Backcountry skinning

Hi akmantra,

Before you go skinning off into the backcountry for powder, & worrying about skis do a search on youtube for avalanches.  Watch a few of those, & skis will become a lower priority of things to worry about.  Also do some searches on here.  There is some good information on safe backcountry travel, or is that an oxymoron?

 

Thanks,

JF

Okay, just making sure you know what you're getting into.  I was out with a very savy guide yesterday & it got me thinking about how much I don't know.

 

As far as skis, I've never been on Gotamas but have heard nothing but good about them.  If you are looking for a backcountry specific set-up, go as light as you can.  For powder & short tours I have a pair of K2 Anti-piste mounted with Marker Barons & Black Diamond Glidelite skins.  I use my regular Alpine boots with this set-up.  It is heavy, but they ski great in deep or heavy snow.

My other set-up for longer tours, consists of Scot Missions, pretty light versatile ski.  They are mounted with Fritschi freeride bindings & I use an old pair of Nordica AT boots.

 

For the lightest set-up most say that Dynafit is the way to go.

 

Have fun,

JF

 

assuming you get the right lenght the tips will not sink. They are actually perfect IMO for a BC ski good enough in powder and really fun in corn snow.
 

 

 

Keep in mind that you won't just be dealing with pow and corn.  You also want a pair of skis that will help you in variable conditions - breakable crust, windhammer, mank, etc.  And weight counts - seriously.

 

I've not skied gotamas but I have a BC friend who loves his.  They seem heavy to me but he's a big, strong guy.  I wouldn't want to push them uphill.

 

You might want to tool around over at Telemarktips.  There are a lot of AT skiers on that board, and this question has come up a lot more than once.

As far as being a versatile ski in mixed conditions, I think you would be hard pressed to find a better ski than a Gotama.  I think you got the right size.  I'm 5'10 160lbs and love the 176 size.  I use it as an alpine and tele ski.  It may be heavier than some of the other skis out there.  I have found that it's hard to find a light ski that skis well in "mixed" conditions.  Weight does matter and counts more the farther out you go.  I would just use the Goat if I was you.  For me it's about the down and I generally don't have to hike that far to get it. 

I'm about to get started on my 4th AT set-up. My current AT skis are Stoeckli Stormrider XL / Duke, G3 Baron / Freeride + and Blizzard Titan Agros / Duke.  Boots, Garmont Adrenaline. They are all great skis for different conditions, but ignore the fact that in the backcountry you spend more than 95% of your time going up hill and conditions can be quite variable from boiler plate ice to powder and everything in between (including stuff that more resembles water than snow). My next set-up will be Dynafit and the ski will be a light weight mid-fat, which I will ski longer than I normally would (for the extra float).  In my experience, this will give me the best rig for getting up the hill and will not comprimise skiability.  However, it does mean that I will have to lift my game from a skiing point of view, but that is not a bad thing.

 

I really like my Dynafits, although they certainly are more fiddly to get into than the Freerides on my Havocs.  Once you're in, though, the uber light weight and naturalness of the uphill stride is absolutely money.  And since I'm not skiing bumps with them or hucking cliffs they give me all the downhill performance I need.

 

A friend of mine who used to post on Epic suggested that I get them - he's a significantly more aggressive skier than I am and they stood up to everything he threw their way.

 

My everyday BC skis these days are Volkl T-Rocks.  Light weight mid-fats but with enough substance to them to handle reasonably variable conditions.  My rock skis are Havocs - nice skis but a lot happier in powder than the variable (as are we all).

 

 

 

What do you consider as a short tour? a long tour?

 

I guess that's relative.  When I was younger & doing it a lot, a long tour might be multi-day with 10-12000' of climbing.  The biggest for me was 6500' in one morning on Mt. Shasta.  At that time I was on old school skinny telemark skis & leather boots, pretty light.

Most of the climb was done with ice ax & crampons though.  Nowadays, for me a long tour is maybe 2-4000' of climbing, & usually moderate enough that I can skin most of it.  A short tour for me would be lift, auto or snowmobile assisted, with an hour or less at a time of actual skinning.  Also, what equipment I use would depend on the type of skiing I was doing.  I wasn't ever gonna ski any radically steep, icy chutes on that tele set-up.

 

JF

 

 Just getting into the Alpine BC ski scene myself after a couple of trips with an experienced friend in the Cascades. Decades of skiing backcountry nordic in the East has taught me that the truth is there is no one rig that does it all perfectly. Adjusting your skiing style, route selection, lines, etc. to best fit your equipment is half the fun.  I ski K2 Shuksans , Scarpa Laser, Dynafit setup for the Cascades and Karhu 10th Mountain, Merrell Leather and 3 pin cables for the rolling hills of Central New York. Have fun !