Backcountry question

masterhatin

masterhatin

Member
I have a question for the real back country fiends here. What kind of skis do you ride and where are your bindings mounted on your skis? I have a pair of last years sir Francis bacons center mounted with some marker barons. I only rode the resort with them but there was a few instances where my tip or tips dove in and I "went over the bars". I do have east coast roots so I am a bit of back seater, not real bad though. I'm just wondering if I need to forget my center mounted ways in order to ski like a god damn man or not?
 
well depending on what you are doing in the backcountry mounting is gonna be different. i like to mess around, throw 3s, land switch, and do butters in the pow so i center mount mine. if your just gonna shred the hell out of the mountain though its preference i guess.
 
Like the guy above said preference and depends what your doing.

Jibbing/hitting lots of botters you'll be fine with center mount.

Big mountain and dropping cliffs your going to want them a bit back (more stable at speed). Dropping cliffs with center mount skis you get mad "wheelies" as well.

 
I tired the whole centre mount thing out on 185 JJ's (I'm 6'1" - or 185cm if you will) and I found it didn't work out so well for me.

Really though, I spend more time forward than not when skiing in the pow. I do the odd switch landing, but really, it wasn't worth it. Be honest with yourself, do you actually spend any real time switch (landing or otherwise) when skiing pow? probably not.

I've been playing with 185 to 190 length and with my height, I prefer a 190 at a few cm back from centre (usually the recommended mount line) and it's the bees knees. As for bindings, I've been rocking the Dukes the past 4 years or so and they've been great (for the most part - every binding has it's issues), but with me doing more and more touring and being slightly less aggressive in the backcountry as far as big impacts and what not, combined with the improvements on the Dynafits over the years, I might give those a try this winter. I mean - if Hoji can rock them, surely I can.
 
i ski my bibby pros at -3 for an everyday pow ski, kind of wish i had gone to maybe like -4 but thats pretty trivial. But really you cant judge it off that at all, it really depends on the sidecut and rocker of the ski, and your own preference. Centermounting works alright on a few skis like hellbents, but in general its not going to be that good outside of switch and spinning. I'm 5'9 140lbs and I'll be buying a pair of 187 praxis wootests and mounting them with dynafit radical ft12s probably around -5 cm or so for my new touring set up.
 
yeah like others said, what do you plan on doing in the bc? Long skins, hiking ridge lines, short tours and short runs?
 
160 Paybacks with FD Freeride bindings at standard mount.

No way I could do a center mount on any real all mountain/big mountain/powder/rockered ski. I've got a pretty aggressive stance, I'd go head over toe pretty instantly.
 
183 Armada TSTs w/ Marker Dukes.

I'm more into big lines/cliffs/drops, and the TST isn't a ski that should be center mounted, so I have mine set back. Even if spins and booters in the backcountry are your thing I'd still think you'd wanna go at least -1 or so.
 
My dad's a really intense back country skier and he goes to Canada for like 3 weeks every year to ski it and he ski's on telemark skis because it's easier to hike up the mountain or get yourself some hybrids that you can buckle down to become alpine skis. He skis on some really fat skis, back mounted, and light.
 
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