First touring setup?

JAlps

JAlps

Member
Yo AT dudes, I usually don't have a reason to come here much but now I do! So here is this annoying thread.

Heading up to Whistler this season, and I am going to be doing a program that will prep me for ACMG certs ( as well as doing a lot of touring outside of the course for experience.

I'm looking to invest in a nice touring setup that will serve to be well rounded in all aspects. I want something that can seriously charge (hopefully like I would in bounds), but isn't TOOOO heavy.

Right now I have a pair of 175mm KF All Mountains and they seem like it might be a good idea to remount them with tech bindings but if not I was thinking of something along the lines of a 105-108 width ski.

My biggest question is in how much performance you are sacrificing with tech bindings such as the G3 ION or Kingpins? Can you still ski aggressively on them? How about cliffs and airs?

I guess I'm just kind of looking for general wisdom here in choosing my first dedicated setup, especially because I don't have a ton of experience with what conditions are like in Whistlers back country.
 
You can charge pretty well with Ions/Beasts/Vipecs/Raiders/Yaks and all the others (with higher DIN). I have a friend who uses the Ion 12 on the old full rockered Volkl Katanas. We were bombing down icy groomers, hitting decent sized cliffs (up to 40 feet). He had no problems at all, except 2 or 3 pre releases. Even lapping the park a few times is possible.

I d recommend for touring directional skis like the on3p Steeple series and similar ones. A good amount amount of camber with a kinda flat tail gives you more grip on hard snow when you re skinning up. The more tip/tail rocker the less grip -> more pain traversing windblown or icy snowfields.

I definitely recommend the Ion 12s, Raider 14, Vipecs, Radical FT or Beast 14. I am not a huge fan of Marker and the Kingpins in general but thats my personal opinion.

I spent a season in Revy/interior BC where the snow is softer compared to the coastal mtns. For touring I used a K2 Annex 98 which was definitely too narrow during main season but perfect for early and late season touring :D I think skis around the 105-110 width are perfect for Whis.

cheers and enjoy whis :D
 
I have some KF All Mountain's with ION's I love for a do-it-all touring setup.

As far as the chargeability of tech bindings, that's a can of worms I'll stay out of for now.
 
I'm a bit partial, but the All Mountains make a great, do it all touring ski. As far as tech bindings go, some people don't trust them at all and some people will say you can huck as hard as you want on them and not have an issue. The reality is somewhere in between. Here is my assessment / ranking of tech bindings.

Get a Kingpin if you can find them on sale. They are the best skiing tech binding on the market currently. They have their downfalls and the heels still break occasionally. But everything breaks, so you might as well get something that skis well. I would not pay $650 for them. But now you can find them for $350-$400 new or pick up a used pair.

Beast 14's are also a good option and depending on how you ski / what your approaches are like might be worth the upgrade from radicals. The downfall with Beasts is that you don't have a flat tour mode and the heal risers are kind of annoying. To get back into ski mode you have to awkwardly jam your ski pole in there and it never seemed to get easier on mine despite doing it hundreds of times. You also have to add the extra heel piece thing on your boot. This is actually why I got rid of mine. I use a pair of Roxa Cliffnotes for touring and resort skiing, so with the added metal piece on the heel, I couldn't step into an FKS. IMO beast 16's are not worth the upgrade over 14's. I'd rather just lock the toe out on the 14's than add weight with the 16's.

ION and Radicals. You should probably get a pair of these. Most people won't out ski them, they are pretty proven designs and you get find them for relatively cheap. Would I ever ski a resort or hit big lines or cliffs on them, absolutely not. But for what most people do touring, they will be fine. Look into getting toe shims for them to take out some of the ramp angle if you are used to a more upright stance.

Vipecs will break if you look at them wrong. I have no idea how Diamir is still making bindings or how you could possibly make a product as horrible as they do. If you would rather get a TBI from an unwanted release than break your leg in a twisting fall, look into them. Otherwise, stay away.

ATK Freeraider 14's have always intrigued me, but are hard to come across in the US. Plums are decent, but I have heard their customer service is a nightmare if you have any issues. Dynafit kills it with the customer service.

Some people will say that you can ski lighter weight bindings, such as Speed Radicals, just as hard as the others and not have issues. But unless you are doing some serious mountaineering or really, really care about saving a few grams, I wouldn't bother with them.

In summary, no tech binding will ski as well as an alpine binding but most will do alright. If you're sending on a tech binding, you will release occasionally when you would not have on an alpine binding and you will most likely break them at some point. The best case scenario is to have a dedicated tech setup for when you are skiing pow and have long approaches and then use an alpine adapter when you are hitting cliffs / jumps or doing anything side country.
 
13730472:KyleA said:
I'm a bit partial, but the All Mountains make a great, do it all touring ski. As far as tech bindings go, some people don't trust them at all and some people will say you can huck as hard as you want on them and not have an issue. The reality is somewhere in between. Here is my assessment / ranking of tech bindings.

Get a Kingpin if you can find them on sale. They are the best skiing tech binding on the market currently. They have their downfalls and the heels still break occasionally. But everything breaks, so you might as well get something that skis well. I would not pay $650 for them. But now you can find them for $350-$400 new or pick up a used pair.

Beast 14's are also a good option and depending on how you ski / what your approaches are like might be worth the upgrade from radicals. The downfall with Beasts is that you don't have a flat tour mode and the heal risers are kind of annoying. To get back into ski mode you have to awkwardly jam your ski pole in there and it never seemed to get easier on mine despite doing it hundreds of times. You also have to add the extra heel piece thing on your boot. This is actually why I got rid of mine. I use a pair of Roxa Cliffnotes for touring and resort skiing, so with the added metal piece on the heel, I couldn't step into an FKS. IMO beast 16's are not worth the upgrade over 14's. I'd rather just lock the toe out on the 14's than add weight with the 16's.

ION and Radicals. You should probably get a pair of these. Most people won't out ski them, they are pretty proven designs and you get find them for relatively cheap. Would I ever ski a resort or hit big lines or cliffs on them, absolutely not. But for what most people do touring, they will be fine. Look into getting toe shims for them to take out some of the ramp angle if you are used to a more upright stance.

Vipecs will break if you look at them wrong. I have no idea how Diamir is still making bindings or how you could possibly make a product as horrible as they do. If you would rather get a TBI from an unwanted release than break your leg in a twisting fall, look into them. Otherwise, stay away.

ATK Freeraider 14's have always intrigued me, but are hard to come across in the US. Plums are decent, but I have heard their customer service is a nightmare if you have any issues. Dynafit kills it with the customer service.

Some people will say that you can ski lighter weight bindings, such as Speed Radicals, just as hard as the others and not have issues. But unless you are doing some serious mountaineering or really, really care about saving a few grams, I wouldn't bother with them.

In summary, no tech binding will ski as well as an alpine binding but most will do alright. If you're sending on a tech binding, you will release occasionally when you would not have on an alpine binding and you will most likely break them at some point. The best case scenario is to have a dedicated tech setup for when you are skiing pow and have long approaches and then use an alpine adapter when you are hitting cliffs / jumps or doing anything side country.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the insight! Ill start looking more into Kingpins and ION's then most likely.

My initial plan was to rock the A senders since I already have FKS on my All Mountains but RIP :'(

/I'm a fanboy ;)
 
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