Ed F wrote:Telemark is Norwegian for "slow hippie." Randonee is French for "can't tele."
And Snowboard is German for "can't ski."
Congrats on the switch. Been there, done that. I switched from snow shoes, and have done AT since 1979 and telemark since 1989. I found that I can ski much harder terrain more gracefully on tele gear than when I'm locked down. But that's not typical.
If you don't know how to ski, you have to start with lessons and lifts. Get yourself a cheap season pass to a small local ski hill. Think Ski Cooper, not Aspen. I learned telemark at the old ski area in Colorado Springs. The best tele lessons I ever had were from a cool "bi" chick in Santa Fe ("bi" = alpiner and tele skier).
Forget about trying to learn inexpensively by hiking up hills. You will get in great shape doing that, but you won't learn to ski very well anytime in the 21st Century.
I agree with the recommendations for AT. If you can get some plastic climbing boots that fit into AT bindings, that's the ticket. One pair of boots for the ski in, climb, and ski out.
The only advantage that telemark has over AT is the foot flex. (Maybe weight, too.) The AT system is rigid and when you are skinning up the trail your foot isn't flexing naturally. This is not a big deal for a simple approach. But if you are going to spend a week touring on the uphill and flats, it can cause a lot of foot pain. I did a 10-day traverse of the Sierra Nevada on AT gear and I was MISERABLE after about 4 days.
If you go telemark, you're going to need to carry your climbing boots on your back.
Telemark is wonderful for skiing for the sake of skiing. Graceful when done correctly, but 90% of telemark skiers neither ski gracefully nor correctly. Thankfully that is changing as more and more people ski tele for more and more years. As my knees get older and muscle mass decreases, though, I found that I have become a "paramarker" so I might as well stick with AT. But I just can't give up my revered floppy heel.
Regardless of your chosen boards, riding the lifts and skiing on courduroy is the fast lane to proficiency.
I've dealt with Bent Gate for 20 years, always been happy with 'em.