What boots to buy??

[Love the Sierra]

@fisheater @mca80 and @fgd135 thank you for the great ideas about trying the Alico boots!!!

I did speak with Martin at Telemark Down and received the Svartisen’s today. The leather and craftsmanship of those boots are wonderful. However, after wearing them a while, my toes are getting squished. Martin had recommended sizing down one size, but I fear I need to pay shipping (SIGH) and try the larger size. Martin is very knowledgeable and helpful.

@mca80 those videos are fantastic, thank you again so much. A lot of those are familiar from the one and only tele lesson I had.

[Love the Sierra]

@spopepro We have similar terrain. We have NO flat open wide places. For me, rolling means up and down that doesn’t require skins. We have uphill, a little steeper and very steep and too steep for me to consider.

@Manney good point to pinpoint exactly what I want the skis and boots to do better. Yes, I have a quiver of 1

[Love the Sierra]

@fisheater my bindings are the Voile HD Mountaineer 3pin, I have been considering the cable bindings for my next set of skis. Voile makes bindings with three pins on which you can either use the cable or not use the cable. Perfect for me.

[fisheater]

Happy Thursday LtS,
I’m a big fan of Voile. However, I have found the Rottefella Super Telemark binding to be a much better binding for leather boots. I also was extremely surprised to find the Rotte cable to offer a much more longitudinally stiffer interface between the ski and the boot than the Voile cable or hardwire, for a leather boot. This comes with a caveat. That support comes at the inconvenience of being more fiddly and time consuming to connect to the binding than the Voile cable. After one season on the Rotte cable, (which is actually a hardwire that cradles boot) I removed the binding and remounted the binding on a Voile 10 mm riser. Mounting the Rotte binding on the riser also required some filing of the riser for the binding to align properly with the mounting holes. It took some time, but for me it was effort well spent. Now when I am not skiing downhill, the heel throw is latched to the heel riser. The transition is reaching down and latching the heel throw to the boot. That is the same thing I do with my plastic boot and my Voile Hardwire binding on fatter skis.
Good luck, there are a lot of options. Telemark Down sells the Super Telemark binding with or without the cable, however you need to buy the cable model to attach a cable.

[Manney]

[lilcliffy]

I think the “Sierra Cement” and “Cascade Concrete” nicknames are a little exaggerated… but it is true that our maritime snowpack holds more water than most places. We typically see 10-12 to 1 snow/water ratios at 7k. That’s pretty heavy compared to the Rockies, but it honestly isn’t too bad. It does tend to consolidate fast (which is great for keeping our avy danger lower) and the sun does frequently melt the top with refreezing overnight.

I’ve been happy with my combo of MR48 skin skis with nnn-bc, and objective BCs with 3pin. Honestly, I don’t see much use for things in between because the speed penalty on the flats isn’t offset enough by better turning. I think everything is too steep here—there isn’t as much rolling open terrain.

@spopepro
Do you deal with the crust that @Love the Sierra describes?
And- if so- how is the Objective on crust? And what boots are you using on the Objective?

[lilcliffy]

Getting those Fischer 88’s were my ticket to getting off of groomed trails and it was the instructor who recommended them. We had rented skinny, no steel edges, nnn boots and nearly killed ourselves just on dirt roads! We also rented some Madshus, must have been 98 but I do not know what ski exactly, and they were heavy and so exhausting that we barely covered any ground. The Fischer 98 were better than the Madshus, but the 88’s were an absolute joy. It is only now that we are skiing more advanced terrain that I would like more control.

Hmmm...I am not aware of a Madhus "98"...The Epoch/Panorama 68 is ~98mm in the shovel like the Fischer 98- but, it is not heavy.
Interesting that you tried the Fischer 98, but prefered the 88...

When you say more "control"- are you speaking of when you point the skis downhill?

@spopepro I have heard that the Cascades are exactly like skiing the Sierra.

So- with this- and other posts in this thread-
am I correct in my determination that yours tours involve extended climbing- followed by extended descents?
limited straightforward XC skiing?

[lilcliffy]

I did speak with Martin at Telemark Down and received the Svartisen’s today. The leather and craftsmanship of those boots are wonderful. However, after wearing them a while, my toes are getting squished. Martin had recommended sizing down one size, but I fear I need to pay shipping (SIGH) and try the larger size. Martin is very knowledgeable and helpful.

I have absolutely no idea where they got the notion that the Svartisen runs a "a full size larger"?
They don't. The length of the interior last in both my Crispi boots are identical and fit true to EU sizing.
........
The notion of sizing-down in a boot does not make any sense to me (not unless there was a manufacturing error and the sizing is incorrect). Perhaps Telemark Down had an early run of Svartisens that had the wrong sizing? (I once ordered a number of clearance Rossi boots for my growing children- the sizing on all of them was off...)

If a given boot is too narrow and/or too small-voume→ try sizing up.

If a boot is too wide and/or too large-volume→ one cannot size-down because the last will be too short (one can only try and take up some volume inside).
.........
What size were you in the Fischer BCX6- 41EU? And they recommended a 40?

[lilcliffy]

@spopepro We have similar terrain. We have NO flat open wide places. For me, rolling means up and down that doesn’t require skins. We have uphill, a little steeper and very steep and too steep for me to consider.

Ok- this helps a lot.
The Fischer 88 is tuned for straightforward XC skiing on deep backcountry snow- it is stiff and signifcantly cambered.

You could gain a fair bit of "control" by trying a ski that is less cambered and easier to pressure downhill (i.e. a ski that is more tuned for downhill skiing). If you are not covering significant straightforward XC distance- I don't see the performance value of the 88's camber- this camber is harder to pressure both uphill and downhill.

Beyond a less cambered ski- the only way you will get more "control" (assuming you are sticking to a boot in the class of the Svartisen) is a narrower ski.

However, the cable will help with stability and control as already discussed.

And- having both- for a leather touring boot, I too much prefer the Rottefella Supertelemark with "Cable" vs the Voile 3pin-cable.

[Manney]

Interesting that you tried the Fischer 98, but prefered the 88...

120# person on an 88… That’s like a 180# person with a 132mm wide ski.

98 would be like a 149mm ski… all other things being equal (which they’re not, but there is a measure of proportionality) it would have poor directional stability unless pointed downhill or hard on edge. Would be lethal on crust or compacted, dense snow.

Also not convinced ski manufacturers are all that good cambering skis for lighter weight, or low BMI, skiers. Or even higher BMI skiers. They have a range or type in mind… roughly around BMI 18-25. Things start falling off the charts on either side of this range. Not my view… run the numbers on ski charts thru a BMI calc.

https://www.telemarktalk.com/viewtopic. ... &hilit=Bmi