Those Tele Guys

In this week's episode, we head down into the depths of the gear lab with Andy Crow.  Andy has spent a fair amount of time conducting his own research in the nitty gritty of telemark equipment which has helped foster great technical conversations on chair lift rides and we thought our listeners would enjoy hearing what some of those chats sound like. Our 'talking tele' chin wag covers important topics such as Bishop equipment, mounting bindings, ski design, Franken bindings, and dream boots. We also review the Voile Ultra Vector BC, a pattern-based ski we have fallen in love with. A special song for the freeheelers also features at the end of the episode from a very happy human named Angus, so stay tuned for that! 

After a two-year hiatus due to covid restrictions, Australia's biggest free heeling event was back! The Kangaroo Hopper is an iconic and challenging 42km Worldloppet international cross-country ski event held in the Bogong High Plains. The course meanders throughout Australia's unique alpine environment, taking in the unique flora and fauna that resides there. Skiers will need a good level of fitness and experience to successfully ski the fully groomed undulating course, which climbs up onto Heathy Spur to reveal spectacular views over Rocky Valley Dam, Falls Creek, and the surrounding High Plains. 

This week, Ronice Goebel joins us to talk about the history of the Kangaroo Hoppet and her involvement with the Birkebeiner ski club over her 28 years of participating and volunteering. We discuss just how important this race is for the community and how it fits into the bigger picture of international racing.

Ronice also took shares her two scents about the preposed lakeside development and the movement started that's opposed to it. 

Last weekend, Those Tele Guys were gifted a recording studio at the Victorian backcountry festival. Hundreds of volunteers slaved for hours to create an igloo to host a live episode that would feature anyone that dared to enter, and enter they did! The fluorescent sign emblazing the word 'recording' was barely illuminated upon the entrance before a hoard of happy participants came stumbling in.  Over the course of the evening, we met a range of different people to chat about tele, split boarding and AT, but more importantly, we talked about just how good it was to be surrounded by a group of like-minded people celebrating everything BC! 

A huge congratulations to the team that organised the 2022 Victorian backcountry festival! It was amazing to see the festival back in the flesh after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. So many passionate people were happy to share their positive experiences of the festival on the show, which highlights just how successful the weekend was. We can't wait for next year's festival already! 

This week's episode is coming in early so we can help provide an update for the up-and-coming Victorian BC Festival, starting on Friday the 2nd of September. Rich caught up with Anne Chiew, the organiser of the festival, to talk about any updates or last minute changes attendees should know about. What's on, where to camp, what to eat, and where's the beer? You'll find the answers here.

Like all of our guests, we also ask Anne how she discovered her passion for the mountains and what makes them so special to her. Her passion and energy for Australia's Alpine region is infectious, and it's obvious to us that the festival is in good hands this year.

It's the first time the festival will be run in three years, so get around it if you can! 

It's the end of August and it's time to dust off the skates because the Kangaroo Hoppet is back! The Hoppet is part of the World Loppet series and is a 42km XC ski race. Covid canceled the Hoppet in 2020 and 2021, but nothing can stop it this year! 900 participants have signed up to grace the Bogong High Plains and this week we chatted to at least two of them.

We were very happy to welcome Peter Holmes to the show and have been hoping to catch him for an interview for quite some time. Pete was one of our lecturers at university during our outdoor education studies and opened the door of telemark, nordic and backcountry skiing to many students. We find out where Pete developed his passion for skiing and how he found his love for teaching.  We also get some insight about his business, Nordic Ski adventures, which aims to take guests 'chook footing' to some of the world's most iconic nordic ski destinations.  Pete's longtime friend, Blair Hume, also joins the show to heckle him whilst enjoying a few tinnies, but also shares his own stories about growing up with nothing but three-pin bindings and leather boots. 

Just like Morgan, it was a matter of time before Rich dipped his toes into the NTN world. He pulled on his new Garmont Kenais and stepped into his first pair of NTN bindings and felt lightning pulse through his veins. Like Harry Potter finding his perfect wand, he felt the UNLIMITED POWER instantly and found himself under the guidance of Snape (Lucas), who initially seemed evil in this NTN Slytherin ways, but in the end, was ultimately a true freewheeling guru. In this episode, Rich confesses his NTN sins to a Free-heeling Lord and shares his thoughts about his first time away from 75mm.

The Bogong Bulletin, the catch of the day, the mailbag, how to do stuff, and telemark brand power also feature this week. 

This week we welcome Britain's modern-day telemark Eddie the Eagle. Jasmin Taylor holds the record for the British skier with the most World Cup and World Championships medals after winning her 30th World Cup medal in Pralognan-la-Vanoise, France in 2020. During the 2020–21 season, Taylor trained in Switzerland, as French ski lifts were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is now freeing the heel on the slopes of Mt. Hotham, Australia!

