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answer me this re AT gear


allison

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So I'ze sitting on the chairlift today with an 11 year old friend of mine, looking waaay over to the left of the High Campbell chair, like two bowls over, thinking to myself.....(ya think she'd notice if I lost her for a few runs and went up top) I mean, uh, well, why can't ya mount AT bindings on regular alpine skis? I've only skied on AT gear one time so far, but one of the things I found icky was the, well, flimsiness of the whole deal. So why couldn't you take the best of both worlds with a pair of lightweight downhill skis and fit them up? Tell me, People of AT, what would be the disadvantage to this? If it was only about weight and nothing else, I might consider doing this. As a veteran lift-serviced skier, I am really, really accustomed to more stability out of my gear, and my style of skiing reflects it.

 

And for what it's worth, my young friend cruised Lower Exterminator like it was the bunny hill, so next time we go, I'm taking her up top. The easier runs off of High Campbell are easier than that nasty thing! shocked.gif

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There is no disadvantage, people do it all the time. Even tele people (but then you have to ask yourself why you're teleing in the first place if the gear is so heavy hahaha.gif). I am skiing some Denali XT's, Freerides and Atomic R:ex and it is dang close to an alpine setup But many feel their skis downgraded in performance even w/ the Freeride binding. I'm not a good enough skier to really tell and have spent little time on alpine setups. AT boots will always introduce some "noodleness" to the deal, but the denalis can really be cranked down. The whole setup weighs a ton in relation to my tuas and silvrettas, but when I just want to ski for skiing, it's like driving a mack truck.

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I have a pair of downhill skis mounted with tele's and use them in the backcountry a lot. The deal is they don't weight a whole lot more and the tradeoff is I have more fun coming back down. The only difference with tele skis vs. regular skis is that they are more flexible, especially in the front. Apart from that they aren't that much different (or that much lighter). So then why tele? If you have to ask...

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My regular ski partner uses an AT setup, and when he wants more control for in bounds skiing, he just wears regular downhill boots instead of his Lasers. His bindings are Diamir Titanal 2's and his skis are Atomic 10EX's, hardly a lightweight setup.

 

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The only thing that defines the skier is the binding.

 

People mount AT skis with tele bindings, alpine skis with AT and tele, who knows probably even tele skis with alpine. There are no boundaries. People do this sort of thing all the time.

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Well stated snoboy...

 

The trick is to find a ski which will give the performance you're looking for as well as have the weight characteristics to make you happy.

 

My personal setup is a pair of Dynastar 4x4 Verticals with the Titanal II's and TR12 boots. Entirely different feel to them than my K2 X15 with proper alpine boots, but that is to be expected. The 4x4's with bindings seem as though they weigh half as much as the X15's, yet they still give an acceptable performance when descending.

 

The trick is to get the performance you want which will enable you to enjoy the environment you seek. Find your boards, mount your bindings (whatever style it may be)... Go have fun.

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From my experience, the Titanl II's are the best bindings to give you a downhill feel. The boots come from just whatever is comfortable. I like the Dynafit boots since they are almost as stiff as my downhill boots when "locked" into the ski position. Then I can unlock them and make them more flexible for walking.

 

The key to lightening up the boots are to get thermoflex liners in them. They drop 3-4 pounds off of standard boot liners.

 

For the skis, I'm using Dynafit All Terrain skis (190 cm). They are quite a bit softer than my downhill setup (207 Kastle RXI) which I use to race in as well as anything else on the mountain but I can still manage them fine. I've skiied up to 50 degrees on them and I can still carve turns in deep powder or on wind packed crust. Something I can't do well on my downhill boards since they're not quite as versatile.

 

The bottom line here, like has been said before, is get a good pair of bindings, a pair of boots that fit, and skis that work for your style and most likely conditions you're going to run into.

 

I've gone almost exclusively to using my AT setup when I'm out to have fun. Bridger Bowl, Jackson Hole, and Big Sky have enough in-bounds "out of bounds" skiing to make it much more enjoyable to have flexible boots and a lighter setup. When I'm racing or patrolling, I use my downhill setup as I need the extra control and sturdiness.

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snoboy said:

The only thing that defines the skier is the binding.

 

People mount AT skis with tele bindings, alpine skis with AT and tele, who knows probably even tele skis with alpine. There are no boundaries. People do this sort of thing all the time.

 

Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I've got a pair of K2 X14s with AT bindings.

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Not too many freshiez in texas.. unless you count Bush's favorite brand of white powder rolleyes.gif

 

ON topic though...

Have any of you had a setup with the Dynafit Tour Light Tech bindings? Specifically, when in touring mode, have you had any trouble with popping out? A friend of mine was having trouble with that on their new setup the other day.

 

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Dynafits:

 

1) ice/snow can pack in under the toe piece, chip it out or it

will prevent the spring thing from popping down fully to

engage the pins in the boot.

 

2) pull the grey tab at the front up to lock the springs

into touring mode. This overrides the binding release, so

if you aretouring on a sketchy avy slope don't do this,

just leave them in regular release mode. Also when you

switch to downhill mode release the lock-out or the

bindings won't release. There are little pink and yellow

cartoons on the binding that show you what to do.

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I get the models confused.

 

Like Fern said for the standard dynafit bindings.

 

The new model dynafit has some problems with releasing while doing kick turns. Last ski season they shipped them all back to Dynafit. I don't know if they have fixed the problem.

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I have a pair of Atomic TM EX's with Silveretta 555's and Garmont G-ride boots. I was looking at the Freeride bindings for this set-up but found out when I did a little research there has been a lot more warranty claims on the Freerides verses the Silveretta's.

I really like these skis. They seem to be somewhat stiffer than some of the other AT skis out there.

 

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allison said:

*just to clarify*

 

I am asking about AT in particular, not tele.

 

What I was trying to say was that it doesn't matter what kind of boards you're mounting - there isn't really a "downhill", "AT" or "tele" board anymore. Snoboy said it better though.

 

Test drive a bunch of skis and pick yer favorite...or just take your favorite ski and mount 'em with bindings of your choice. They're all going to feel heavy either way.

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specialed said:

Anyone know what type of boots would fit in Fritschi Titanal 2 AT bindings? Any plastic mountaineering boot? or do you gotta have some Scarpas?

Any AT or regular (alpine) ski boot will work, I think, but not mountaineering boots. If you need a binding that works with mountaineering boots, try a Silveretta model.

 

-Josh

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