I posted this to Paula's Ski Lovers page
(http://www.skilovers.com/skilover.html) and repost it here in the hope
that it may do somebody some good.

There is a very good page on telemark ski injuries at;
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~mtuggy/sfm/telepag1.htm
It is mostly about knees and is every bit as relevant to alpine skiers.

The question was "Bad Knees and Tele?"   Repost follows:

Tele is obviously harder on the muscles but I find it to be easier on the
knees.  Every case is different of course and your knee condition may be
totally different than mine.  I love crud, powder and any kind of soft
snow.  I avoid icy bumps and will spend all day on ungroomed snow if
possible.  Even smooth hardpack gives my knees more trouble than soft
surfaces.  What really aggravates them is chatter on a nearly straight leg.
 In alpine skiing the outside leg is typically bent 15 degrees or so
(straight being 0) and chatter at this angle seems to be very bad and
painful for my knee condition.  In telemark the knees are bent much more so
that there is a better shock absorber effect and chatter does not cause
instant pain.  I have strong muscles and do the maximum weights, or very
close, on all the Nautilus lower body machines.  Telemark takes the burden
off my knees and puts it on my quads which can handle it.

With respect to pain.  Pain in the belly of a muscle is no cause for
concern (and its a good excuse for hot tubbing in the evening), pain in a
tendon or near a muscle attachment means back off, pain in a joint means
back off NOW.  If a joint gets into an inflammation cycle it is going to
give you trouble and limit your activities for a while.  If you back off in
time, a day's rest and some vitamin I (ibuprofen) will probably make you as
good as new.  It's a bummer, but you have to learn to read your body and
manage pain after a certain age.  Obviously you've dealt with that too.

I do lunges as part of a stretching routine.  I go all the way down so the
knee is well in front of the toe.  This is supposed to be bad and friends
as well as perfect strangers at the gym are always telling me not to do it,
but I've been doing it for a lifetime and it doesn't hurt.  If it did I'd
stop.  Aggressive telemarking requires that you be able to get the knee in
front of the toe under a load.  Contrary to the way it appears, it is the
rear (inside) knee that takes the strain.  The tele turn is powered from
the rear ski.  Insufficient weight on the rear ski is the major problem of
alpine skiers learning tele; it causes overturning, instability and
catching the inside edge of the rear ski.  The latter can cause spectacular
wipeouts and knee injuries.

I suggest giving telemark a cautious try and see how it affects you.  It
might even be best to start out with XC or backcountry touring, which is
fun too.

Denis Bogan

[log in to unmask]   NOTE NEW e-mail ADDRESS!!!
Voice;  301-286-1306
FAX;  301-286-0212 - Let me know it's coming.
(Mailing address: Laboratory for Extraterrestrial Physics
Code 691, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771)
http://www-691.gsfc.nasa.gov/personnel/dbogan/dbogan.html

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SkiVt-L is brought to you by the University of Vermont.

To unsubscribe, visit http://list.uvm.edu/archives/skivt-l.html