We had a great time chatting with Jasmin about how she got into telemark skiing, how the hell telemark racing works, whether telemark ever make the winter Olympics, and what exactly bought a skier of her caliber to Australia in the first place.  Please enjoy as we dive into World cup telemark racing with Jasmin Taylor!

Wowzers, we have done it. 50 episodes of Those Tele Guys. Where has the time gone?

This week we have decided it's time to celebrate our podcast milestone by doing what we do best....talking telemark. We may not know exactly what we are talking about sometimes, but we sure do have a passion for it and for whatever reason, loyal listeners are tuning in. We thank you immensely for sitting by the wireless every week to hear our take on the free-heeling world as we would not have continued without the ongoing support we receive. Again, thanks for your support.

This week we focused on running some of our segments to honor what we have done in the past and we also introduce some new ones to give a sneak peek of what the future may look like for Those Tele Guys. Segments include the weatherman, the Bogong bulletin, the mailbag, catch of the day, Telemark brand power, telemark therapy time, and songs for the free heelers. Please enjoy our 50th episode! 

Our guest this week wears several different hats from many walks of life. Kelly Van Den Berg is a backcountry guide working for Traverse Hotham and runs courses to get beginners into backcountry snow sports.  Last year, Kelly ran an intro to backcountry skills day for women looking to get out beyond the ropes and it was a huge hit.  This year, Kelly will be running another women's backcountry skills day on August 7th and it will undoubtedly be another great success.  When not guiding on Hotham, Kelly is pursuing other goals across many different occupations and interests, including performance coaching, horse training, journalism, photography, and pack rafting. Kelly is also a committee member of the Mountain Safety Collective and also collaborates with the ABC in Gippsland to share information about some of her interesting adventures and recreational pursuits. Please enjoy getting into the backcountry with Kelly Van Den Berg!

Use the link below to book a spot with Kelly on the woman's skills day or see many more of the great tours Traverse Hotham offer:

https://www.traversehotham.com.au/

Our guest this week is a writer, adventurer, speaker, and environmentalist that has a keen interest in type 2 fun. Huw Kingston has completed many interesting adventures on foot, in a boat, on wheels, and on skis. In 1997, Huw completed a 600 km ski traverse of the Australian Alps, and this year he aims to repeat this trip but go one better by skiing all the lift-assisted resorts along the way whilst raising funds for a good cause. The Alpine Odyssey will aim to raise funds for Our Yarning, a charity organisation that Huw is deeply passionate about.nHuw has worked closely for a number of years as an ambassador for Save the Children, supporting their great work with a number of fundraising ventures. Our Yarning brings this fundraising closer to home, to support First Nations children to learn their own stories from books written and illustrated by Indigenous authors and illustrators.

We hope you enjoy listening to our interview with Huw Kingston and, if you care spare any pennies, we also hope that you can donate and help him reach his fundraising goal of $50,000. You can donate by jumping onto www.huwkingston.com

It was a matter of time before one of us caved to the powerful temptations of NTN. Just like Abu was drawn to the forbidden treasures inside the cave of wonders, Morgan was drawn to the shine of a pair of crispi evos sitting high on a shelf in a local ski store. The world around us hasn't imploded since he first laid his hands upon them and we can safely say that smiles were evident when he stepped in for the first time. In this episode, Lucas joins us to break down Morgans first day on NTN. Was it any different from 75mm? It is actually any better? What the hell is a duck-butt grabber? Will Morgan use ski 75mm again? These questions, and many more, will be answered. 

We also discuss a hot topic in the Bogong Bullitin about the proposed changes to the XC network at Falls Creek. Are chook-footers really tying themselves to dozers to save the network? Tune in to find out!

Cam Walker joins the show once more, but this time it is not in regards to the Back Country Festival in September. This time we catch up with Cam to discuss the Mountain Journal, another one of his projects that is absolutely fantastic. The Mountain Journal is predominately a website that shares news, profiles, environmental information, and the culture of the Australian Alps and is written by Cam in an interesting and engaging manner that grips the reader in for more! For the second year in a row, the Mountain Journal has been released as a printed version in collaboration with Lamont magazine and is available to pick up at most of Australia's snow-covered destinations. We talk about where Cam found his passion and inspiration for such a huge project and what we can expect from the Mountain Journal in the future. Once you have finished listening to this episode, do yourself a favor and go grab a copy. You won't be disappointed! 

The school holidays have arrived and so have the hoards of snow lovers to the NSW ski fields, including Those Tele Guys! Join us this week as we discuss our freeheeling adventure to the Snowy Mountains over the last week. We also talk about the strong telemark scene around Perisher and share some insight into our new favorite spot on the mountain, Guthega.  

We also present a new mystery sound of telemark....can you guess what it is to win an elusive snickers and stickers prize pack? Songs of the freeheelers also features for the first time this season and we sure hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we did creating it! 

