SM2000 Telemark Skiing Championships
Engelberg was the host city for the Swiss Masters 2000 Telemark Skiing Championships. Telemark skiing is just like cross-country skiing, but with a downhill skiing flavor. It's also referred to as "Nordic Downhill Skiing". The Engelberg Telemark Skiing Club sponsered and organized the event, which was held on the Jochpass region of Mount Titlis. They previously hosted the event in 1992.

The competition had a large number of categories. Although a lot of the skiers were from Switzerland, there were also participants from Finland, United States, Great Britain, and Germany. The morning of the competition was perfect, and we just got a few inches of fresh snow overnight, which was definitely needed. The race course was set up similar to a downhill race. There were a lot of people watching, and it was a very festive day.

I took a lot of pictures of the race, but I wanted to show some pictures that showed the skiing form used for telemark skiing. Unlike downhill skiing, you have to drop a knee to make a turn. For example, if you want to turn left, you would drop your left knee and move your right leg towards your left leg. This is called a "Telemark Turn". If you watch ski jumping, notice how they drop one knee when they land? It's the same form.

This is a picture looking north from the Jochpass ski lift base to Engelberg.


This is the starting gate.


Here's a good closeup of one skier who was going really fast at the bottom of the race course. This shows a good example of the technique used in telemark skiing.


Here are a couple of other skiers showing similar technique.






I decided to use my camera's feature that allowed you to take multiple pictures by holding down the shutter. It worked out very well, especially with this skier, as I was able to follow her reasonably well as she was going through one turn.




To make things interesting, they added a jump. I caught this skier as he was going over it.




At the end of the top section, there was a roundabout that the skiers had to go through. This person went slowly, but there were a couple of people who simply flew through it.


I missed these two skiers at the top of the course. They were skiing together - their skis were specially fitted for two people, similar to a bicycle for two. I caught them as they crossed the finish line. Everyone was cheering them on, and they were the only skiers in the competition who did this.


This is at the bottom of the course. The building you see is a restaurant and hotel that you stay at on the mountain. When reaching the bottom, the racers had to use the traditional cross-country technique around the building and cross over a small bridge to the finish line.