Two ski winter travel quiver in 2019

[XavierD]

Goal: find two pairs for traveling around the western US and Canada with a mix of touring and resort skiing. This year I’ll have two windows to ski in 20DEC-5JAN (I know gross) and 1FEB-14FEB but a bit of flexibility to go where I want. Mix of WA/CO over Xmas with an option to fly elsewhere after the 1st, and then Driving from Denver to Seattle in early February.

I was thinking of a ~110mm wide set with either Shifts/CAST for general resort skiing and short (<2000ft) tours and side country. Second ski would be dedicated mid winter touring focused somewhere in the 10X width with ~300g bindings. Likely travel with 2x boots (ZeroG Tour and Lange XT Free).

Current contenders are Woodsman 108, Rustler 11, WNDR 110 (Camber), Legend 106X, etc. Ideally this ski to should be at least decently fun on firm snow, but also not inspiring regret on awesome days. Other option is go a bit wider to the 116 range and just put up with it or tour on the former days.

For touring, pretty narrowed in on ZeroG 105, since I own them, but for sake of discussion utility would also consider WildCat Tour 108, Line Vision 108 or Helio 108.

The alternative is to go with two pairs of skis 115-120 and 95-100 with CAST/Shift and have both a soft snow and firm snow option for both touring and resort skiing but compromise more on touring.

Thoughts?

[HAB]

It'd probably help to say more about what skis you have and haven't gotten along with in the past, and what's in your quiver at present.


How much do you realistically see yourself doing big touring days (whatever that means for you) on this trip? Seems like that should be the determining factor on whether you bring a dedicated touring ski vs more 50/50 options. But if you've already got the ZeroG 105s, that probably makes sense.

[Supermoon]

Not sure why you'd have a two ski quiver that were both 105-110mm if you are looking to cover all conditions. I'd really consider going with a 115 ski and a 95-100 ski, personally, to give you coverage for all conditions. Maybe do inserts for an alpine binding and a tech binding so you can mix and match as needed. Would be a bit fiddly for a home setup, but for travel flexibility is more important than convenience IMO.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Zero G 105's and Rustler 11's.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using TGR Forums mobile app

[nickel]

praxis BC and GPO
Volkl bmt 108 and 122
Moment wildcat tour 108 and commander 118 or 124
So many good options out there...

Not knowing anything about you, these are my picks for 2 ski travel quiver. Inserts for touring and resort bindings are a good idea.

[rob stokes]

Katana with shifts have been the most versatile ski I have ever skied. Great travel option.


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[toast2266]

I'd go deathwish with inserts for whatever alpine binding + whatever 300g touring binding.

Standard Deathwish is light enough to be an ok touring ski, and it does really well in a pretty wide range of soft-ish conditions.

Then I'd get a narrower, more firm snow oriented ski with alpine bindings only. The more I was spending time in Colorado, the closer to 100mm (or less) that ski would be. A mantra, or something like that. I'd go a bit wider if I was in the pnw more. Maybe a cochise.

[gregL]

188 Rustler 11 with Warden 13 and 180 Zero G 105 with MTN, leave the XT Frees at home.

[Mike Rogers]

I'm really happy with my Zero G 105s so far. I'm still in the honeymoon period, but I would recommend taking these on your trip.

I would pair them with the Rustler 11s/shifts. They're pretty versatile and aren't too heavy. My SO has Shiva 11s/shifts for her heavy set up. and is pretty happy them.

I sold my Rustlers to pick up Billy Goats last year, and I am happy with my choice, particularly for fresh and deep chop, but the R11s were better in between storms.

In addition to those two, I am currently running Wildcat Tours (regular size) with shifts for lift assisted BC or shorter human powered deep days. They're fun skis in fresh, and fine for in-bounds laps, but the Rustlers are more composed on tough resort snow.

[kathleenturneroverdrive]

Not sure I understand having two skis with nearly the exact same width, and needing a 95-100mm ski for mid-winter ski trips.

Nothing wrong with keeping the Zero G 105 though. If you do that I'd get something in the 110 - 120 range with a Shift as your daily driver/pow touring ski.

[schindlerpiste]

FX96 w/ Duke and Rustler 11 w/ Duke

[XavierD]

Good feedback. Not having ever really skied in CO or much in the Rockies I hadn’t really considered a ton of benefit to a 90-100 alpine ski.

Goal was to get me to think outside of the Rustler11/ZeroG 105 combo I got too, but good to see some reinforcement of that idea.

Inserts make sense, but I’m a bitch when it comes to that.

Ski w/ Duke and ski w/ Duke

How about no...

[I've seen black diamonds!]