This year, Australian skiers have seen the best snow propaganda in years, and so they should! It has been an amazing start to the season and everyone is certainly excited. However, we have also received a fairly large amount of rain in the last two weeks that has gone relatively unnoticed by most of Australia's snow lovers as the resorts certainly do not put as much emphasis on that as they do when 2 cm of snow dumps on their respective villages. This week, we talk about how to easily read the weather forecasts all by yourself by using some pretty stock standard applications you can download on your phone. We are actively promoting everyone to have a look at all the information available to get the best weather information to help you have the best day. We hope it helps. 

In this week's episode, Those Tele Guys welcome Chris Ali, a long-time telemark skier and gear junkie, to help discuss the future of 75mm gear in Australia. In the last 12 months, many of the classic 75mm boots have been discontinued from the major boot-making brands, which makes us question what the future is going to be like for duck-billed equipment . Is there enough of a 75mm stronghold Downunder to keep Scarpa producing the t2 and t4? Tune in to hear our thoughts on the matter.

We also sneak in a cheeky prank call to Eastern Mountain Center, a well-known ski center in Melbourne to hear an honest opinion of where they think telemark is heading into the future. 

Those Tele Guys are ready to have their biggest season yet and may hopefully live out many of their original plans from the last two covid ravaged years.  This season should be the best in years as the ski resorts have already starting turing the lifts accross south-eastern Australia. But before they dive deep into the season, they have decided to conduct an internal review of the show to reflect on some of the segments that have glowed brightly or petered out to nothing.

They also discuss the seasonal outlook, rip open the mail bag and tune into the Bogong Bulletin for a look at the latest news. Also, Queen Elithzabeth joins us to pass on a very special message for the long weekend in honour of her birthday which traditionally coincides with the opening weekend for the ski season. While the seaon started one week earlier, we still really appreciate hearing from the head of the Commonwealth. God bless our gracious Queen! 

The wait is over. Winter is back and Those Tele Guys are keen to complete a winter season of free-heel skiing that is free of lockdowns and other ski restricting rules. Life is somewhat back to normal and it appears that skiers and boarders alike are permitted to enter the Aussie Alpine region as they please in the declared winter season to chase some campaign Downunder powder. Morgs and Rich have plenty to discuss for the up-and-coming season but have decided to pay homage to some of the songs that have graced your ears over the last two seasons. By using a unique algorithm similar to Alan Turing's Enigma code,  we have been able to determine the top 10 songs released for the free heelers on this humble show. Please enjoy as we take a trip down memory lane to remember some of the songs that kept us motivated to keep creating content for a ski-themed podcast in a time when we weren't allowed to ski. 

It is time to put the summer wax on and for those for 'Those Tele Guys' to wrap up the podcast for the season. In this episode, we look back at the 2021 ski season and discuss various influencing factors that determined how winter unfolded for us in Australia.  We talked about the weather, equipment, covid, and the general 'tele-vibe' that occurred throughout the season to paint an audible picture of our experience for the listeners to enjoy. We also catch up with Sven Gorham, a past guest of the show, who has been working as a patroller at the famous Treble Cone ski resort on the south island of New Zealand. He provides us with a seasonal breakdown and also sheds some light on the tele scene around his local haunt. The final 'songs for the freeheelers' also features, and keeping in the spirits of NZ, we parody a famous tune made by the Flight of the Concords. 

Thanks for listening, and we will see you next year!

We may have eluded that Tele Guys were wrapping up for the season in this episode, but we managed to sneak in one more before we finish the podcast for another year. We found some time to sit down with Mark Oates to talk about some of the adventures he has completed throughout all of Australia's snow-laden states. Mark often posts fantastic photos and detailed trip reports on social media about his endeavors in his home state of Tasmania. He chases the snow while the conditions are good to ski amazing terrain in breathtaking locations, showing just how good Tassie can be for those willing to put in the hard yards. This guest has also completed the Australian Alps Walking Track in winter on two separate occasions. The AAWT is a 655-kilometer, point-to-point journey that travels through some of the most remote areas of Australia's rugged mountain ranges.  In this episode, Mark shares some information about those two trips in regards to equipment, logistics, weather, motivation, and even a sneaky game of hide and seek with a lost food barrel. Please enjoy as we ski the Australian Alps Walking Track with Mark Oates.

Find out more about marks travels at https://markoates.exposure.co/

The 2021 season is wrapping up down here in Australia, so it is time to look ahead and use the power of hindsight to plan for the 2022 season. We hope for a season that is not hindered by Covid-19 for all Australians, and if all goes to plan with the government's vaccination roll-out, then we should have a season that is somewhat more 'normal' than what we have experienced over the last two years. We have compiled a few tips on how to be a dirtbag if we do get back to normal as many have suffered financially throughout the pandemic, highlighting the importance of making every dollar stretch as far as it can go. In this episode, we share some tips on how to save money on transport, accommodation, food, equipment, ski passes and entertainment. Please enjoy as we explain how to eloquently turn yourself into a skiing dirtbag.