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AT skis on the lifts?


salbrecher

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I bought a seasons pass for the first time and was wondering if it's fine to use AT skis for resort skiing. When I bought my first set a few years ago the lady said they're not very good to use for lift skiing. I've heard it from a few others but havn't heard and reasons why. I have Silveretta 500's and Tua Nitrogens. Any thoughts or experiences?

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I don't think the bindings are designed for high speed wipe outs and stuff, and I'm pretty sure they won't perform as well as full on alpine ski gear, but I don't think they will kill you or anything -- I've taken my mountain boots and 404's to the top of Chrystal Mountain and skied some of the steep bowls up there just to see what I could do with the gear and I got down OK. What kind of ski brakes or leash do they have? I always think it is odd, though, when I ride the lift with folks on AT gear at a ski resort and when, upon talking to them, I find out they have no interest in ski mountaineering but they had been told AT gear was "more versatile" or some such thing - and my guess is that they just thought AT skis were cooler and gave them a better image. Perhaps the lady wondered if you were one of those people.

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Alpine gear is definitely a lot more "fun" to ski harder terrain in, since that is what it is designed for. The extra weight doesnt' matter if the lift is hauling you up. I took my AT gear to the lifts several times to get used to it, and it works fine as long as you realize it's limitations. Landing a jump, for example, on my tourlite bindings didn't work so well. wink.gif

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I have the same set up, but formally had an old pair of 400s on true touring Hagan boards.

 

That said, I ski just fine in them on the blues, greens, and on some blacks. No doubt that at high speeds you can really feel the boards flopping and chattering.

 

The set up is not as good as a good alpine set up. But I still have plenty of fun. You'll be fine. bigdrink.gif

 

wave.gif

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iain said:

Please take your medication. I have 500's on tuas. I skied on them exclusively for awhile, and still do. Second, he didn't say he was using mountaineering boots necessarily.

Just playing devil's advocate.....

 

I thought he was in mountain boots due to a comment on the Climbing in AT Boots thread, but I was wrong, I can't find it.

 

I've skied the lifts on touring gear, that is, T3s with 3pin bindings on metal-edged touring skis, and on groomed snow you can get down a lot. You won't be able to go near as fast as on 'real' alpine gear, but you'll have fun, and that's the point, right?

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iain said:

Please take your medication. I have 500's on tuas. I skied on them exclusively for awhile, and still do. Second, he didn't say he was using mountaineering boots necessarily.

I skiied mounatineering boots for 2 years but finally got a pair of AT boots last year, I really like them but still use the mounatineering boots for long flat traverses. My problems solved though about the skiis; I just checked out Value Village and they have a pair of skiis and bindings for $24CND! Neon green to!
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Many of the touring/tele skis on the market are the same/minimally different than production alpine skis. Example - Atomic Sugardaddy/Teledaddy. The Teledaddy is a sugardaddy without the stupid binding plate.

 

The bindings won't take abuse like jumping off cliffs, or moguls all day - but who wants to waste their time with that?

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I used to ski my AT setup skiing in northern VT, whenever it would get crowded or the snow would get sloppy we would just zip over to the backside of the mountain and ski/skin for the rest of the day. It was nice to not have to go back to the car and change gear/boots. My first pair of diamirs broke on a soft landing one of the first times I had them out, but I am assuming that was a defect. They replaced them for free and I have been on the new pair for over a year, and have hucked 10-20' onto east coast landings (ice and hardpack) with no trouble thus far. At high speed on groomed snow my AT boards do get a little scary though...

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salbrecher said:

My problems solved though about the skiis; I just checked out Value Village and they have a pair of skiis and bindings for $24CND! Neon green to!

 

Must be a pair similar to my 11-year-old straight Head skis that I learnt how to ski on....Make sure that you wear old duct-taped pants and a jacket, and people will start offering you gas money to get home from the hill. Worked almost every time...

bigdrink.gifthe_finger.gif

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How to ski really cheap. Buy a ski lift ticket at the supermarket or where ever they sell the non-dated ones. The kind that gets validated the fist time its scanned. Take your AT gear and skin up to a mid level lift. Get on the lift; they never scan the lift ticket. Ski all day on the upper slopes. Repeat.

If they do scan you, you have a valid ticket. You can ski all year on one lift ticket.

I use my AT gear all the time on the slopes. I ski all terrain and find the AT gear just a realiable as down hill. I have Denali boots so I get plenty of support.

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mr.radon said:

Take your AT gear and skin up to a mid level lift. Get on the lift; they never scan the lift ticket. Ski all day on the upper slopes. Repeat.

 

Nice, this was my turkey day ritual every year in VT when up there with my slacker family and relatives. I'd leave early morning and hike the lower half of the mountain, hop the upper lifts as they open (where they don't check tickets, who the hell would walk all the way up) ski until the afternoon and then head down for chow. Better that than paying full price to ride four man-made groomers. grin.gif

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mr.radon said:

How to ski really cheap. Buy a ski lift ticket at the supermarket or where ever they sell the non-dated ones. The kind that gets validated the fist time its scanned. Take your AT gear and skin up to a mid level lift. Get on the lift; they never scan the lift ticket. Ski all day on the upper slopes. Repeat.

If they do scan you, you have a valid ticket. You can ski all year on one lift ticket.

I use my AT gear all the time on the slopes. I ski all terrain and find the AT gear just a realiable as down hill. I have Denali boots so I get plenty of support.

At Willamette Pass in OR you have to scan your 'ticket' every time to get on any lift. (The 'ticket' is on a wristband). I gotta check out the local resorts here. evils3d.gif

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The grocery store pass is pretty creative. I wonder which resorts it works at?

__________

 

As for the original question, in my opinion if you have the money to afford a season pass, treat yourself to regualr alpine ski gear.

 

It has been my experience as an 8 year ski instructor that an above average skier with state of the art alpine equipment that is fitted and tuned will ski every bit as good as the most elite 1% of those on AT or tele gear when skiing on in-bounds terrain. (bumps, ice, groomed, etc.)

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It's pretty common at Whistler/Blackcomb, because so many people are doing so much of their skiing out of bounds, and using the lifts to speed things up. Even a lot of the in-bounds stuff involves some hiking/climbing/long traverses and being able to release your heel can save a lot of muscle strain. The Fritschi Freerides were developed precisely because people were skiing the Diamirs waayy harder than they were designed for, and something much more bomber was needed.

For sure if you're pounding the moguls hard all day, you're going to discover some limitations, but for general recreational skiing with no "Warren Miller"-type film crews to show off for, you'll probably be just fine.

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mr.radon said:Get on the lift; they never scan the lift ticket. Ski all day on the upper slopes. Repeat.

If they do scan you, you have a valid ticket. You can ski all year on one lift ticket.

 

This Works. thumbs_up.gif

 

However... at a big resort, where they have the cash, and they care, they can know if you have already validated your ticket or not, and you can get in trouble for being up there without having scanned your ticket. Better have some long straight skis to get out of there real quick!

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mr.radon said:

How to ski really cheap. Buy a ski lift ticket at the supermarket or where ever they sell the non-dated ones. The kind that gets validated the fist time its scanned. Take your AT gear and skin up to a mid level lift. Get on the lift; they never scan the lift ticket. Ski all day on the upper slopes. Repeat.

If they do scan you, you have a valid ticket. You can ski all year on one lift ticket.

 

This is the kind of shit that keeps America strong!

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