Best Telemark Skis for Backcountry Adventures?

[graprice74]

I'm looking to get into backcountry telemark skiing and need some advice on the best skis for the job. What are your go-to setups for deep powder and varied terrain? Any recommendations on bindings and boots to match?

[stilltryin]

Backcountry skiing can mean different things and therefore different skis.
Are you talking about skin up ski down backcountry skiing or longish tours in varied terrain with shorter sections of up and down? Or something else? This clarification should get you more helpful responses.

[Jlars13]

Going to make several assumptions, correct me if I’m wrong:

1. You’re talking about up and down ski tours, not xcd or mixed/rolling terrain

2. You already ski, maybe tele but only in-bounds so far, or maybe your tele setup is too heavy to tour or doesn’t have a touring mode.

3. You’re generally familiar with telemark boots and bindings.


Given then above, the general advice is that whatever skis you think would be fun on an AT setup will probably also be fun on tele. If you want tele specific skis, the benefits of which are probably debatable at length, you can look at Bishop or Summitcone skis. They both sell tele specific powder skis that claim to have some versatility for varied conditions. Voile carries several options as well and you can go fishscale with them.

The boots are the biggest thing o would focus on first if you don’t already own tele boots with a walk mode. If you do, and you like those boots, keep them. Otherwise, look at boots first, find something that fits well and is a good price for you. THEN Look to bindings. 75mm and NTN both absolutely have their merits and you won’t be sad on either.


If your background is more in xc, I would say maybe try on a low cuff boot like the scarpa t4. If you want a modern full range of motion boot, the new tx pro is the only option and you’ll have to find it used, as scarpa didn’t make enough boots to meet demand. Other than that, look at other scarpa tele boots, crispi has great 75 and NTN options, as does Scott. If you go NTN, a boot with tech toes will open up the amount of bindings compatible with it.

Bindings - for 75mm touring it’s hard to beat the voile switchback x2 (this is what I’m running). On NTN, you’re looking at the outlaw x (heavy, usually 30/70 resort/backcountry recommendation), the lynx (tech toe, lighter weight, complicated), the Meidjo 3 (similar to lynx but French ), bishop’s BMF-R (heavy, I think also sold out), or a TTS system (lightest weight, least active, voile sells one, there are also DIY kits). I may be missing one or two. Rottefella freedom, I think, which people mostly hate.

[JohnSKepler]

Pretty happy with Voile Objective and Voile V6. V6 for powder days. Objective for when things are more consolidated. V8 is wider but it is also heavier. Anyway, these are working for me. Look for end of season sales. I just bought a new pair of Objectives in 171 cm for $400. I've seen V6 for under $500 end of season.

Oh, you void the warranty mounting them with tele bindings. I did a good bit of research before taking that plunge and didn't find that there were problems with pullouts. YMMV.

Transit with green Scarpa F1 or TXPro.