Transition from Telemark :(
Re: Transition from Telemark :(
Looks like a great set-up, Robert. Good luck with it, and let us know how it goes!
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Woodserson
- Posts: 2969
- Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2015 10:25 am
- Location: New Hampshire
- Ski style: Bumps, trees, steeps and long woodsy XC tours
- Occupation: Confused Turn Farmer
Re: Transition from Telemark :(
Short and fat skis, that could definitely work for you. Way better than skinny and short. Good luck and let us know!
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Petetheswede
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:28 pm
- Location: Southern Sweden
- Ski style: Touring with turns
- Favorite Skis: Åsnes Gamme, Ingstad
- Favorite boots: Lundhags Guide BC
- Occupation: Healer
Re: Transition from Telemark :(
Wonderful story! I wish you all the best!
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lowangle al
- Posts: 2741
- Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 3:36 pm
- Location: Pocono Mts / Chugach Mts
- Ski style: BC with focus on downhill perfection
- Favorite Skis: powder skis
- Favorite boots: Scarpa T4
- Occupation: Retired cement mason. Current job is to take my recreation as serious as I did my past employment.
Re: Transition from Telemark :(
Good luck with the gear and the foot Robert. Take it easy and don't push it, it's all about being out there.
Re: Transition from Telemark :(
It was a year ago when, after asking your advice in this forum thread, I took the plunge and purchased the strange, culturally unfamiliar, alpine touring gear. I wrote about exactly what I acquired on March 2nd and promised that I’d report back how it all worked. This, then is my preliminary report.
Why has it taken so long to report? I picked up the skis with the bindings mounted, and the trimmed skins, on March 24. That is a significant date because that very evening my grown-up daughters held a family meeting and announced that we were now all in the grip of a SARS-CoV-2 lockdown. They were determined that their 70-something parents would survive the pandemic. The next medical announcement was that my backcountry buddy needed a hip replacement and we were not going into the wilderness together in the 2020–2021 season. What this has meant is that I’ve not been able to try the gear until this spring when I’d be on my own. So, I’ve been using the local ski hill after it closed for the season. There is still snow up there — I was skiing yesterday; and while it looks dismal from the parking lot, all I had to do was walk about a 1/2 mile and 300 vertical feet to reach continuous snow and begin skinning up.
To be frank, spring corn is very forgiving snow. Also, I have lost a lot of fitness, and I don’t how much I will ever be able to recover. Okay, enough whining. I think the gear is doing everything I hoped it would. I’ve watched lots of how-to skiing videos and I have to keep reminding myself to stay over my skis and not get ‘in the backseat.’ And that inside ski, since it is not weighted, sometimes has a mind of its own. I’m alone out there, so I’m not skiing very fast, and I am trying to be cautious.
Those short 164 cm skis turn easily. I think I'm really going to like that. I’ve discovered that I can make a series of very short turns, and keep moving down the slope within a 6–8 foot swath — something I never could do with my longer tele-turns. In spite of the short length, they seem stable.
The G3 Ion bindings and the La Sportiva Skorpius boots are a wonder of design and technology, but I'm a bit concerned about their robustness. Well, back in ’03 I broke the top of my G3 Targa binding (and had to walk off the hill), but the fix was fairly easy and not expensive. http://ballantyne.com/Railroad_Pass/Ski_Grouty.html
Probably it won’t be until mid-February 2022 before I can test this system with the variety of conditions that we encounter in the real British Columbia backcountry: deep fresh damp west-coast snow, sun crust, icy conditions. I am also wondering if I’ll be up to it. This spring, every time I go out I’m trying and learning something new. I may have only one or two more weeks this season and I’m attempting to educate my muscle memory so I don’t start from scratch next season.
Why has it taken so long to report? I picked up the skis with the bindings mounted, and the trimmed skins, on March 24. That is a significant date because that very evening my grown-up daughters held a family meeting and announced that we were now all in the grip of a SARS-CoV-2 lockdown. They were determined that their 70-something parents would survive the pandemic. The next medical announcement was that my backcountry buddy needed a hip replacement and we were not going into the wilderness together in the 2020–2021 season. What this has meant is that I’ve not been able to try the gear until this spring when I’d be on my own. So, I’ve been using the local ski hill after it closed for the season. There is still snow up there — I was skiing yesterday; and while it looks dismal from the parking lot, all I had to do was walk about a 1/2 mile and 300 vertical feet to reach continuous snow and begin skinning up.
To be frank, spring corn is very forgiving snow. Also, I have lost a lot of fitness, and I don’t how much I will ever be able to recover. Okay, enough whining. I think the gear is doing everything I hoped it would. I’ve watched lots of how-to skiing videos and I have to keep reminding myself to stay over my skis and not get ‘in the backseat.’ And that inside ski, since it is not weighted, sometimes has a mind of its own. I’m alone out there, so I’m not skiing very fast, and I am trying to be cautious.
Those short 164 cm skis turn easily. I think I'm really going to like that. I’ve discovered that I can make a series of very short turns, and keep moving down the slope within a 6–8 foot swath — something I never could do with my longer tele-turns. In spite of the short length, they seem stable.
The G3 Ion bindings and the La Sportiva Skorpius boots are a wonder of design and technology, but I'm a bit concerned about their robustness. Well, back in ’03 I broke the top of my G3 Targa binding (and had to walk off the hill), but the fix was fairly easy and not expensive. http://ballantyne.com/Railroad_Pass/Ski_Grouty.html
Probably it won’t be until mid-February 2022 before I can test this system with the variety of conditions that we encounter in the real British Columbia backcountry: deep fresh damp west-coast snow, sun crust, icy conditions. I am also wondering if I’ll be up to it. This spring, every time I go out I’m trying and learning something new. I may have only one or two more weeks this season and I’m attempting to educate my muscle memory so I don’t start from scratch next season.