Hoji's at it again. New Frankenboot.

**ARpowhound** · 10-06-2016, 05:13 PM

https://vimeo.com/185541706?utm_sour...eid=b2e875c02c
Check out this edit, & pay attention to the 2 shots of his boot. I find it interesting he still prefers the Vulcan to the Khion (I do as well, Khion doesn't fit as well for me). Check out the ratchet strap & the walk mode modifications. This guy is amazing what he comes up with.

**auvgeek** · 10-06-2016, 07:01 PM

I hadn't seen that edit before! Hoji just skis SO well. Mind-blowingly well.

**Sluff** · 10-06-2016, 07:18 PM

Very solid. Think he is the best skier out there at the moment IMO. Always look forward to his segments. They never let you down.

**rob stokes** · 10-06-2016, 07:43 PM

12344

**rob stokes** · 10-06-2016, 07:45 PM

Love this shit. Such geeks we are.

**JRainey** · 10-06-2016, 11:41 PM

Love the geeking.

That part looks way more refined than what was in that 4frnt behind the scenes edit.

I would hope dynfit is hooking up the Proto hardware for something hot.

Looks a bit like the rando latches. Is it all about the rebound? Just gonna say lupo carbon might beat the touring weight of that thing. But who knows what the refined product could come in at.

Vulcan II dropping soon?

**ARpowhound** · 10-07-2016, 04:48 AM

^^that would be nice.

**mntlion** · 10-07-2016, 07:51 AM

also he is on Arct gloves in the pic, but sponsored by swanny

**XXX-er** · 10-07-2016, 09:36 AM

Vulcan 2 is already here, its a different color of green, no carbon and they want mo money ... over 1000$

If I was you I would just find a lightly used Vulcan 1 and buy a better liner

Did Hoji even work on the Khion, I'm doubting it ?

**cat in january** · 10-07-2016, 09:46 AM

I've seen video

**auvgeek** · 10-07-2016, 09:47 AM

Originally Posted by XXX-er

Did Hoji even work on the Khion, I'm doubting it ?

There was a Dynafit promotional video where it seemed like he was involved, but maybe that was a sponsorship obligation more than anything.

Very interesting that he modified the lock mechanism from the "Ultra Lock 2.0." Wonder how his frankenboot locks into ski mode. In the still rob stokes posted, Hoji seems to be pushing that metal locking piece down in the video to transition into ski mode.

Also, he seems to be on Beast 14s, and it seems like they showed him locking the toe at some point in that video...?

**TAFKALVS** · 10-07-2016, 09:59 AM

I wouldn't be surprised if whatever he did to his Vulcans served as an inspiration to the Beast/Khion boot, but that he's still skiing in his original modded out Vulcan. When I skied a few years ago at the GAH freeride camp he was skiing in Mercurys that he had already modded out like crazy. And he had only had the boots for a couple weeks. I don't think he likes to ski in factory gear. In fact he seemed to have some frustration that the Beast binding and Vulcan boot did not implement all the ideas he had.

**auvgeek** · 10-07-2016, 10:23 AM

Thanks for the insights. Would be fun to ski with him and geek out over gear. Maybe some year, jesski and I will both be fit, uninjured, and have time for a vacation in December...

**TAFKALVS** · 10-07-2016, 10:24 AM

Originally Posted by auvgeek

Thanks for the insights. Would be fun to ski with him and geek out over gear. Maybe some year, jesski and I will both be fit, uninjured, and have time for a vacation in December...

you guys would love it. It was an awesome experience, and I often think about doing it again.

**smooth operator** · 10-07-2016, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by auvgeek

Also, he seems to be on Beast 14s, and it seems like they showed him locking the toe at some point in that video...?

if you look closely he is not on a beast when he locks the toe, looks like a speed turn. Locking the beast toe would be a bit eh... illogical?

Is it me or does it look like he's shimmed the toes of that speed turn as well as the heels? or is it a demo plate? (1:03 in the video)

**TAFKALVS** · 10-07-2016, 10:56 AM

Originally Posted by smooth operator

if you look closely he is not on a beast when he locks the toe, looks like a speed turn. Locking the beast toe would be a bit eh... illogical?

Is it me or does it look like he's shimmed the toes of that speed turn as well as the heels? or is it a demo plate? (1:03 in the video)

Those are beast 14s, which have a traditional dynafit toe on a turn table.

