Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Hy all
Just want to share my next start winter set up.
K2 Backlite 74mm under foot, 160cm long.
Xplore binding with médium and hard flexor.
Alfa Free boots. I don't like them so much because of the sole stifness, but i will try to adapt and understand how i have to use them....
Can't wait for the first snow, but I think we will have to wait for 2 month !
If it's fun to ride I will send you clip. My typical ride Journey will be like : eazy alpin touring terrain, slop resort, powder resort (20 to 30cm), and eazy to médium level line in the snowpark.
Let me see your set up !
See you guys.
Fred

My new setup:
Rossignol XP 170 100/80/90
Fischer BCX GT
This setup is for powder skiing in the backcountry.
I have great expectations for its floatation and stability.

Salut Fred!

My "what is the most ridiculous thing I could find in the classifieds for $20 or less" for this season:
183cm Elan SCX RPs with Superloops. Looks like a terrible idea! I will try skiing them with T4s.

@Capercaillie If those Elan are soft enough to bend with half your weight that should be a fun set up. I skied Super Loops years ago, back then they were a game changer. The T-4 will handle those skis. I think it’s a nice combo.

That's fun to see that exiting set-up are not the most expensive !
At last, personnal challenge keep driving our ride !
Fred

Follow-up review: I suspected something was going on with this setup because the topsheets were in such bad condition compared to the bases and edges. The misgivings turned out to be well-founded. The tips of the skis were "hooky" in two different ways. One was where they hooked the snow and made the turn. Good for parallel (that was the point of the SCX models?), bad for inside ski when telemarking (maybe someone more skilled than I would have been able to handle this). I dulled the tips and tails after sharpening the edges, so that wasn't the problem.

The other way the tips were "hooky" was unexpected. Whenever they touched, they just wanted to climb up on each other and catch. Recoverable when paralleling, not when telemarking. I have not had anything like this problem with any other pair of skis (at this point I have skied at least a dozen other models). The tips are upturned and pointy like a straight ski, but the width is almost double the waist (I measured 116-60). I suspect this is the reason why shaped skis quickly went snub-nosed.

Whoever put this setup together was forward-thinking but ahead of their time. I can see why the Elan SCX had a lot of criticism when it came out.

The Superloops are convenient and the risers are nice for narrow skis. Gave away the skis, kept the bindings.

I hope everyone's new skis turned out much better!

FrenchFred wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 22, 2023 11:05 am

Hy all
Just want to share my next start winter set up.
K2 Backlite 74mm under foot, 160cm long.
Xplore binding with médium and hard flexor.
Alfa Free boots. I don't like them so much because of the sole stifness, but i will try to adapt and understand how i have to use them....
Can't wait for the first snow, but I think we will have to wait for 2 month !
If it's fun to ride I will send you clip. My typical ride Journey will be like : eazy alpin touring terrain, slop resort, powder resort (20 to 30cm), and eazy to médium level line in the snowpark.
Let me see your set up !
See you guys.
Fred

Fred, if you check this ever, how did this setup work for you this year?

I'm still trying to figure out how to fill a gap in my quiver for next winter's setup. I've got a ton of XCD gear, but my 6 year old did school skiing last year, and now we both have season passes to our local hill.

I took my 180cm Asnes Støretind when I went skiing with her, but they're too stiff for me to easily carve with, and i weigh 220lbs!

I also have a pair of old 190cm Atomic TM24 skis, which are much softer and feel kinda slow. I haven't decided yet whether they're any easier to turn than the Støretinds. For BC powder skiing, I got a pair of those military surplus Ultravector BC skis off eBay this spring. I tried those once, and they seem like they would be a lot of fun on steeper terrain with lots of turns.

I have been doing almost all my downhill skiing in my comfy Scott Excursion boots.

That leaves me wondering: what would be better for tele carving at my local ski hill?

Is there something light like the Støretind, but soft enough that I can carve with them?

Would I be better off with something heavier?

I'm really not even sure where to start.

I actually have a pair of Elan SCX in blue that I bought in 1998 or so. They where fun with an incredibly short turn radius due to dimensions of 115-60-110 mm, but not for all-round, and I seldom ski them any more. I skied them with '96 Scarpa Terminator and Riva 3. When put on edge in parallel turns, they really turned and I felt the g-forces. I think the wide tail made them hook.

With telemark I had to really weigh them to get the edge to grip, but then they turned very quickly and sort of threw me into the next turn. It was very quick and short turns, but they could also do slide turns. The tip is wide and floats in loose snow, but the middle sank and the tail did nothing to help. They helped advance my telemark skills, but there at other much better skis for telemark. It has been a while since I last skied them now.

I skied XCD at the ski hill for years. I like skiing resort gear at the ski hill better. The resort is icier, choppy, heavy, and more manky than the BC.
There are skis in the mid eighties. Maybe with Excursion boots stay with a wood core. I like my Summit Cone Pariah’s in the mid nineties, perhaps their mid-80’s ski would be better with the Excursions?
There are lots of skis to choose from, you probably could talk to a guy that has ski dozens of them, I think he goes by Chuck from time to time.