Blaze 106 (179) is great, light enough-ish, a little too-quick turning, but solid powder ski that doesn't totally fall apart when the snow is imperfect.
Rise Beyond 96 (177) is meh. Crazy light @...

Second the Katana v-werks. Expensive, but can be found much cheaper used/off season. 112mm, kinda full rocker that rips all conditions, mine were 1850 grams, 2150 with Alpinists. Also holding up to...

For sure, PTFE block or rod machine easily.

But the cyanoacrylate bonding (not gluing) works amazingly well. Since virgin PTFE chunks are rather pricey, this is how the binding biz has been...

Yep, that's the study, nice find. Definitely done with alpine soles, not Gripwalk.

As the Campbell study showed, predictably, lugged rubber touring soles make things worse (so does dirt). It's...

Very nice, bravo!

You will probably still want some PTFE glued on top of the 3D print, but that should be pretty easy with most of the "nylon-like" print resins and some cyanoacrylate. Did you go...

There was an instrumented study out there years ago that tested "new" sliding AFD's up against the original PTFE fixed units on alpine toes (rough equivalent of tech heels). I can't seem to find that...

Or you could use an organically destroyed set of alpinist brakes & glue some 1mm - 1.5mm PTFE sheet on it (whatever works to barely touch your boot sole -0.5mm).

First tour today, didn't fall...

Smith may warranty those lenses. The lens spacer foam is compromised somewhere, or the pressure equalization filter (if it has one), is toast. Try them, sometimes you need to call.

At one point,...

Bravo, sir!

Digging for the UHMW tape now... Although the OE liner is pretty easy to get into while in-shell, the GFT doesn't play nice with this boot.

184's Here, 160 lbs, directional, smooth skier with suspect knees. YMMV.

I skied them -2.0cm (about 5cm back from center). They were OK, but not as good as they are at -3.5 (close to 6.5 behind...

'24 Volkl Blaze 114, 166cm. Green/Yellow top sheet.

Essentially new (skied 3x in the Kootenays), they were a bit long for her. Can sell with or without the matchy green Marker Squire 11, mounted...

The '24 4Quattro SL & XT only have a heel filler "block" that fills the heel cavity in the clog, with a ~2.5mm skived sheet of rubber over it. Said rubber cover only extends about 3/4 the length of...

Get it. The only minorly dicey part is bonding the Teflon sheet. Cyanoacrylate complete with etching solution & activator is the key (brought me back to proto making days), but it's a bomber bond....

504324

So my only pair of Alpinist brakes, broke. The spring finally gave up on my fitness skis. I don't use Alpinist brakes except for up the resort because, well, they don't really work. And, I...

2024 Volkl Blaze 114 @ 166cm (Yellow/Green). Skied maybe 4 times, perfect.

Mounted for 288-ish BSL for Marker Royal. Could sell with matchy green Marker Squire 11, or without. She prefers her...

My single '21 Tecnica ZGPT 26.0: 1315 grams
My new '24 Scarpa 4Quattro SL 26.0: 1320 grams

4Quattro is a much better fit for my narrow foot (Lange ZA+ narrow). Low instep was barely OK, but...

Bumping again. Now I need 2 pair! :smile: