hotham

The Mountain Safety Collective (formally known as the Mountain Sports Collective) has gone from strength to strength since its inception a few years ago and has made a concerted effort to educate, train and promote backcountry enthusiasts to stay safe in alpine environments. This year, the MSC has gone a step further by announcing their new Avalanche Training Center at Mt. Hotham. We catch up with Rolf Schonfeld, a committee member of the MSC, who has been working hard to make this crowed funded dream a reality for many BC goers. Rolf has literally grown up with skiing and is extremely passionate about spending time in the Alps. He has a wealth of knowledge from touring in alpine regions all over the world and has learned that educating people is one of the most important steps to keeping people safe in the BC. 

A wise telemark skier once said "all good things must come to an end" and it is time for Those Tele Guys to do the same. The sun is shining and the birds singing, so our attention has been drawn to other recreational pursuits such as mtb-ing, climbing and finishing renovations. In this episode, we review the season and look into the future for Those Tele Guys. Will we return for another season? Will you ever get to hear the subtle tones of your three favourite free heelers ever again? Your questions will be answered.

We also present one last song for the freeheelers, as well as some bonus material if you make it to the end of the episode. 

A few weeks ago, one of those tele guys managed to purchase an absolute bargain on facebook market place. A set of Line Profits mounted with our beloved 22 designs AXL. They were purchased from none other than professional mountain biker and telemark skier, Andrew Blair. Andrew has represented Australia all over the world in XC races and has won two national titles. In the off-season, he loves to earn his turns in the backcountry setting of the Main Range. We had a great time chatting about his passion for mountain biking and skiing and how it all began for him. He even shared some stories of how the two sports can be combined to make some memorable human-powered adventures. Please enjoy, a ride with Andrew Blair.

We also feature songs for the freeheelers once again, along with a new segment called "The mystery sounds of Telemark."

This is one of our favourite episodes of the season. George Turner is an avid telemark skier from Adelaide that has been in touch throughout the season. At some point, he highlighted techniques to get kids into tele, drawing from his own experience when teaching the turn to his two boys, Lenny and Albert. George sent us some photos of his kids absolutely slaying, so we thought it would be a great opportunity to interview one or both of them and find out why they like tele so much. We ended up getting Lenny (13 years old) on for a chat and we were blown away by the enthusiasm and wisdom he presented to us. We give you Lenny Turner, the future of telemark skiing in Australia. 

What a strange season we have had Downunder. Only one out of three show hosts have managed to get some turns in, but despite this, we have managed to make a podcast that people are actually downloading. We have received emails from such people to ask questions, make suggestions and share stories, so in this episode, we do our best to answer them. What unfolds involves solving the mystery around what direction a flailing skier rotates in the Southern Hemisphere, a tale of Hannels Spur and debunking whether a Tim Tam can be slammed using various fortified wines. 

In this weeks episode, we hade a very special guest to join Those Tele Guys. Stephen Curtain is a cinematographer, director, outdoor educator and an environmental science communicator. He has travelled to many wild places with a camera in his hands to capture the beauty and share the stories found within environments that are less known to the general public. An example of such work is 'Winter Dreaming,' a film that captures the essence and characters of backcountry skiing in the Australian Alps. In more recent times, he has been working on projects to promote environmental education in areas that have been affected by climate change both in Australia and overseas. We caught up with him to talk about how he fell in love with the mountains, what it was like swinging from a helicopter and what projects he is working on in the future.  

You can find him @stephencurtain or at www.stephencurtain.com

A long, long time ago in the early days of the Australian winter season, a fan wrote a letter to us asking a bunch of questions about how to get into telemark skiing. We decided to make an episode about it and attempt to answer said questions to the best of our ability. Our answers may not resemble everyone's pathway to enlightenment, but they do provide information as to how we came to power.

We also get a song from Ferg! Hear it here first. It will be at the top of the charts in no time!

Earlier in the season, we received a message from a telemark idol of ours all the way from the USA. He applauded our efforts with the show and suggested we interview Sven Gorham, a fellow Australian that is all about telemark skiing and eating icecream. Sven has worked extensively in the snow for the last few years, jumping countries to guide and patrol in Japan and New Zealand. We caught up with him to talk about what it's like to patrol on telemark binding, how his freeheel journey began and where his icecream obsession is taking him in the future. 

In this weeks episode, we chat to Simon from the Mountain Sports Collective. The MSC is a not-for-profit user group organisation for human-powered alpine sports in Australia, and have been providing information and resources to educate and keep BC users safe. From learning to tele ski in the BC, to getting caught in a slide, Simon's story about how the MSC came to be is interesting. 

COVID continues to dominate the Victorian headlines and hinder the Australian ski season. Regional Victorian telemark skiers have been enjoying some turns when they could but their dreams of skiing August powder have been dashed by more restrictions and park closures. What does this mean for the much anticipated Victorian BC festival? We catch up with Cam Walker to hear the latest plans to keep the stoke alive.

We also discuss port Tim-Tam slams and Mt. Thebarton, a once-thriving skiing destination situated in the heart of Adelaide.