How a Gear War Is Shaping the Future of Telemark Skiing

From meadow skipping to extreme descents, telemark long had one binding platform–the 75mm Nordic Norm. Now several norms and sub-norms proliferate, muddying the free-heel gear paradigm. But has this convoluted reality also had an upside?

In 1978, a book on telemark skiing was released that would forever change the sport. Exploring technique as much as the coalescing free-heel philosophy, Cross-Country Downhill and Other Nordic Mountain Skiing Techniques, written by polymath Steve Barnett, captured the sport’s very essence, showcasing how telemark–then heady, weird, and countercultural–had entered a rarefied ambience. With skinny skis and leather boots, Barnett recorded how he and multitudes of others had taken to the snowy hinterlands of North America, helping create a free-heel ethos of rugged independence that instigated the first modern backcountry skiing movement on the continent.

But Barnett’s feet weren’t just adorned with long, double-cambered Nordic skis and low-cut leather footwear. Affixing his boot to ski was a trusty old contraption–a 75mm wide, three pin telemark binding. This classic fixation, then ubiquitous on Nordic gear, was integral to the free-heel skier and their paradigm. “Bindings should be chosen for ruggedness and simple design,” Barnett wrote in Cross-Country Downhill. “The pin binding is completely adequate for the heaviest downhill demands.”

For decades before and after Barnett’s classic treatise, the 75mm-wide pin binding reigned as the leading–essentially the only–binding of the telemark movement. Even as the sport’s footwear evolved into evermore aggressive models, and as bindings added cables and tense springed cartridges for added resistance, the trusty Nordic Norm remained. 

But as the new millennium came and went, and innovation in alpine touring gear soon outpaced that of telemark, the modern wave of free-heel participation crested as its participation–and equipment–stagnated. In response, telemark manufacturers came to market with new norms that eschewed backward compatibility in the name of progress and innovation. Telemark options soon abounded with features like Dynafit-style tech toes and uber resistive plates for the most aggressive skiers. All incompatible with the legacy 75mm norm. 

But while this fitful movement forward has created a schism both in compatibility and between proponents of the newer norms and the elder 75mm one, and dismantled telemark’s previously singular binding and boot platform, it has ushered in a new nebulous gear standard that may not be as plug-and-play as the old, but has enabled a breadth of innovation perhaps not possible on the one and only 75mm Nordic Norm. Still, questions remain if the sport would be better served if one norm reigned supreme again. 

The Old Stalwart: 75mm Bindings

The 75mm binding platform–with its iconic metal cage bindings and duckbilled boots–has been part of telemark lore for so long that it has become part of the very essence of the subculture But while skiing in the free-heel manner is perhaps older than civilization itself, the 75mm binding has more modern roots. Developed in 1927 by Norwegian engineer and inventor Bror With, the Nordic Norm was conceived of as an improvement to existing ski bindings–especially for downhill use. 

According to Woodenskis.com, at a ski race held that winter from Lysaker to Sørkedalen, With unveiled his invention. Allowing him to tackle demanding descents, the novel homemade binding was even noticed by Crown Prince Olav. Giddily answering the legendarily amiable royal’s inquiry, With responded “these are only a couple of Rat Traps (Rottefella) I brought.”  With’s fledgling brand took on that name, and Rottefella was thus born, eventually growing into a bonafide manufacturer, reaching a zenith during the 1979/1980 skis season, when it produced some 1.6 million rat trap bindings that year.

Telemark thrived in that late ’70s milieu in North America. Independently rediscovered just years earlier by skiers in the Eastern Sierra, the Northeast, and–possibly most legendarily–Crested Butte, Colorado, free-heel skiing grew as a counterpoint to a mainline ski culture that many found stifling. And the binding platform of that movement was the boxy Nordic Norm. 

The 75mm-wide telemark binding would continue to be the standard of the sport’s equipment for decades. But not only for cross-country downhill practitioners and their skinny skis. Soon, telemark skiers began pining for more control not unlike that enjoyed by the alpiners many of them had repudiated. Duckbill boots like the classic Asolo Extreme–a burlier leather option with buckles buttressing its laces–came to market, leading the movement toward taller, stouter leather boots.  

