Ski Touring Equipment - arrived and I'm scared!

A snowHead

Hi so after much deliberation I chose a set up.

Boots Garmont Endorphin bought and fitted at ProFeet, Putney-London. Good service and boots are snug-possibly could have mentioned canting shims but apart from this all seemed very professional. (I may not even need canting shims but I like everything to be discussed/measured!)

K2 Shuksan 05/06 (Grey/Cream) - ooh these ski's look really nice. 174cm with 78 waist, thanks for the advice from Davidof & GrahamN on these. The weight is fien and I think that these should be fine even in deeper powder.

Naxo NX21 - They look so futuristic and cool! Nice heel lock system so no insta-tele ever will be interested how they perform btu seem very sturdy.

Now the trepidation, it is not until you see your boots clipped into the mounted bindings do you reaslise that you are now pivoting along a metal bar suspended 5cm above your skis. It looks as if I will feel like I am skiing ontop of a pyramid! I guess this shouldn't be too bad in powder but on hard packed snow I feel that it would help to be close to the ski and thus more responsive.

For skiers here with experience of these bindings in comparison with Dynafit bindings where you are tight to the ski, do you have any comments to share.

Also I will be skiing 3 days out of my 7 days on the slope rather than touring. The ski's certainly look capable of on piste performance but I have 0 knowledge of what the binding will feel like. Shall I take my XRCs or not. How does it feel skiing on Naxos or Fritschis with the raise on the slope

Anyhow I will try and take a photo of the new set up and edit the post later..... I love new kit arriving woo hoo! Now only 4 days before we travel Smile

A snowHead

Okay stuck them on in the living room and it doesn't seem quite so bad a quaestion for anyone that knows the Naxo NX21 bindings .... should you adjust the toe piece height until there is 0 movement up and down when clipped in? At the moment there is a tiny bit of up and down.

Ooh my boots feel so snug and lush it is great.

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plectrum, to coin a phrase...."nah worries, mate". The first times you're out it'll feel a little strange when you put on any degree of edge angle, as your foot'll move a bit more sideways than you're used to - so you'll just have to maybe be a bit more accurate with setting that angle. It has basically the same effect though as the riser on a race plate, or now a lot of the integrated binding systems have the same riser effect (my Fritschis are probably only 5-7mm higher than the Neox bindings on my slalom skis). After a few hours though you'll mostly not notice it - until you do something silly and then the collapse may feel a bit strange Wink

. I would suspect the main issue will be in deep crud, particularly if (like me) you have a tendency to overtwist the skis - being that bit higher off the ski you'll be a bit more prone to tripping yourself up. On piste it'll be completely fine - patricularly if you've been used to getting any kind of edge angles on your Goats - you're similarly removed from direct contact with the snow, albeit in the completely opposite way (i.e. high and narrow rather than low and wide). Forget the XRCs, and have fun cranking the Shuksans over as far as you can get them to go. Actually I suspect that the psychological effect of skiing on Naxos is probably less than on Fritschis - with the single Fritschi bar underfoot you think it's going to feel like skiing on iceskates, despite that not being the case at all.

I also need to put up a picture of my new babies (185cm Black Diamond Kilowatts - the ugliest ski on the planet - plus BD Glidelite STS skins) which turned up just before Xmas Blush

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GrahamN, When in the toe piece I lean back & I just get a little rise of maybe 3mm. It is hardly noticeable but wonder if tightening is a good or bad idea. A few other minor issue is that at present it is hard to clip in easier to aid it with my hand pulling up the back lever. My sole length is 317 and they are set to just after 316 as the bindings increase in 4's.

Finally I will try to do a match up but with the boots in it looks as if the mid point of the bindings is ~ 3mm out with the mid point marked on the boot. Is this something to worry about or is it too slight?

And a question on Garmont Endorphins ... on steep descents or actually any descents is it wise to really tighten the bottom clips to minimise any movement in the bottom part of the tongue? The upright down hill setting for the Garmonts looks like a very good idea too is this just for the deep?

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You probably need someone like SZK to answer those questions as they're specific to your gear. Sounds to me like you need to check the forward pressure/boot-length adjustment though, as there should be a continuous adjustment and it's important to get it right to avoid pre-releasing (or non-releases). On the Fritschis, the length adjustment screw head moves out wrt the plastic housing when the boot is inserted. When correctly adjusted this should be flush with the housing. This should only be adjusted with the boot NOT in place, so there's a load of "screw, clip-in, feel, clip-out" faffing about to check that. Despite the supplier (Telemark-pyrennees) setting it up approximately right on shipment, I still needed to make a couple of mm adjustment to get it right - and that amount can give you a grossly incorrect release setting. No ideas how this translates to the Naxo though as I've not been quite that close oto one. That vertical adjustment also sounds a bit off (I also had to adjust mine by about a mm), so again I'd suggest you get some hard info on this before skiing them. My boot mid point is also a few mm behind the ski mid point - it may give a bit more float at the expense of turn responsiveness, but I doubt it'll make too much difference. On my previous skis my touring and downhill boots were 10mm different in sole length, and both skied fine, despite at least one therefore being 5mm out. There's way too much fretting about binding position in certain quarters IMHO Wink

- it only makes a difference if you a) are skiing at the competitive edge or b) can't ski. Laughing

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

All good stuff here.

