Telemark Skier
Det verkar som om Couloir har lite nya planer ocksa. Jag hittade foljande pressmeddelande:
Couloir to Launch New Telemark Magazine
4/9/02 Truckee, Calif. (Ski Press)-As free-heelers move more to the chairlifts, Couloir Publications on Monday announced their intent to introduce a new magazine that will catch a ride with them.
The publishers of Couloir, North America’s leading backcountry telemark, alpine and snowboard magazine, will introduce Telemark Skier next season. The one-issue launch is planned for November, with a magazine that will cover all the in-bounds aspects of free-heel skiing.
“What’s going on in telemark is no longer oriented only towards the backcountry,” said Craig Dostie, publisher of Couloir and Telemark Skier. “The sport has taken on an in-bounds persona and become a lot more hip in recent years. Right now, the rage in telemark is all about downhill performance, where it used to be about lightweight gear and ease of use in the backcountry.”
Entering its 15th season, Couloir has long been one of telemark skiing’s strongest proponents. But, Dostie said, the advent of stiffer plastic boots and a new breed of all-mountain fat skis has taken the sport in a direction where Couloir, with its backcountry emphasis and “earn your turns” mantra just couldn’t follow.
“Telemark used to be synonymous with the backcountry, but now the plastic boots have shifted the emphasis to the soulful feeling of the turn,” said Dostie. “There’s a whole new generation of telemark skiers coming up who just like to go free-heel to rip it up in-bounds, which is antithetical to the backcountry philosophy of Couloir. We want to go where telemark goes, but not at the expense of our existing magazine.”
Dostie admits he’s creating a new niche out of what is already a heavily-niched magazine – with the chance that the 65 percent of Couloir’s readers who are telemark skiers might find themselves choosing between the two publications.
“There’s just a lot going on with telemark that we can’t talk about in Couloir,” he said. “Couloir also covers the backcountry for AT (Alpine Touring) skiers and for snowboarders, who can read any one of several magazines about in-bounds use, but as far as that goes, there’s nothing else on the newsstand for in-bounds telemark skiing.”
The sport is certainly hot right now, garnering lots of attention in mainstream publications like Outside and Men’s Journal. Nike ACG recently recognized the free-heel factor by signing Ben Dolenc to an apparel contract, marking the first time the company has sponsored a telemark skier. In places like Denver and Seattle, the sport has been steadily growing in popularity among the caffeine and condo crowd as evidenced by Denver Magazine’s special “Singles” issue, where more than half of the city’s hot bachelors and bachelorettes claimed free-heel was one of their favorite things to do in their free time.
“We obviously want to attract a younger reader, but we also want to make it soulful enough to appeal to anyone,” Couloir Marketing Director Susie Sutphin said of the new magazine. “One of our big influences is Longboarder Magazine, where the style captures the essence of the history and the sport’s founders, as well as the new generation of longboarders coming on.
“You can be cool and hip, but still talk about it in a way that transcends the age,” she added.
Telemark Skier will be edited by former Couloir Editor Matt Samelson. If the first issue gets the response the staff is hoping for, it will gradually grow from season to season. Sutphin said she hopes to print at least three issues of Telemark Skier by the 2004-2005 season.
For more on Couloir, check out their website at
http://www.couloirmag.com (© 2002 Ski Press Media, Inc).