Then, as telemark racing proliferated and the need for stronger boots for more demanding descents became the mood, many a free-heel DIYer began conceiving of ways to incorporate plastic onto their footwear. Sturdier cuffs created from five-gallon buckets and the like came to life on the boots of forward-thinking telemark skiers. Soon, manufacturers responded with their own versions, like the eminent Merrell Supercomp, released as the 80s turned late. The stout leather boot incorporated a riveted plastic cuff and iconic red and black buckles; a model that portended the release of the first all plastic telemark boot–Scarpa’s revolutionary Terminator– brought to life in 1992.

But it wasn’t just boots that were constantly progressing; so, too, were the bindings of the 75mm-bound telemark world. The completely free-heel of earlier three-pin bindings was soon supplanted by options that had a resistive assembly about the back of the boot–like Voile’s 3-Pin Cable binding. Released in 1989, it used a long, coiled, aluminum spring for added leverage. The Rainey Designs SuperLoop, released contemporaneously, itself had a heel cable, but also marked the first use of compression springs in a telemark binding, a revolutionary step as the sport’s gear moved onward toward higher resistance and stronger performance.

Soon, an arms race broke out in the newly plastic realm of telemark boots, with heavier and burlier options coming to the market fast and furious  Skiers using the new vanguard were then routinely yanking undergunned bindings from their skis, leading manufacturers to up the ante themselves. Oliver Steffen’s then fledgling Genuine Guide Gear released their Targa binding in 1997, one of the first amongst a plethora of options created to meet the demands of the new wave of aggressive, plastic-bound free-heelers. Soon boots like the Scarpa T-Race and Russell Rainey’s HammerHead binding came to be, epitomizing the era’s aggressive telemark gear.

But this equipment all had one thing in common. Whether it was duckbilled boots in their leather or plastic form, or the caged Nordic Norm bindings still borrowing from Bror With’s innovation, all were designed for one platform: the 75mm norm.

A breadth of options and interpretations–a continuum that essentially captured the entirety of free-heel skiing–came to be on this one binding platform. Encapsulating everything from leather-bound light touring, lift served laps, and even extreme free-heel descents on the latest equipment, this singular binding interface ruled telemark’s boots and bindings.

NTN And DIY Tinkerers Enter The Scene

But much has changed since then. The 75mm platform–thought of by many as long overdue for an overhaul–saw its replacement ascend in the New Telemark Norm–a backwardly incompatible interface–released in 2007. And as telemark’s DIY scene has continued to innovate along different lines, several new norms have come to light, promising users an experience tailor-made for their interpretation of free-heel skiing. But with these innovations has come a splintering of the already threadbare telemark gear landscape. 

On one end, cross-country downhill skiing, while still often employing three pin bindings, has seen the arrival of a modern norm for overland touring, the Xplore System–a modern creation again brought forth by Rottefella. And as the new telemark norm (NTN) has only belatedly and incompletely captured the other side of free-heel skiing and its more aggressive, modern bent, other subnorms have come to be, leaving a telemark world that once had one norm with many.

Those include touring-oriented subnorms, like the telemark tech system, a marriage between a Dynafit-style two-pin toe and a cable/cartridge heel connection. And NTN bindings have come to market that also incorporate the tech toe, bringing an expanse of options never before available to the telemark skier. While these undoubtedly give the free-heeler more alternatives than ever that dovetail more closely with their chosen take on the craft, this dispersal of skiers on several norms has muddied the scope of boot/binding conflict and the flow of resources. Now some five norms and subnorms–NTN, NTN tech, TTS, Xplore, and 75mm; several of which are incompatible–fill the space that was once served deeply and widely by one trusty old platform, a notable dissonance as the sport seems again to be rising toward a new wave of popularity.

The simplicity of the previous telemark gear paradigm–both in terms of its classic skiing sensation and its utility–was undeniably an asset for the sport, allowing for a cohesion the mini free-heel industry hasn’t had since. And it granted the classic telemark sensation many still prefer.

