A picture of the Wallowa range in NE Oregon, taken last summer from the top of the Wallowa Lake Tramway and Mt. HOward (8200 ft). This is the highest range in NE Oregon. Skiing or hiking up from Wallowa Lake (approx. 4700 ft.) is beyond my capability.

From my previous experience in skiing in NH, I understand why you like waxable skis so much.

I own a pair of BD Polar Stars, currently mounted with NNN-BC bindings and have added place for leashes. Haven't tried them yet. Probably too long for me at 200 cm.

If anyone is interested--I ended up buying a used pair of Rossi BC X6 boots in 45. On rechecking the X6 (NNN) boots I have, they are also 45'x. when I had 45 Alpina boots, there were too long, so when I bought the BC1550's, I bough 44's. My foot is a 10 1/2 (but 11 in some shoes) on the wide side, s...

I have a pair of Voile 3pin cable bindings (old style) mounted on Voile realeaseable plates which I don't and don't expect to use. My boot size is a little longer than yours, you would have to cut the cable iif you bought them.

I don't live in the Seattle area, but about 250 miles, but I have skiied there when my daughter went to UW and still ski there occasionally. I don't want to comment on the skis, other than the weather in the Cascades is so changeable that I would suggest waxless skis. You will find yourself frequent...

Johnny left out Scarpa, which makes a few 75 mm boots and no NNN-BC boots. The advantage of 75 mm boots is that they can be used on heavy telemark skis as well as XC/BC skis. One could also make the same arguments regarding skis. The traditional ski lengths, and the need for ski wax, were developed ...

An inexpenssive alternative to some of the ski suggestions would be the USGI skis from Coleman's https://colemans.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=skis ). YOu would need to mount your own bindings. I wouldn't be in a hurry to spend a lot of money on skis until you have a better idea what you want. I woul...

14-20 inches of powder snow in the Blue Mountains (NE Oregon/SE WA)at 5000 ft. Somewhat more snow in the Selkirks (NW WA, N ID). Maybe less in the Cascades at similar elevations (5000 ft.).

We may get snow tonight at 1000 ft.

I have NIS plates on my track skis. There no screws involved with NIS plates. The advantage of these (with NNN bindings) is you will later be able to switch the bindings to new skis with NIS plates without damage to either ski. The Rossi X-5 and X-6 are pretty sturdy and warm boots--It hink you coul...