Touring skis for crud

A snowHead

@kitenski, I did some short tours on the F12 EPF last season. I'm still in heavy alpine boots but lightweight skis (Superguide 95) help a bit. I was much faster on the one that was really low risk so I ditched the entire contents of my rucksack except for a jacket and some water and was amazed at the difference it made!

Obviously, it's not practical to leave the ABS, avi kit and a load of other junk in the boot of the car every time, so I'm trying to improve things with a switch to lighter touring boots and then a tech binding. I like the Shift, but it only saves me about 120g, so I think I'll be looking at other options. I'm looking forward to not having to lift the frame, but if you're not going too far you should be fine. Just don't carry the kitchen sink up with you as well wink

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

@clarky999, Unless there's another model in the pipeline, I've still got an issue with the DIN being too high Confused

@spyderjon said their were some others that are still pretty good – I think he mentioned Fritschi Tectons, though someone else reckoned they were a bit plasticky and would eventually fail Confused

Not sure yet, it's all up for discussion. Boots first.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

@Scarlet, I asked my Salomon rep this week about the rumoured lower din version of the Shift and it's supposedly coming next Autumn for the 20/21 season. Confirmation of that and the specs won't be announced until the trade shows season mid/end Jan.

The Tectons are great and have been trouble free (once they tweaked the toe design so they didn't dent the boot toe in a knee fall). The Vipec has morphed in to the Evo's but there's still heel problems so I don't sell them.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@spyderjon, Thanks for asking them, but a bit of a bug on the timescale. So, given an equivalent DIN range (assuming all else is equal in a new model for the sake of argument), apart from being about 250g lighter, how does the Tecton stack up against the Shift from my perspective?

You'll need to Register first of course.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

I have experience of both the Shift and Vipec - so similar to the Tecton as the toe is identical. The ski in question is a 184 Atris that I use as a do it all ski.

Both the Vipec and Shift ski extremely well for touring bindings. I found the Vipec very solid and found that it performed well in firm conditions. The damping in the toe is noticeable compared to a dynafit or similar. I did not really feel any vagueness in the heel and expect that the Tecton is at least as solid as the Vipec felt. The Shift feels like an alpine binding as others have commented.

The gain from the Shift for me is mainly psychological. I am 183 cm and 80kg. I worried about thrashing a plastic pin binding on piste with a 130 flex boot. The Shift doesn't actually ski that much better but I don't worry as much about skiing it inbounds.

Were I using the skis in question exclusively or mainly for touring rather than as a do it all ski then I would have no qualms about going the Tecton or Vipec route. Would probably be the Tecton if buying now as the heel looks better and the weight penalty over the Vipec is marginal.

After all it is free

@gorilla, interesting insight, thanks. I am a fair bit smaller than you (163cm and 53kg) so maybe would struggle to generate enough force to damage the plastic pin. The Superguides are a bit of a do it all ski though – I have others, but they’re the ones I go for if I’m not sure about the conditions as they are the most versatile. I’m just as likely to be found hooning down a hardpacked piste as playing in fresh powder on them, so the binding ideally needs to cope with all that. I have skied the Shift and they did feel like any other alpine binding, but due to my lack of tech boots (soon rectified, hopefully) I haven’t been able to try any others.

@Scarlet, the deciding factor for you will probably be down to which binding can be mounted to your Superguides without hole conflicts with the existing F12 locations. That's easy to check but it's boot sole length dependent so when you have your new boots let me have your bsl and I'll check what'll fit. The Shifts toe pattern is quite different to that of other bindings and usually has good clearance. The Shift heel is pretty generic so clashes more often that not but it has loads of length adjustment so it's usually easy to offset the base plate to miss existing holes and then bring the upper heel back in to the required position etc.

Just make sure that you get a boot with full depth toe'n'heel lugs to ensure they'll work in a Shift/Tecton/Kingpin etc. Some AT boots (usually the very lightweight out'n'out touring boots like the Backland & TLT8 etc) have shorter or even no lugs so will only work in a binding that has tech bins at the toe and the heel.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Help!!

Touring skis for crud

snowHeads Forum Index >>> Equipment Reviews/Questions