TELEM-ARC Technology

Our telemark-specific ski design was born out of a deep understanding of telemark bindings and the forces at play in the telemark turn. Dave used fancy computer simulations along with lots of on-snow testing with athletes (someone has to do it…) to design and manufacture a truly unique, telemark-specific ski for our tribe. 

Telem-Arc Technology is a proprietary combination of geometry, flex and construction that takes advantage of the unique forces created by the telemark turn. It goes like this…Alpine skis are designed for mounting an alpine binding (duh) and for the forces that a rigid alpine toe and heel transfer to the ski. The rigid length of boot and binding together require a long area of the ski (2-3 inches or 6-7 cm beyond the toe and heel of the boot) that essentially doesn’t flex (alpine boots are stiff and rigid right?) and therefore has to be thick and reinforced so the ski screws don’t rip out. Telemark bindings mount to a much smaller area of the ski, but also transfer all the force to that area causing a higher mechanical stress (nerd alert!). We designed our telemark skis to handle all that force with extra reinforcement and construction in that area, and only in that area. This allows us to design the core geometry and materials for a much larger portion of the ski to flex more naturally into an Arc, a Telem-Arc (ah.. I see what you did there) which allows our skis to flex and turn with a smoother more continuous arc, a unique advantage of the telemark turn!  Suck it Alpiners!

Another aspect of our Telem-Arc technology comes from understanding the physics of the telemark turn.  Get ready for some equations. The inside boot and binding during a turn transfers a larger force or moment (Moment = force x moment arm) to the tip of the ski because of the tension of the binding when the heel is raised up.  This depends on how “active” your bindings are and can be adjusted with different springs or in the case of our BMF bindings by turning the spring adjusters in the spring tubes.  We designed our skis sidecuts and flex at the tips to allow for this extra force and still flex naturally.