Skimo on Teles

[fleish]

Secondly, I was the only person skiing tele in the race and I'm quite new to tele skiing. It sounds like you're way ahead of me there. I do like the Xplore binding but it just wasn't enough for the downhill, which was steeper and really chopped up by the time I got there. I'd never skied anything quite like that before and fell forward a few times. I'd only ever skied anything that aggressive Alpine style with locked heels. I doubt you'll have this problem if you're been doing this for a decade. I'd only been doing it since November. That said, try to find and ski terrain as technical as the race. Maybe not as much, but definitely in degree.

@JohnSKepler - thanks for sharing your experience doing a race on teles!

Given how hard it is to figure out what to race in for teles it's not surprising you were the only one - hopefully I can figure this out with you and join you in a race so we aren't riding solo out there. What you're calling out with the downhill difficulty is the piece that worries me a little.

The setup you did the race with is fascinating - did it just not give enough torque on a steeper pitch to feel comfortable? I watched their marketing video and they highlight the skiers going downhill on a big tour so it seems they are building that setup for more varied terrain.

Finally, the Atomic ski family you mentioned is also very interesting - digging into those now.

[fleish]

Thanks everyone for such thoughtful responses - digging into your experiences trying this out and talking about this on the forum and backcountry talk it seems like this is a hot topic that hopefully get's some attention (although Scarpa probably doesn't have a ton of economic incentive to build racing tele setups...).

It seems like the ideal setup would be:
Boots: F1 Race (with bellows) with duckbutt modification
Bindings: Mejido bindings (although transitions may be tricky here - don't know enough about mechanics to say)
Skis: Atomic UL 65 / 78 (ideally reinforced so torque doesn't rip out binding...)
Skins: Pomoca race 2.0

I built a little comparison spreadsheet, I will be updating as I get more and more info on this here:

[mikesee]

I own Objective BC's, V6 BC's, and Altai Kom's.

Clearly I ski a lot of XCD.

I can heartily recommend all of the above for backcountry XCD.

If I could only have one of those, it'd be the V6's for sure. Just super versatile skis.

That said, I don't think of any of those as reasonable candidates for skimo racing. There might be the odd race out there for which scales make good sense (and I think the GT is one of 'em) but by and large people aren't using scales in skimo because the courses are too steep for scales to work.

Concisely put -- I don't think your XCD days are going to overlap your skimo days, at least in terms of gear used.

Finally, have a look at these: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5551

That's my version of an ideal tele/skimo set. I just don't use them enough to keep them, preferring instead to spend most of my time on soft snow with scales.

Best thread of the year around here thus far...

[bauerb]

@fleish I think about skiing tele vs alpine all the time, and the reason is pretty basic: I gave up alpine skiing in favor of tele when I was about 13yo. 40 years later that leaves me as an expert Tele skier and an advanced beginner alpine skier. when things get steep and gnarly, my comfort zone is to drop an knee, but in a skimo race on race gear I cannot do that. guys who are expert alpine skiers are faster than I am descending. the answer of course is that I spend a bunch of time riding the lifts and improving my alpine skiing...but I also race nordic so I don't have time for everything. my skimo race strategy is to pound the skin ascents and boot packs, and survive the descents. far more time can be lost going up than going down.

btw, since you referenced that old thread where I was trying to figure out the gear to race: I decided I wanted to skimo race the Pro courses not the "Rec" courses, so I needed to be on ISMF compliant gear. Heavy Metal/Tele categories are in my experience always held on the shorter Rec courses. So I race UL65, Plum150's, and La Sportiva Raceborg. super light going up, terrifying going down.

[fleish]

@bauerb - After going down this rabbit hole and talking to a few of my buddies who truly skimo, it seems that AT is the only way to compete and survive the downhills while staying light. It's been awesome to see the posts from a few years back and now see you crushing these races.

I think for me, I am going to give the Gothic (and then possibly the GT) a whirl on a less efficient setup to dip my toe in the water, but after talking with folks, if you really want to compete teleing is impossible.

@mikesee - thanks for the input on the Voile skis and for sharing the extra setup you have - just sent you an email to talk through those.

@Nick BC - Exactly right, the old F1 Race's with the bellows is what I have.

[bauerb]

you can be competitive on Tele...in the right class: i.e Heavy Metal or Tele class. some races have both of those classes, but as I mentioned earlier, those classes sometimes get relegated to the shorter "Rec" courses

[fleish]

@bauerb - thanks for all the guidance! I’m going to tackle a rec course with the F1 Race boots and the setup @mikesee posted above (as well as some good adventures in the woods with my dog) and see if I catch the skimo bug.

I’ll keep you all posted on how it goes!

[groovyakspace]

Hey how did that setup work out? Interested in selling the boots?

[fisheater]

@groovyakspace
If you want NIB, https://www.ebay.com/itm/226496320673

I ordered a NIB F-1 from this seller, 2 weeks later the F-1 Race come up. I already have a pair of Race, I really think l’ll be better off with the F-1 for piste. A year on piste with the Race and they are broken in. I’m probably better off breaking in the F-1 for piste, and saving the Race for the BC