And so the adventure begins…
Telemarking and Travelling, and all sorts of other stuff
We are Nick and Suzanne and we are the Telemark Travellers. We met telemark skiing 20 years ago at the last Braemar Telemark festival in Scotland and have been making it our life’s passion to keep telemarking and travelling ever since.
We’re not professional athletes or anything like that. We’re just normal people that love getting outdoors and doing stuff. We’re both heading towards our retirement years and want to share our passion for active travel with similar minded people.
Expect to hear all about our ski trips, but also all about where we’re eating and drinking, what other trips we’re doing when we’re not telemarking, such as kayaking and walking, a bit about kit and equipment, weekends away far and near. It’s us, just having fun and doing what we love. We hope you enjoy our ramblings. If you do, you can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky and YouTube. If you subscribe on this site, it’s free, and we’ll let you know when we post new blogs, but no spam (we promise)!
And in case you’re wondering, Telemark is a region of Norway, but it is also a style of skiing where the boots flex at the toe, the heel is free and there’s a common bond between all those skiers who genuflect down the mountain.
Meet Nick
Hi, I’m Nick, I guess I’m the gear guru out of the two of us. I retired in 2023 after over 30 years selling ski and outdoor kit as an independent sales agent. Over the years I represented a number of brands including Berghaus, Mountain Equipment, POC, Tenson, Houdini, Millet, and Reusch. I started Telemark skiing whilst working for Mountain Equipment who were key sponsors of the Braemar Telemark Festivals. You could not go alpine skiing at a Telemark Festival, especially if you were representing the sponsors!
I keep saying that “you never meet an unenthusiastic telemarker”
When I’m not skiing, I just love getting outdoors. Daily walks in the woods or up the nearest hill are my favourite way of keeping fit. I “compleated”* my round of Munros 25 years ago and am now slowly encouraging Suzanne to get her first round done. Other than that, I’ll have a go at most things: I’ve done a couple of half Ironman triathlons, run several marathons, cycled the Maratona dles Dolomiti, started kayaking a couple of years ago. You name it, if it involves a bit of effort, I’ll give it a go.
Meet Suzanne
Hi, I’m Suzanne. I started Telemarking 25 years ago when the orthopaedic surgeon who put my ruptured knee back together told me to stop alpine skiing as my knee could no longer cope with the rotational force. Telemarking is not as tough on the knees as you might think, and it certainly keeps your quad muscles strong! I’ve always loved sport and being active as well as travelling, but I’m a bit of a ‘butterfly’ and like to flutter around lots of different activities rather than doing just one thing. I’ve done lots of triathlons, including several Ironman distance ones; I’ve swum the English Channel as part of a relay team. I ski. I love walking, especially long-distance treks. And I also love good food, good wine, and good company while I’m doing all these activities.
Together we are Telemark Traveller. We’re just regular people who have a go at most things and love being in the outdoors. We’re at an age where we are content to ‘complete’ rather than ‘compete’ and hope that our stories and adventures will inspire other people at this stage of life to get outside and stay active as part of a healthy lifestyle. There’s a real freedom in doing things just for the sheer enjoyment of it. We walk, we hike, we bike, we kayak, we swim, we run (well, more of a shuffle these days), we ski, but most importantly we have a lot of fun and laugh (a lot, and usually at each other). As Nick says, it’s not the person who gets to the bottom of the ski hill first but the one with the biggest smile on their face that counts.
* The Scottish hills over 3000 feet, 914 metres are known as “The Munros”. Walkers and climbers who climb them all are known as Compleat!