Armada ARV 116 with frame bindings?

[MCwiseman]

Hey,

I'm an expert/type 3 skier looking to get out touring with my roomates in the Whistler backcountry. I am 22 and in good shape and do not plan on doing extremely long tours. I already own the ski's. I noticed armada makes pre-cut skins for the ski so I assume people do it, but do you think the ARV 116, with frame binding's would be too heavy to be a practical touring option?

Thanks for the advice

**This thread was edited on Oct 28th 2018 at 5:10:02pm

**This thread was edited on Oct 28th 2018 at 5:10:39pm

 

[OhJay]

I went from marker barons (or dukes? Whichever was the cheaper one) to reg alpine bindings (griffons). Didnt really notice having frame bindings under me while I skied the barons. After the switch, I did notice the difference in weight and lower stack height, but after a few days it just felt normal, business as usual.

I can’t compare to any tech or other frame bindings as I’ve only had the barons, but im not the most conditioned guy and felt like they weren’t too heavy for short tours.

However you sound like you’re pretty experienced so you may be more sensitive to the differences than myself.

 

[-eREKTion-]

I dislike frames for their skiing performance. Besides the elevated stack height, having a totally rigid surface directly underfoot disrupts the intended flex of the ski. I had frames on JJ 2.0's at one point and really disliked the hinge between the mid-soft tips and the completely inflexible section underfoot. Maybe look at Daymakers + normal clamps.

 

[MCwiseman]

I dislike frames for their skiing performance. Besides the elevated stack height, having a totally rigid surface directly underfoot disrupts the intended flex of the ski. I had frames on JJ 2.0's at one point and really disliked the hinge between the mid-soft tips and the completely inflexible section underfoot. Maybe look at Daymakers + normal clamps.

Ya I've read about people having issues with the inflexible section underfoot. But I've also come across some reviews that claim the Tyrolia adrenalins have a feature to combat that, which allows the ski to flex more naturally underfoot. I am leaning towards those but I thought about daymakers as well.

 

[patagonialuke]

How often are you planning on touring? And how long do you think your typical tours will be?

If you're only going to be touring a handful of times per year, I think Daymakers would make the most sense.

If you're going to be touring more than that, then I'd go with the Tyrolia Adrenalin.

But if you have boots with tech fittings, or are planning on getting some this year, I'd highly recommend the Salomon / Atomic Shift binding. It's wayyy better on the uphill compared to frame bindings, lighter than Daymakers, and I'd argue it skis better than frame bindings.

 

[MCwiseman]

How often are you planning on touring? And how long do you think your typical tours will be?

If you're only going to be touring a handful of times per year, I think Daymakers would make the most sense.

If you're going to be touring more than that, then I'd go with the Tyrolia Adrenalin.

But if you have boots with tech fittings, or are planning on getting some this year, I'd highly recommend the Salomon / Atomic Shift binding. It's wayyy better on the uphill compared to frame bindings, lighter than Daymakers, and I'd argue it skis better than frame bindings.

Luckily I have more skis to use as daily drivers, should probably have said that originally, so inbounds practicality is not a big issue. They likely will never be used inbounds, unless I'm somewhere that offers side country like Sunshine Village. Hopefully I can get out on them quite a bit, but will never be doing multi day tours or anything too intense just yet.

I completely agree with the tech binding being the best option, I just cannot afford the boots right now.

 

[patagonialuke]

Luckily I have more skis to use as daily drivers, should probably have said that originally, so inbounds practicality is not a big issue. They likely will never be used inbounds, unless I'm somewhere that offers side country like Sunshine Village. Hopefully I can get out on them quite a bit, but will never be doing multi day tours or anything too intense just yet.

I completely agree with the tech binding being the best option, I just cannot afford the boots right now.

Gotcha, then a frame binding like the Adrenalin might be a good place to start. I haven't used Daymakers, so I'll let someone else chime in on those vs. frame bindings. But the Adrenalin is fine for tours that aren't too long, and if you end up liking touring a lot and want to do it more, then that's when I think it makes sense to look into investing in a tech setup.

 

[cydwhit]

Luckily I have more skis to use as daily drivers, should probably have said that originally, so inbounds practicality is not a big issue. They likely will never be used inbounds, unless I'm somewhere that offers side country like Sunshine Village. Hopefully I can get out on them quite a bit, but will never be doing multi day tours or anything too intense just yet.

I completely agree with the tech binding being the best option, I just cannot afford the boots right now.

Luke's right on.

Another option, is you can use the Salomon/Atomic SHIFT with your inbounds boots if you sent them to CAST to get tech toes put in. Not cheap, but cheaper than new touring boots....

 

[tahoearmada20]

ive been running guardians on jjs for the last 5 years or so and they work great, a lil heavy but the downhill performance is worth the weight

 

[MCwiseman]

Thanks for the help guys, the guardians were super tempting due to the low stack height which sounds dope, but I've decided to go with the Tyrolia Adrenaline's. If I already had binders on the ski the daymakers would have been a more enticing option. But I feel as if buying bindings with the intent of using daymakers with them is kinda expensive and silly when I could just go with dedicated frames. Also skiing around with daymakers in my pack on top of Avi gear sounds like a headache as I hate the feeling of shifting weight on my back when I'm skiing.