Written by Nick Crews
Backcountry skiing is a lot of fun, but the variety of options available can be intimidating for someone just getting into it. Are you one of those people? Read on, and learn about some different setups.
Let’s start with the essentials: skis.
There are many considerations when choosing what sort of skis you want to use while touring. One of the most pressing ones is weight. You have to pick up your skis with every step, which can lead to very tired hip flexors. There is no rule for this or ideal weight. However, as general guidelines, resort-specific skis typically weigh in around nine pounds per pair, and at the other end of the spectrum are touring-specific skis which can get down to around six pounds per pair.
You also want to think about size, shape, and stiffness. The shorter and lighter the ski, the easier kick turns become as you skin up-slope, and the easier it is to thread your way through tight trees. On the flip side, long skis are easier to break trail with in deep powder and are more stable in the often less-than-ideal snow conditions of the backcountry. Be aware that if you are looking at manufacturers’ claimed weights of a ski, they often only quote the weight of one of the middle sizes, so if you get a different size, the actual weight you have will not match.
The width of skis is also important. I like a touring ski with a waist of 100-110 mm. Skinnier than that and the skis start to dive under the snow while skinning or skiing. When you get wider than that, it begins to get hard to skin on icy or side hill skin tracks, and the benefits of extra flotation begin to drop. As for the tip and tail widths, they should be 15 to 25 mm wider than the waist. This doesn’t have too much of an effect on skinning performance, though it does affect the weight and float on the downhill.
Camber is how the ski flexes up and down and my ideal is something with mostly traditional camber (like an arch) with a bit of rocker (like a boat) in the tips. This gives the best sticking power on the skin up, which you might lose with a heavily rockered ski, while having plenty of float on the way down.
The next thing to think about are boots and bindings.
Rule number one with boots is that they are comfortable. No exceptions. You are going to be walking in them for miles, and if you have to take them off every half hour to give your feet a rest or to deal with blisters, you, as well as everyone in the group waiting for you, are going to have a bad time. After this criteria, think about weight (every stride, remember?), as well as warmth and tour modes. Also think about their flexibility because you want to have a full range of motion with every stride on the way up. Another consideration is their tech binding compatibility, which will be explained below. As an example, I bought a pair of used Scarpa Maestrales a few years ago, and they are just about perfect in my opinion.
Next: bindings. In a recent poll, nine out of ten skiers said that bindings are at least fairly important for enjoyable skiing. Your first decision should be whether or not you want frame or tech bindings. Frame bindings are ones that surround the whole boot, while tech bindings have little pins in the toe pieces which poke into holes in the actual boot.
Probably the biggest difference between the two types is weight, and tech bindings are vastly superior in this category. Tech bindings also win in general touring efficiency, since the pivot point is in a much more natural location, and you don’t have to pick up the weight of the binding with every step. The area where frame bindings are champions is holding power. They often have DINs (release strength values) up to 16 which is comparable with normal alpine bindings that you would use in a resort. Tech bindings, which use little pins to hold your toe and heel in place, simply aren’t going to be able to hold you if you drop 20 foot cliffs.
For lighter folks (less than 140 pounds) tech bindings will be quite adequate, and for us heavier folk, we just have to be a bit more delicate as we ski. There are some tech bindings, such as the Marker Kingpin or Dynafit Beast, which are trying to shake up this paradigm by using more traditional heel pieces and beefier toes. In terms of usability, neither one of these classes has a distinct advantage.
There is also one other kind of setup, the one I have, called the CAST system, which uses a permanent alpine heel piece, and a plate system so you can interchange a tech-pin toe with a normal toe. This allows you to have the touring benefits of a tech binding (albeit with some additional weight in the backpack) combined with the downhill security of a normal alpine binding.
When choosing a binding, there is one more thing to think about, and that is boot compatibility. Specifically, if you want a tech binding, your boot better have the inserts in the toe and heel to accept the binding pins. Less obviously, the shells of touring specific boots have curved soles on the bottom, often coated in tough rubber that is good for walking across rough terrain, called Walk to Ride (WTR) soles. This is in contrast to the flat, hard soles of normal boot shells. You must be careful when pairing boots and bindings because of this. For example, your new touring boots, which happen to be WTR, might not work with your old resort bindings like you’d hoped.
If you are one of those dirty hippy tele skiers, boots and bindings are easy. Any normal tele boots work, but ones with walk mode are a bonus. It is possible to use normal bindings for skinning uphill as well, but the resistance from the boots and springs is fairly awful. Much better are bindings with a free pivot mode which allow you to skin freely.
We haven’t covered the other essential part of a touring setup, avalanche safety gear, but that deserves its own review all to itself. But wait. As a part of the CC community, you have access to the ORC Ahlberg Gear House, where you can rent a high quality beacon, shovel, and probe for next to nothing! Another essential part of your setup, avalanche safety knowledge, is something you need to take a course on.
Want to learn more? Resources such as wildsnow.com, and tetongravityresearch.com forums, and people on BaCCountry, CC’s backcountry skiing Facebook group, can help you learn more about gear, get set up, and find destinations and partners.
Get stoked and get out there.