**Ocean** · 10-07-2016, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by smooth operator

Is it me or does it look like he's shimmed the toes of that speed turn as well as the heels? or is it a demo plate? (1:03 in the video)

I'm at work so I can't rewatch the video to check, but my memory is that he was using Radical Toes with the shims from the original Radical 1.0 ST and Speed Turn Heels in the first part of the video.

**auvgeek** · 10-07-2016, 11:04 AM

Originally Posted by smooth operator

if you look closely he is not on a beast when he locks the toe, looks like a speed turn.

You're right. Should have looked closer. Also at work; posted hastily.

It actually looks like he has the heel on some sort of demo track...or the snow on the ski is making an optical illusion.

**TAFKALVS** · 10-07-2016, 11:14 AM

Originally Posted by auvgeek

You're right. Should have looked closer. Also at work; posted hastily.

It actually looks like he has the heel on some sort of demo track...or the snow on the ski is making an optical illusion.

I guess I wasn't paying attention to that. He had a bunch of bindings at the hoji camp that had a custom machined base plate that lowered ramp angle, reduced stack height and had a removable brake. I wonder if that is what is in the video?

**nickwm21** · 10-07-2016, 01:16 PM

Thread drift... Any idea what backpack he skis? He is throwing super laid out backies with like a 40L on....

Nevermind... pretty sure it is this one: http://arcteryx.com/product.aspx?lan...ki-31-Backpack

**Eric Hjorleifson** · 10-09-2016, 01:10 AM

Haha, Nice!

I was wondering if anyone would really notice that shot! I specifically threw that boot shot in the edit to be a quick teaser moment for the real techies out there and I am very stoked that you noticed! It would be great if everyone could refrain from posting screen grabs of it, I just don't want it published everywhere quite yet. It is all good and I appreciate your die-hard enthusiasm but it is of course sensitive material, a little discretion is greatly appreciated.

Some clarification on the topics mentioned in this post:

-I exclusively skied the Beast 14's unlocked (except for the Whistler park shoot where I locked the toe for obvious reasons) the entire time I was filming with MSP last season and I experienced no failures, prerelease or breakages. The Beast 14 in my opinion is an amazing binding and it's performance blew my expectations out of the water: I was skeptical to ski the toe piece unlocked at first but as the season went on I became 100% confident in it's abilities and it has become my go to choice for charging.

-The shot of me locking the Beast 14/Radical 2 style toe pieces with a more classic heel pieces was filmed on a lighter weight backup pair of Hojis on a dawn patrol run to get scenic shots and do some AC work on a zone we were controlling to keep it in play for filming: The cheese wedge in-run was under this zone so we controlled it throughout the trip to prevent the slope from getting loaded, becoming a threat to the jump. I would use my lighter weight back up skis for these dawn patrol runs to save my legs for the filming that would follow later in the day. These runs were very fun and the control work we did was quite effective, it was a great warm up run back to the lodge and we were able to keep the jump open for the entirety of the trip. This specific shot was staged to capture a moment in good light at the top of a peak, chances are I did and redid the motion of locking the toe several times to get the shot (movie magic) and in reality to do the control work I probably wasn't actually locking my toes anyway because we were strategically ski cutting small pockets of low density snow/not pinning it down the mountain. I selected this shot show that I was skiing in Dynafit bindings but in hindsight it might have not been the best choice because it didn't represent the set up I was filming on.

-I really was not involved with the Khion (I think that is pretty obvious) and therefore I do not have much to say about it. What I can say is that there are good things in the works and I am quite optimistic that skiers who love the concept of the Vulcan will be stoked! Please be patient, the future is going to be exciting...

-The past few seasons I have been mostly using the Khamski 38 L pack from Arc'teryx. This pack is a work horse and is extremely versatile for backcountry skiing. For some strange reason the older I get the more is seem to carry on a daily basis, chalk this up to experience and responsibility I guess: You see Sh*t go down and you want to be as prepared as possible to deal with it. Obviously filming is a bit different than "normal" ski touring and a lot of the time I will ditch excessive article/weight at a safe regroup spot to lighten my load and maximize my skiing ability for a specific line. This technique is pretty common when filming via ski touring out of huts like GAH's Sentry lodge. I recently attended a ski pack design meeting at the Arc'teryx office and I will say there is some solid development happening in the ski back department: I predict will will see a 30+ L that will be minimalistic/lightweight and very nice for ski touring in the near future.

