 Poster: A snowHead
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Just wondering. I've skied with a few guys using hard shell climbing boots in touring bindings, but wondered whether there were any other options for ski touring.
Can you use telemark boots and bindings? How about normal ski boots in touring bindings? What sort of skis do you use?
Just interested to know, thinking of maybe having a go myself one of these days.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Kramer, I'm in a similar position, but a few days down the road from you here. I got some useful advice from Powderhound in this thread. I will probably be doing about 25% touring, 50% off piste and 25% on, so have gone for a combo that will do everything, although probably none of it perfectly. All mountain ski (in my case Dynastar 8000, B2s also get some support, most hire shops give you Atomics) + Fritschi Freeride binding to give you a DIN release and brakes for downhill, with the free heel for uphill. Downhill boots do work in modern touring bindings, although they will generally be heavier than dedicated touring boots, and any walking will be less comfortable (touring boots have a lever to flip between solid- and soft-heel settings, are softer and have a tread on the sole). The bindings are easy to adjust (within limits) for different length boot soles and the different sole depth. This all doesn't come cheap though - about £225 for the bindings, £30 for the ski crampons (harscheisen/couteaux), and about £100 for climbing skins. Will be looking out for boots in the next couple of weeks.
Another option, other than hiring skis for those touring days, if you are only intending to do a little bit of uphill to get to slopes you wouldn't otherwise make, is the Alpine Trekker, or Securifix. These are adaptors that fit in a normal downhill binding but provide the free heel. I've not used them, but have seen comments about their fragility, and the combo with the regular binding is a very heavy solution - so I've seen strong advice against using them for anything more than day tours with easy escape options.
I very much doubt that telemark kit is compatible in any way, but is probably much better than alpine touring kit for a more dedicated point-to-point traveller: as I understand it one of the major advantage is avoiding faffing about getting skins on/off but, as you'll have seen, the downhill bit's a completely different technique to "real" skiing.
Get a guide for a few one-day tours, hire gear, and they'll show you what it's all about. Late March/April is the peak season - weather is generally warmer, days are longer, and the snow is less inviting on-piste (my first day was one Easter when the off-piste stuff we were supposed to be "having fun" in was crappy freeze-thaw crusty crud). Do make sure you do a little bit of downhill in the hired gear before you start the uphill bit though, or you'll get a very nasty shock trying to work out how gear you've never skied on before works when you're at the top of an awkward cruddy rubbly slope - and if in addition you forget to switch your boots out of walk mode your first few turns will be very interesting and probably involve eating snow (note the voice of bitter experience  ).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Kramer, Hire (all) the gear first - you'll soon find out what you want, and yes, plastic boots, and fat skis are the way to go.
GrahamN, you do need to faff around with skis on teles too !
Unless you can tele already (or have a strong desire to learn), alpine is the best way to go, Mrs Ski's alpine setup (Altitrail skis, Denali boots, Fritchis) is lighter than my teles !
Hope that helps - hire a guide and have fun - it's really satisfying to leave the ski area..... 
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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U don't need the Freeride bindings unless you are a big and/or fairly aggressive skier looking for a release setting in the middle of the Freeride range (where they work best I understand). A lighter and cheaper Fritcshi may do the job.
B3's with Freerides still for sale!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I've got Alpine Trekkers and used them for various 1 and 2 day tours, but they are fairly heavy, tend to shorten themselves, and are a faff particularly when doing the kind of bitty touring that requires you making lots of adjustments. I certainly wouldn't use Trekkers for anything long, like the Haute Route!
I've also used Fritschis with normal downhill and with ski-touring boots, and think if you are doing mainly day tours with <500m ascents then just use your downhill boots. By all means hire touring boots, but I have found them a bit crap for the skiing part, although if you are a very good skier then you will be able to compensate, as all guides and many ski instructors who use touring gear do.
Never tried telemarking but it looks bloody hard and if you are a decent skier anyway then why bother, just get AT gear.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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I've got Frischitis on a pair of alpine touring skis (Atomic AT9s which are probably a bit narrow by modern carving standards) and Scarpa titan ski mountaineering boots. I use these for all my lift served skiing and also for a bit of touring. However it is quite heavy kit so I find touring quite hard work - which probably just means I'm horribly unfit. In particular i find ny calves ache if I've done a lot of skinning.
Recently I have just bought a pair of Fischer Boundless waxing nordic touring skis with Voile 3pin and cable bindings and Crispi CXT telemark boots. They are nordic cambered so I can wax them for kick and glide, but they have lots of side cut so they turn real easy, both parallel and tele turns. I've used them three times so far and found them light, easy to use and real nice to ski on. However I'll have a better idea after next week as I'm off to Norway to do a week of xc/touring and I'll have a better idea how they perform.
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More stuff here for SCGB members.
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Alan Craggs, please see my reply to your other thread, would love to, but can't possibly.
The rest of you, thanks for all the great advice, it looks like I shall be returning to the rental shop after all...
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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There's a wide range of options, most of which depend on how you consider the trade off between downhill skiing performance and ease of uphill travel. The main options are, starting with best downhill performance: (please excuse the brand mentioning - it's the easiest way to give examples)
Downhill boots, downhill (though good in crud, say an XScream) skis & bindings, and Alpine Trekkers. Optimal downhill performance, but very heavy uphill (though Plake I did the Haute Route with a friend who use downhill boots, 2m K2 Slalom skis and Alpine Trekkers). The only investment is in Trekkers and skins, which you probably won't be able to rent.
Fairly hefty ski touring boots (e.g. Scarpa Denali), fat but light(ish) skis (e.g. Atomic R9), Diamir Freeride or Explore (new name for the old Titanal). A good compromise setup, with decent downhill performance (the main compromise is probably in the boots), and not too heavy for uphill. If you a lot of downhill, but also frequent touring, and only want one set of kit, this is probably the best way to go. This combination is the easiest to find for rental.
Light ski touring boots, touring skis (e.g. hagan, fischer, dynafit) and a light touring binding. Emphasis much more on uphill performance, and accepting that you can't ski as hard downhill as you may like. Probably the best option for non-lift-assisted touring and multi day tours. Not so easy to find to rent, and not really advisable as a setup to use for much downhill skiing, as the kit is generally not as robust.
The above examples assume relative parity of skis, boots and bindings (i.e. all hefty, all medium, or all light). This is because your downhill performance is limited by the weakest part (skis & boots for performance, bindings for robustness) - for example, there's not much point using downhill boots on light touring skis, as the skis will limit what you can. The assumption here is that you can get hold of/afford a consistent set of kit; if not you can mostly mix and match, though the Dynafit TourLite binding will not work with downhill boots.
Probably your best option to begin with is to rent touring skis & bindings and either use your downhill boots (if they're reasonably comfy), or touring boots (if they're available), then see what you think. If you only tour occasionally, you can stick to renting, but you can't rent touring kit in all resorts, and in some resorts the kit can be all booked out at peak times (e.g Chamonix around Easter). If you want to buy kit, the main choice is whether to have 2 sets of kit - one for downhill, and one for touring - or one set that can do all. 'Fraid there's no simple answer.
I've ignored telemark kit so far, because there's the overhead of learning to tele. Even with tele kit you get a similar range of options, so the choice of what to get is not much easier. And as ski says, it isn't necessarily lighter. There are pros and cons touring - tele kit is less hassle in rolling terrain, but is not so easy to kick turn with (or at least, that's my excuse) on steeper ground
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Once again, snowHeads proves to be an amazing font of information. Thanks for your input viv, guess I'll finally have to get up off my back bottom and do it!
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