Madi McKinstry

Madi McKinstry

Where are you from, when did you begin skiing and telemarking, where do you ski most now?

I started skiing at age 2 at Grand Targhee. I always wondered why my parents’ bindings had free heels and mine didn’t. At age 10 my feet could finally fit into my mom’s Scarpa T2’s from the late 90’s and I slipped those into a pair of blue G3 Targa bindings and there was no returning to alpine from there.

After growing up in the Ruby Mountains outside my hometown of Spring Creek, Nevada and weekend warrior trips to the ski areas of Utah, my family moved to Steamboat, Colorado when I was 12. There I got involved with telemark racing and made my way onto the US Telemark Ski Team at age 15. I raced on the FIS Telemark World Cup circuit for six seasons, landing on multiple World Junior Championship podiums, two 3rd place World Cup finishes, and 4 US National Champion titles. I then spent three seasons competing in the Freeheel Life Cup at Grand Targhee, where I got 3rd, 2nd, and 1st over the seasons.

Now retired from telemark competition “unless it’s just for fun” (aka winning the golden rock at Pebble Creek), I ski patrol at Big Sky in Montana and ski Bridger Bowl on my days off. Originally winding up in Bozeman for college 13 years ago, I’ve set my edges hard in the wind buff of SW Montana.

What do you love about telemarking?

Telemarking is my favorite because of all the friends I have made along the way and the places I’ve gotten to ski thanks to the best turn on earth. It feels good, it looks good, and is just plain fun.

What do you like about our bindings?

22 Designs bindings are the most durable and transfer the most energy from boot to ski. The flex is smooth like butter but stiff enough to support my powerful turns. Having skied on almost every other modern telemark binding 75mm and NTN, there really is no binding that comes close to the power of the OutlawX and Bandit. The OutlawX also gets the uphill done with the ease of the full pivot. I also just snagged a pair of Hammerheads off Facebook marketplace, which is what I started racing on all those years ago. Pretty stoked to have both a 75mm and NTN setup again!!

What do you like to do for fun when you’re not skiing?

When I’m not skiing you can find me on any river, but mostly the Lochsa, Middle Fork of the Salmon and Colorado through the Grand Canyon. Bikes are fun and fast and when I can squeeze in a ride, you bet I do.