Thank you all for the positive comments, I am really stoked to hear people still enjoy my footage because I still really enjoy the process of getting it. I will continue on this path as long as people continue to enjoy my style of skiing.

Cheers,

Hoji

**cat in january** · 10-09-2016, 04:50 AM

Boom

**doebedoe** · 10-09-2016, 05:01 AM

Whoa.

Thanks for all your work over the years.

**Skidog** · 10-09-2016, 06:20 AM

Originally Posted by Eric Hjorleifson

Haha, Nice!

I was wondering if anyone would really notice that shot! I specifically threw that boot shot in the edit to be a quick teaser moment for the real techies out there and I am very stoked that you noticed! It would be great if everyone could refrain from posting screen grabs of it, I just don't want it published everywhere quite yet. It is all good and I appreciate your die-hard enthusiasm but it is of course sensitive material, a little discretion is greatly appreciated.

Some clarification on the topics mentioned in this post:

-I exclusively skied the Beast 14's unlocked (except for the Whistler park shoot where I locked the toe for obvious reasons) the entire time I was filming with MSP last season and I experienced no failures, prerelease or breakages. The Beast 14 in my opinion is an amazing binding and it's performance blew my expectations out of the water: I was skeptical to ski the toe piece unlocked at first but as the season went on I became 100% confident in it's abilities and it has become my go to choice for charging.

-The shot of me locking the Beast 14/Radical 2 style toe pieces with a more classic heel pieces was filmed on a lighter weight backup pair of Hojis on a dawn patrol run to get scenic shots and do some AC work on a zone we were controlling to keep it in play for filming: The cheese wedge in-run was under this zone so we controlled it throughout the trip to prevent the slope from getting loaded, becoming a threat to the jump. I would use my lighter weight back up skis for these dawn patrol runs to save my legs for the filming that would follow later in the day. These runs were very fun and the control work we did was quite effective, it was a great warm up run back to the lodge and we were able to keep the jump open for the entirety of the trip. This specific shot was staged to capture a moment in good light at the top of a peak, chances are I did and redid the motion of locking the toe several times to get the shot (movie magic) and in reality to do the control work I probably wasn't actually locking my toes anyway because we were strategically ski cutting small pockets of low density snow/not pinning it down the mountain. I selected this shot show that I was skiing in Dynafit bindings but in hindsight it might have not been the best choice because it didn't represent the set up I was filming on.

-I really was not involved with the Khion (I think that is pretty obvious) and therefore I do not have much to say about it. What I can say is that there are good things in the works and I am quite optimistic that skiers who love the concept of the Vulcan will be stoked! Please be patient, the future is going to be exciting...

-The past few seasons I have been mostly using the Khamski 38 L pack from Arc'teryx. This pack is a work horse and is extremely versatile for backcountry skiing. For some strange reason the older I get the more is seem to carry on a daily basis, chalk this up to experience and responsibility I guess: You see Sh*t go down and you want to be as prepared as possible to deal with it. Obviously filming is a bit different than "normal" ski touring and a lot of the time I will ditch excessive article/weight at a safe regroup spot to lighten my load and maximize my skiing ability for a specific line. This technique is pretty common when filming via ski touring out of huts like GAH's Sentry lodge. I recently attended a ski pack design meeting at the Arc'teryx office and I will say there is some solid development happening in the ski back department: I predict will will see a 30+ L that will be minimalistic/lightweight and very nice for ski touring in the near future.

Thank you all for the positive comments, I am really stoked to hear people still enjoy my footage because I still really enjoy the process of getting it. I will continue on this path as long as people continue to enjoy my style of skiing.

Cheers,

Hoji

This shits what makes this place great. Thanks Eric for responding. Keep killing it.

**shafty85** · 10-09-2016, 07:42 AM

Awesome to hear - looking at the current dynafit lineup, I didn't know what to do for future boots. The TLT7 and Khion didn't look to be for me and my Mercuries won't last forever.

Rob, maybe take the screenshot down so it doesn't get out as easily?

It will be interesting to see if the ratchet strap is an actual feature on the new boot, or just a repair from a broken buckle? I like the idea of a ratchet strap - could get the boot tightness absolutely dialed and would have so much adjust-ability. In regards to the locking mechanism, I re-watched the edit and it looks like he pushes the mechanism down into the boot - not flipping it down similar to scarpa's locking mechanism. Be very interesting to see how that works. The Ultra Lock system works for me - simple, minimal parts that can break. Can't wait to see what Eric comes out with.