“The duckbill was a simple, effective, ingenious way to connect a boot and deliver a smooth flexing boot that allowed a telemark turn,” says Craig Dostie, founder of Couloir Magazine and EarnYourTurns.com who has long been one of telemark’s leading chroniclers.

But the main advantage of the Nordic Norm’s ubiquity was in its seamlessness, allowing for a spectrum of gear choices between boot, binding, and ski. “Back when ‘telemark’ meant ‘75mm,’ someone could intermingle their gear choices based on that day’s objective,” says Robert Tusso, one of telemark’s leading home innovators.

“The skis you might pair with T1’s for a lift-serve powder day might be better paired with T3’s when touring for powder turns. Maybe you have some T2’s that work for both a long day in the backcountry and for a mellow day at the resort, when paired with the right ski. All this interminglability allowed tele skiers to make their preferred turn as often as possible,” Tusso says, using Scarpa’s legendary line of 75mm boots as example.

Still, while the simplified retail landscape of the previous age was an advantage for bringing free-heel gear to market and selling it, other telemark figures see that cohesion as more clear in hindsight. That includes Chris Valiante, longtime designer and part owner of eminent binding maker 22 Designs, an outfit that has been at the forefront of binding innovation on both the 75mm and NTN platforms.

“While there was kind of a wide variety of boots and bindings from super soft, cross-country up to T-Race (Scarpa’s discontinued 75mm uberboot), I don’t think there was a lot of necessarily using the bigger beefier stuff with the lighter, softer bindings and vice versa,” Valiante says, noting a sort of soft incompatibility, marking a counterpoint to the ideal that 75mm bindings were a seamless continuum.

The modern telemark gear paradigm with its myriad options and incompatibilities is certainly a more disjointed reality than the one of old. But while the many norms may complicate the gear landscape, making incompatibility between setups and product scarcity a common hurdle, the many platforms speak not only to telemark’s innovative last few decades, but toward an unknowable, compelling future for the sport.   

“Telemark bindings certainly are getting carved up with various platforms and designs,” notes Mark Christopherson, partner at longtime telemark maker Voile, who sees the modern binding paradigm as a net positive for the sport. “Ultimately, I like that as it gives users a choice based on their skiing style, investment, and where they like to ski.”

Craig Dostie sees this evolution as a natural reaction of telemark skiers ever looking for a better way to take to their chosen version of the free-heel craft. “The alternate bindings were done to address limitations of each design. The original Freeride [the first NTN binding from Rottefella] did a lot of things well, but its main contribution was to mimic the telemark flex of a 75mm system with better torsional rigidity. Outlaw [22 Design’s best-selling NTN binding] improved on the flex, making it more active, with a true free pivot for touring. 2-pin tele allowed a reduction in weight with more efficient touring and no loss of activity. It’s just man adapting and figuring out new ways to achieve similar performance characteristics,” he says.

This splintering has in turn created siloed market demand that has had an outsized impact on the direction the manufacturers have taken, including 22 Designs. “We knew we needed to have a touring mode binding once Dynafit tech bindings started to become so much more popular. We realized that was where we needed to go too, to be able to keep up with those guys in the backcountry,” Valiante notes. Makers have thus come to the table with bindings on multiple platforms to cover the different use cases their customers may take to, in the case of 22 Designs that includes both resort-bound and backcountry skiers, leading to their two-pin NTN Lynx binding to supplement their burly Outlaw X trap and new resort-only Bandit option–all of which can use the same boot.  

That illustrates a coalescence toward compatibility with a single modern boot, and has come to full fruition with Scarpa’s modern line of telemark footwear, whose wide compatibility begs the question if telemark is slowly returning to a singular norm again, or at least some degree of cross compatibility.

It’s a concept Tusso has long championed–an idea he calls the universal telemark norm, or UTN. “Every telemark boot sold should work with every telemark binding sold. And vice versa,” Tusso says. “This frees up manufacturers to make their product range differentiated solely by performance, as opposed to iterating/stocking identical products for different norms. It also allows retailers to make the most efficient use of limited display space, and makes DTC sales a lot less complicated.”

