Poster: A snowHead
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I recently changed my Dynastar Legend 8800's with Fritschi Freeride +'s for Scott Crusairs with Dynafit TLT FT12 bindings. No boot change was necessary as my Scarpa Spirit 4's already had metal fittings for Dynafit. I'd also recently swapped out the original soft green tongue in the Scarpa boots with the supplied stiffer black ones and found it made the boot feel much like an Alpine DH one and makes no discernible difference in terms of hoofing comfort.
Anyway I was so happy with the new skis & bindings at Cairngorm recently, both on the ski runs on Coires Cas & Ciste and off piste on the plateau and over and out of Coire an t'Sneachda that I gambled on taking them away to Ischgl in Austria last week. Eight days and maybe a couple of hundred miles skiing in chalky gullys, fresh powder, bumps, spring snow, slush, morning hardpack, off-piste steeps, narrow ridge tracks to reach them, flat and sloppy resort runs, basically, almost every snow condition I've ever come across, and they've turned out to be the best all round ski I've ever had for both on and off piste and with the exception of glazed snow they're much, much better than anything I've ever used on either. I kept the edges sharp so they did hold an edge to traverse on the neve and sideslipping steep, glazed hardpack but a little caution was required compared to heavy, narrow piste skis. That was the Crusair's only limitation though and they excelled at deeply carved fast turns in light slush and soft to firm snow and floated high in fresh powder snow which for me, made dancing it effortless, for the first time ever.
Getting the precut skins on and off quickly is a doddle if you preadjust them so that they are tensioned a little by the camber of the ski because then, the clips will be positioned so precisely on the ski cutouts that they stick exactly in the right place as you press your hand front from to back. The skis & bindings weigh next to nothing when skinning or shouldering them.
The Dynafit FT's (set on DIN 8 ) continued to be a skoosh to use and released the skis just once and that was definitely when needed (a high speed crash into an unseen submerged something in deep powder). A few minutes search for a buried ski followed but I was left with no broken ligaments etc. Bumps, moguls and little drops (unexpected cornices off piste, Kasbohrer furrows etc on piste) were fine but fast skiing on hard morning snow and landings on hard snow were a little uncomfortable (it eventually felt a bit like the soles of your feet getting slapped with a bit of wood )until it softened up as it felt like there is no damping in the binding whatsoever.
I was a bit nervous that something might get broken because Dynafit bindings just look a little frail and the skis are so light and stiff but they were rock solid. A brilliant ski / binding combination
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