Skiing with vintage charm: the Telemark festival continues in Transcarpathia (PHOTOS)

Historical Norwegian, Austrian, German costumes, vintage skis, special fastenings to them and an unusual skiing style…

The international ski retrofestival Telemark continues in Transcarpathian Verkhovyna – it brought together fans of the winter mountains on the slopes near the village of Pylypets in Mizhhirya district.

The festival is named after the province in Norway, where the first special skis were made and the downhill skiing style was tested in the middle of the XIX century.

One of the 70 participants of this year’s retrofest is a mountaineer and mountain tourism coach Oleksandr Oryshko. He has been skiing in telemark style for 7 years now, and this year he also uses ancient skis. For some time, the 90-year-old skis were exhibited in the mountaineer’s museum, now it’s time to try them on the slopes of Mizhhirya district.

Many people wear clothes, so to say, from the grandmother’s trunk. Mostly, they are made specifically for telemark skiing. The highlight of the festival is a theatrical performance and interesting contests. This time, those are skiing with a glass of water on the tray, so that not a single drop is spilt, technical parallel skiing, skiing with balloons. The retrofestival is a unique opportunity to learn the Norwegian technique, which, in addition to downhill skiing, is also used for hiking in the winter mountains.