Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

I took out my Charger BCs today with my leather boots. First of all I was able to get my boots to work in a switchback binding. I had been tightening them too much, it seems that they work with the heel throw barely latched.

In fresh soft untracked powder they are fine for touring and turning. But even skiing in old tracks the skis want to wander. I fell twice on the flats do to poor tracking. In addition I could get no edge at all on a little side hill traverse. The downhill was fine in unskied powder but treacherous on even lightly tracked up stuff.

It was a lot of fun as long as you don’t need your edges. I didn’t have a controlled snowplow or enough edge to herringbone.

You normally ski those skis with plastic boots and don’t have any problem, right?

It sounds as though you found YOUR limit. I doubt I'd have had that much success!

Notice the boots aren't laced all the way. Would lacing the boot completely possibly increase control?

Gee Al, maybe if you got your boots broken in a bit they would handle fat skis better!
I can ski my Tindan which are 86 mm underfoot in powder with my Ski March. However if it isn’t deep or manky, I like my FT X and Alaska’s.

I've never been able to turn a wider ski (my voile hypervetctor bc) in leather boots in anything other than deep very fluffy powder. But you need a ski like that when it dumped 3 feet of fluff overnight.

I think it's going to depend a lot on the size of your boots. I wear mens size 8, someone who wears a mens size 13 might be able to leverage a wider ski than me in the same snow conditions.

I like the switchbacks in powder because the free rotation lets the tails drop and tips point up when breaking train.

Those skis are clearly trying to kill you.

I'd be happy to dispose of them for you. You should hang onto the bindings to run on some other, narrower skis.

Stephen wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 18, 2022 12:50 pm

You normally ski those skis with plastic boots and don’t have any problem, right?

Yes, they are fun with T4s in soft BC snow.

Montana St Alum wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 18, 2022 1:01 pm

It sounds as though you found YOUR limit. I doubt I'd have had that much success!

That was the limit of my quiver anyway. I don't think you would have a problem skiing that setup as long as you keep your speed down. Anything over about 15 mph on leather boots starts to get scary for me.

Chisana wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 18, 2022 1:19 pm

Notice the boots aren't laced all the way. Would lacing the boot completely possibly increase control?

Yes, if I could lace them tighter without my feet hurting it would give me better control, but I don't think it would get those skis to edge any better.

fisheater wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 18, 2022 1:38 pm

Gee Al, maybe if you got your boots broken in a bit they would handle fat skis better!
I can ski my Tindan which are 86 mm underfoot in powder with my Ski March. However if it isn’t deep or manky, I like my FT X and Alaska’s.

The boots are getting soft, especially where the upper meets the sole, but they have new soles and still have a lot of life left. I think I may have had more lateral stiffness with my new Transnordics.

JB TELE wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 19, 2022 1:23 am

I've never been able to turn a wider ski (my voile hypervetctor bc) in leather boots in anything other than deep very fluffy powder. But you need a ski like that when it dumped 3 feet of fluff overnight.

I think it's going to depend a lot on the size of your boots. I wear mens size 8, someone who wears a mens size 13 might be able to leverage a wider ski than me in the same snow conditions.

I like the switchbacks in powder because the free rotation lets the tails drop and tips point up when breaking train.

I find it only takes a couple inches to get my vectors to turn with light boots. It's all about turning the ski by weighting it as opposed to using leverage, but a larger boot would be taller, so that would theoretically translate to getting more edge.

mikesee wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 19, 2022 2:27 am

Those skis are clearly trying to kill you.

I'd be happy to dispose of them for you. You should hang onto the bindings to run on some other, narrower skis.

I was very happy to find those skis posted for sale on one of these forums about 2 or 3 years ago. The only substitute for me for a scaled ski would be a V6 in the longest length.

So I've wondered for some time what is the limit on what leather boots + cable binding can handle "comfortably"? In my case, not for backcountry XCD type stuff, but for actual inbounds skiing. Because it's actually really hard to find a narrow waisted ski these days. For under 80mm, there's racing skis and mogul skis or Nordic-type skis. What I'd like is a modern geometry twin tip ski... but 70mm or so.

The Rabb is tempting in so many ways... but it looks to me like a ski that would perform terribly on the hard pack man made snow I have available to me reliably. I want the Rabb... but sturdier

Also, what's the "upper" limit on bindings for leathers? I was always under the impression that bindings that have a heel throw / catch (like switchback, vice/axl, 7tm, etc.) require a plastic boot -- but I'm seeing people here maybe implying otherwise?

comradeporcupine wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 19, 2022 8:06 am

So I've wondered for some time what is the limit on what leather boots + cable binding can handle "comfortably"? In my case, not for backcountry XCD type stuff, but for actual inbounds skiing. Because it's actually really hard to find a narrow waisted ski these days. For under 80mm, there's racing skis and mogul skis or Nordic-type skis. What I'd like is a modern geometry twin tip ski... but 70mm or so.

Rossignol makes the Experience 74. That might fit the bill if you can find them. I picked up some EXP 84's years ago in a short size just to work on my carve. They have a crazy tight turn radius, so I was able to work on technique without gaining too much speed. Turned out they were pretty good skis, and cheap. The Experience line has minimal rear rocker, but pretty modern rocker-camber-rocker with more than enough to ski switch on them and they are beginner-intermediate, so easy to bend.