skis for climbing approaches

[dbconlin]

What is better--shorter for light weight/maneuverability, or closer to a normal length for floatation and ski performance when needed?

 

I am going to buy a ski to mount my Silvretta 500s on. My normal tele setup is a 176. I am considering a 166 or 158 for this application. Any recommendations?

[dberdinka]

I've been thinking about the same thing. I've come to the conclusion the light and strideable is going to be better than floation and turn ability.

 

If you need lots of floatation are you really going to be climbing anything? And if your skiing in mountaineering boots how well are you going to be cranking out the turns anyway? Finally the sheer weight of some approach-ski setups I've seen is just ridiculous.

 

It sounds weird but I think I'd mount Silverettas on a pair of 170 cm lightweight tele-touring skis (I ski 190's), something like the Fischer Rebound or similar. They'll tour way better on logging roads, they weight half as much as a pair of AT skis and you can generally get them for cheap.

 

In part my decison is based on the fact that I've been teleing on a pair almost exclusively for several years now and have learned to love them.

[iain]

That sounds like a good idea. I normally ski a 184 or so, and I have some approach skis with silvrettas at 167. This works quite well, esp. when skiing with climbing boots. I've enjoyed the Atomic TG:10 Superlight, mainly because it is often on sale for about $99 later in the season. Unfortunately you will have to play the Atomic naming two-step to figure out what ski it is this year.

[JohnHemlock]

I've been looking for some K2 Shuksans on sale for the same purpose and decided to shorten up (tele in 188s) for the reasons given in this thread. I weigh 225 so need something a bit wider in the waist and shovel at about 174.

[Mark_Husbands]

anyone use some of those puny approach setups (w/bindings) made by Kong or K2?

http://www.kong.it/pr_snow.htm

[Jizzard]

you could always get a rondonee binding and a pair of rockets i notice a lot of ski patrol have this set up and seeing some of these guys in action skining up mountians in 20 mins or so and then alpining down in seconds is impressive im trying to save the 300 dollars for the bindings still which is really unimpressive plus a pair of nice scarpa's gets real spendy

[dbconlin]

Thanks for the advice. I just got a pair of Volkl Mountain skis from a couple of years ago (before the Norbert Joos), but they are still fairly light. I went with the shorter length (158 cm), per iain and dberdinka's advice. I will pick them up from the shop today with my used Silvretta 500LSVs (which, incidentally, I purchased off the gear board at this site) mounted on them. I'll be taking them for a winter ascent of capitol peak (CO) the weekend after next, which has a notoriously laborious wallow of an approach in winter, so I'll report on the performance...

[skyclimb]

be wary of the k2 short skiies. We were doing a winter approach a few months back to mt. theilson(4 miles) when my friends bindings came loose( the screws loosened). Luckily with some handy work I could fix the complex, conveluted, and poorly design piece of shit. Later on the decent, the other binding completly shitted out, and she had to post hole the remaining two miles to the road in the dark.

The k2 short skiies are by far one of the most poorly designed pieces of shit I have ever seen, for both function and fixing...Don't buy them.

[luwayo]

what constituent material(s) and/or construction design did you find so inferior? please pm me if you wish. as you've guessed, this has been my set up. tx.

[MPaul_Hansen]

From the 'archaic' school point of view....

 

Breakdowns in skiis and bindings in backcountry & approaches can be very problematic....so [though the weight is greater] use a metal sandwich ski with older all-metal bindings with a metal adaptor to allow for heel-lift.

 

Not 100% foolproof, but has been successful for me for many years on many, many vorays such as Mt. Rainier, St Helens pre-erruption, Baker, Glacier, Adams, Sahale, Goat Rocks, S. side of Mt. Stuart, Ruth, Ruby, etc.

[Skeezix]

Back in the '80s I had a pair of Hexcel alpine skis with some sort of honeycomb interior. Those pups were light! Problem was that there wasn't anything for binding screws to hold into, and guess what happened?

Flotation shouldn't be much of a problem because even though you could be carrying a lot of weight, won't you be skiing on a consolidated spring snowpack?

[jhamaker]

I like short and fat and soft randonee for mountains. At worse they are a pair of slow-shoes. At best, they are light, manuver instantly, are light, are easy to jump turn, short skiis mean short skins - light. They also make great pickets.

 

Soft means roller coaster rides over strusturgi, sun-cups and logs.

 

Fat tips and extreem side-cut means more work breaking trail and difficulty w/ icey side-hilling.

 

Like any ski package, start w/ the boot, then get the rest. Give some thought to liner replacement, sole, cramponability, weight, walkability, durrability. Can you deal w/ everything w/ mittens?

[K_Y_L_E]

Anyone have the Karhu Meta? (120 fatty with built in patch of mohair).