Scarpa’s release of the new TX Pro with tech fittings, NTN connection, and general compatibility across the most ascendent modern norms and subnorms seems to point to growing cohesion in the marketplace, something Tusso has long called for, and sees happening across the telemark manufacturing space.

“In the 3+ years since I first proposed this, we’ve actually moved a lot closer to this being a reality. Scarpa’s new boots work with NTN/TTN/TTS, and it seems unlikely that they’ll make future models sans tech fittings in the toe. 22 Designs is phasing out all of their 75mm binding models. Voile released a TTS that’s good to go right out of the box. So the major players in the industry apparently saw things the same way,” Tusso notes.

Valiante of 22 Designs concurs, feeling that while telemark bindings may ever evolve along different subnorms, the boots are indeed moving toward a renewed singularity. “I think that’s likely to happen eventually, with the possible exception potentially of 75mm sticking around for the lightest, meadow skipping type of stuff where that sort of cross-country telemark Venn diagram overlaps. But I think in terms of real tele, making turns, I think that’s the direction that’s headed.”

But Valiante sees the breadth of norms currently available at retail as not quite fully mature, especially considering his take that the new crop of telemark boots are meant for an NTN connection and are not designed to flex with a TTS system. “The TTS is kind of weird,” says Valiante. “Voile is making a TTS binding now so it’s sort of more legitimized. But in my mind, you’re using the boot for a way that it wasn’t intended to. So that’ll be interesting to see if that grows your shrinks at all.”

As it stands downhill-oriented telemark may yet move toward at least a cross compatible boot if not a singular norm. But the overland Xplore System–not to mention the continued longevity of 75mm gear–illustrates how fraught a return to complete compatibility is for free-heel skiing.

“If telemark ultimately decides on one platform, it will take some time,” notes Voile’s Christopherson. “Look at how long it’s taken for NTN to start to take hold. There’s a lot of history to overcome.”

Looking To The Future

History has seemed to come around again for telemark skiing. The sport, long subject to a weak perception amongst the rest of the ski world, has turned a new corner of acceptability. And as outside interest has grown, a possible new cohort has risen that may be better courted by a cohesive gear paradigm.

“For things to actually catch on and grow and not totally bottom out (like in the 2010s), the gear situation has to be tidied up and be simplified and be ready for easy adoption,” opines Tusso. “I think the manufacturers felt this way too, and they’ve done a really good job trying to get things there just as the wave of popularity is starting to swell.”

As telemark ever enters the modern fold, it does so not on a single monolithic equipment paradigm, but on several platforms that have sprung to life over the preceding years. While that has splintered the already disparate scene into micro-camps, it has also illustrated an innovative bent that may fragment skiers and thus resources, but has also granted the free-heel skier an array of options they have never before enjoyed. And consolidation of compatibility–at least to an extent–seems at hand with products like Scarpa’s modern NTN boots and their cross functionality.

Still, in a sport that only sees so much participation, and can be misinterpreted by not just the wider ski culture, but even manufacturers, telemark leaders hope the road toward a possible ascension of one norm again will happen on telemark’s terms.

“Because of a division of norms within the community, and scarcity of production caused by the cost of development for plastic telemark boots, there are even fewer choices,” says Dostie.   “If the telemark community rallies around a single norm organically, manufacturers will adapt to meet the need. But the norm shouldn’t be imposed by manufacturers (especially ones who don’t actually participate in the sport themselves) on the general population.”

So while telemark moves forward along different and smaller gear rivulets, it does so following everything from the ingenuity of homegrown innovation to a larger manufacturing scene that has begun to strive for a more universal modern gear paradigm.

Steve Barnett himself concluded Cross-Country Downhill in similarly comprehensive gear terms. “People are still constantly learning new ways to use their equipment, so there is not yet any dogma or generally accepted methodology,” he wrote in his conclusion. “So flexible is the sport that it is possible to ski almost any place there is snow.”

That flexibility and broad free-heel dogma–first sprouted more than fifty years ago, when just one binding ruled the sport–continues to this modern day; a day where multitudes of platforms reflect the many approaches one can take to telemark skiing.