I was a bit concerned about the bar on the Freerides and didn't really take the them for that reason. I can't say that it killed me whilst skiing the deeper snow that we did though, so probably it was psychological.
I might well prefer the more solid looking riser that the Dukes look like they have..and I haven't really looked at Naxo's....but I don't have to decide yet as I am still thinking about the skis. So, I don't think it is the height raise you get that is the issue, just whether you like sitting on the bar of a Freeride P. Not sure how this sits with Naxo's

plectrum,
Re the endo's...atm, my boot is so snug, I can't see me moving at all. The toe clips just clip over and there is no room to tighten them so not a problem I think I'll have to contend with. I have only messed around with 2 modes...walk and mode 1 and the boaster strap stiffens things up somewhat, so not looking for anymore. Maybe after a week or two on snow, I'll be looking at this more closely. Ise covers these boots on his blog so you could drop him a PM

GrahamN Hear hear.... Laughing

After all it is free

GrahamN, I'll get a dude in Klosters to give it the once over .... damn only a few more days to go and then snow...

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JT, I don't normally tighten the base buckles of boots very tightly but on the Endos I see a little movement where the tongue pivots at the toe of the boot. When the bindings are loose this movement is ~ 5mm but as i tighten this it reduces to next to 0.

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plectrum,

I've never used Naxo's but this might help. Probably best to get someone with experience to check them out rather than it costing a knee or two.

http://www.wildsnow.com/articles/naxo-mount/naxo_mount_5.html

snow reports

plectrum,

I'll keep an eye out for that...thanks

You know it makes sense.

JT, It is just the squillion of reviews I have read in deciding to buy this set up ... basically they say they the true Dyanfit elite are amazingly skilled at cleaning the ice out of the holes with the pick perhaps een better than they are at skiing!

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Okay GrahamN, I have done the paper test and the toe heights seem perfect. My current issue is that it is virtually impossible to clip in the the bindings without aiding the lever with my hand. I thought maybe increasing the distance between toe piece and heel latch. The Naxo rail moves on 4mm increments and so the jump is from 316 to 320 but my boots are 317mm. I am not sure what to do here as it was set up at 316.

A snowHead

DB, I'm using Dynafit, no worries. Tails into the snow, sit, clip and off you go.

A snowHead

plectrum, unless there's some self-adjustment for forward pressure (which I doubt) there must be a screw somewhere on the binding for fine adjustment of length/forward pressure. 4mm is way too coarse an adjustment and would easily result in pre/non-release. SMALLZOOKEEPER, can you help out here?

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

GrahamN, I dunno, I've looked at the instructions and on Wild Snow & it seems that it is 4 or nowt. At 316 the forward pressure is within manufacturer's guide lines but at 320 I can see the notch with boot in which means that Forward pressure is too low.

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One good thing to report is how easy it is to disengage the latch lock and change the system in between both free heel for touring and locked heel for down hill. Also in Touring mode how easy it is to change the heel height support. I can do this all with simple movements with the ski pole and at pressures which will never comprmise the tips. Razz

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

GrahamN, plectrum, Sorry guys, i don't touch Naxo. It sucks.

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

plectrum,

I don't know the skis that you have but have read that the Endo's may be a bit too much boot for some skis...... Puzzled

I can send you the link if you like. My only use of them so far was at MK on some really awful Salomon somethings at 175 and I had a torrid time.
Now I don't think those skis would be any use to man or beast at the best of times so it will be interesting to see what you think of the boot/binding/ski combo.

When are you going and where..?

After all it is free

JT, The ski's are classics. They are relatively lightweight (1550g each) 78cm at waist ~ 16m radius but still have enough stiffness for good downhill performance, I chose 174cm and am 178cm tall at 73kilo. I am going to Klosters on the 5th Jan and touring with Eagles for 4 days and then skiing with my friends for 2&1/2 days. I wanted to tour for 6 days but I have a best friend and a fiancee with me so need to give them some of my time!

Oh and by chance the boots colour match with the ski's. If I change my blue coat for a red or grey one then I am fixed up!

SMALLZOOKEEPER, Do you have any specific views on the NX21 as from what I've read Naxo has improved dramtically since NX01 was released. In terms of various tests NX21's have come out similarly to Fritschis and from TGR general user reports of NaxoNX21 are good.

I have the diamirs freeride, and have not noticed any real difference due to skiing while 'lifted'. i know a few people who ski on freerides and do 100+ days a season on them, with a lot inbounds. so don't worry about them being able to take the abuse, because they can. I presume it is the same for the naxo's.

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wbsr, I dunno if it is. Early models of the Naxo broke alot! They seem to have fixed it but heh I guess it will all become clear. I think alot of the time with these ski equipment companies the consumers are actually just R&D guinea pigs without knowing!

Help!!

Ski Touring Equipment - arrived and I'm scared!

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