Written as observation, not instruction.
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The Turn
Surveys the published knee-injury literature specific to telemark skiing — the biomechanical studies, the incidence data from named research publications, and what the findings describe about the demands free-heel movement places on the lower limb.
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The Turn
Examines the geometric tension between the telemark position and the sidecut geometry of modern skis — why the turn's mechanics changed after the shaped-ski transition of the 1990s and why practitioners continued to use it regardless.
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The Turn
An argument about the fundamental division within free-heel skiing — between those who use the free heel as a touring mechanism and those who use it as an expressive style — and how the binding and boot markets have each served, and deepened, that split.
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