Author: JonC

Western New York has a strong contingent of telemark skiers. Like the rest of the northeast, each of our ski areas has a passionate group of locals dedicated to making the telemark turn. There is enough of a critical mass to host two telemark festivals, each with their own style and culture.

Every year, Holiday Valley hosts Telestock, organized and operated by The City Garage, the Friday after Presidents day. Telestock is a classic celebration of the telemark culture complete with grilling sausages, beer, free telemark ski and boot demos, and free group instruction for a range of ability levels from first timers to experts.

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It had been snowing pretty consistently in Western New York for about a week and the skiing was good everywhere. South of the city had accumulated about 2 feet of snow over the previous week. I had planned to head out skiing in the morning and we were forecasted for a few possible inches that night.

I had plans to ski-tour a state forest in Ellicottvile and made my way out of the house. We received a few very light inches of snow in my driveway in Buffalo, which only required a few passes with the shovel. As I hopped onto the highway, the snow intensified pretty quickly.  Traveling into the southtowns on 219, precipitation started to get heavy.

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