I don't see much point in a sub 100 waist unless you want to ski a lot of bumps and or groomers. Then I'd drop down to sub 90 anyway.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using TGR Forums mobile app

[nickel]

I must be in the minority but for me it's the 105 group i find redundant. I'd go 95 and 115, both ready to tour.

[Lindahl]

Two of the questions I’d have are... there’s a lot of new-to-you terrain that you’d be covering, so do you think that you’d be in the resort and sidecountry more as a result of that? Do you have solid touring partners in the places you’d stop?

When traveling, not being familiar with the terrain and not having my regular touring partners also creates a high barrier when deciding if I want to tour instead of hitting up a resort. Because of that, I’d lean more towards a quiver with 115-120 and 95-100 with Cast or Shift. With just your Freetours? Or add tech bindings and your ZeroGs if you want to do inserts - would drop enough weight to make heavy skis be less of a big deal.

[tupp_]

Personally have used the ~105mm+kingpins as a single travel ski in the past. It's worked well in NZ, Canada, and Argentina.

This year I plan to setup a new ~105mm and something ~115-120mm with inserts and one of either tectons or shifts. This way there is room in the ski bag for clothing and gear - keeping the flight load limited to a ski bag + hut sized pack (38L). Or you can fit the SO's skis in.

Leaning towards dynastar x106's and renegades, likely with tectons for this season.

[reckless toboggan]

186 4Frnt EHP with Salomon Shift.

Both of them.

[2ski2fish4ever]

a K2 99 mindbender and a 116 K2 mindbender,that will cover anything and everything you could possibly encounter

[thecazdog]

I'm heading to the same part of the world and was thinking the same thing. Might cheat and bring 3 skis.

Rustler 11s are a certainty.

Wildcat Tours, Atris and ZG108 are the other skis in the mix. All binding freedom-ed for Shift and Tecton with ZGTP boots.

If I had to cut it to two, I'd go Rustler and ZG108. Also have a pair of Wildcat Tour 108s - pretty high opinion of that ski, but not sure if it edges out the ZeroG, particularly in firm conditions.

And if I were the OP, leave the Langes at home!

[SB]

ski caddy

[HukuTa_KydecHuk]

Regular Wildcat with Shifts or inserted for light touring binding and some alpine binding
and Wildcat 108 or PBJ (if something narrower needed) with shifts or inserts

From my POV when you are travelling with skis, you want them to be similar to each other, so you can adapt the technique faster and get used to them. With wildcats in different widths this is not an issue at all

[PNWhiteRoom]

Been seeing quite a few mentions of the blizzard ZG108 and the new ZG105. What's the consensus on how these perform compared to a volkl bmt 109 for a dedicated touring rig? mounted with a g3 ion or zed. Thanks!

[kc_7777]

I spent a lot of time looking for a resort/side country ski to put Shifts on. Considered the Rustler 11. A lot. Also the K2 Mindbender 116.
Couldn’t wrap my mind around the far back mounts on those two.

Ended up getting some Faction Candide 4.0’s for my Shifts. Specs: 140-118-134, will mount at Shifts at -5, minimal 1mm camber, 1950gm per ski

PS. Also have 106mm (J ski Metal) and 110mm (Lib Wreckreate) just for overlap. Thinking of some Candide 5.0’s now too!

[whatsupdoc]

Been seeing quite a few mentions of the blizzard ZG108 and the new ZG105. What's the consensus on how these perform compared to a volkl bmt 109 for a dedicated touring rig? mounted with a g3 ion or zed. Thanks!

I've skied the ZG 108 and the BMT 109. Both are great all-around touring skis that can handle pretty much any condition and do well in poor bc snow, which in my opinion is the true test of a touring ski. And they can do it without weighing you down too much. Never been on the ZG 105.

ZG 108 is better on hard pack and a bit more damp. ZG 108 gets the nod for durability and price of course. I never had an issue when I owned the BMT 109 with durability but had a buddy who cracked the tip of the ski where it was super thin.

BMT 109 is more fun in pow, surfier, a bit better in breakable crust with the full rocker IMO.

[SirVicSmasher]

Got on the mb108 193 today after staring at it mounted in my living room for two months. Chargy, versatile, yet nimble and very stable in variable hardpack(man-made frozen egg crate shit) . Haven't skied it in cement yet as the off piste options at mission were no Bueno for new skis but it took whatever speed I threw at it without batting an eye and im 6'4" 250. Probably 2heavy 2 tour on but k2s back in a big way.
I think you said you demoed it in 186 but you'll be happiest on 193. Scalpels

Sent from my I3123 using Tapatalk