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11-19-2020, 08:51 PM #1
Priority of touring gear: Skis, Bindings, Boots, or Skins
A buddy of mine and I were recently talking about gear, and he's thinking about getting a set of Shifts for his girlfriend this season, to replace her Marker F10s. With prices on the rise with the great touring covid boom, it got me thinking, what gear is more worthwhile to drop cash on? Boots, Bindings, Skis, Skins, or something else I havent thought of.
My two cents to him were not to drop a ton of cash on new bindings, but look at wider ROM boots, or more efficient skins which pack way smaller. As from my experience, the single biggest game changer for me was swapping from my Titans, to Vulcans few years back....It kind of blew my mind how much more enjoyable skinning was in a boot that had better uphill performance.
However curious on what other folks would also think given a similar circumstance."Poop is funny" - Frank Reynolds
www.experiencedgear.net
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11-19-2020, 08:57 PM #2
in general i have found the following hierarchy of impact to be pretty true: skis > boots > bindings
unless you need something like the shift, then obviously, spend a ton of money on that. but if you're talking normal pin bindings, they're all pretty damn similar.
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11-19-2020, 09:10 PM #3
boots
always bootsI didn't believe in reincarnation when I was your age either.
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11-19-2020, 09:17 PM #4
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11-19-2020, 09:20 PM #5
Snapchat filter should always be top priority. Once you have that, you can move onto the next essential - earbuds for music so you don't get bored with listening to nature. Final thing to focus on should be your colour scheme - early and late season will require drastically different colours compared to mid-winter if you want to get the best pics and get the most likes. After these essentials, whatever other gear you have should work fine for ya.
"...if you're not doing a double flip cork something, skiing spines in Haines, or doing double flip cork somethings off spines in Haines, you're pretty much just gaping."
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11-19-2020, 09:21 PM #6Registered User
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Are we talking uphill efficiency, downhill performance, or both? Or maybe where to spend full retail?
Blister posted lots of thoughts on this, and their reviewers don’t agree either...
https://blisterreview.com/gear-revie...ntry-ski-setup
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11-19-2020, 09:30 PM #7Rod9301
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11-19-2020, 09:39 PM #8
Beacon, shovel, probe.
Galibier Designcrafting technology in service of music
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11-19-2020, 09:42 PM #9
Tacoma, Yeti mug, flat brim hat, boots, bindings, skis, poles, pack, and some Tide pods to snack on.
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11-19-2020, 10:22 PM #10Registered User
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ask her if she thinks she needs a new binding
or would she rather have a boob job ?Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
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11-19-2020, 10:23 PM #11
Skins are probably the least important out of the list you gave, but it depends on objective. If someone is touring on F10s or Shifts they probably don't need mohair skins.
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11-19-2020, 10:58 PM #12Registered User
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Pin bindings vs frame bindings is 100 percent the biggest jump. An F10 vs a shift is the difference for a lot of people between one lap and several.
Then boots.
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11-20-2020, 12:49 AM #13Registered User
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Pin bindings if she has frame bindings. Then I’d say good boots, then skis.
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11-20-2020, 08:54 AM #14
How much does she actually tour? If more than 10-12 days a year, each of those items is important and you can't expect to get a deal, especially this year. If only a few times, well yeah, boob job.
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11-20-2020, 09:29 AM #15
Get the shifts. Sell the F10s while touring is hawt.
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11-20-2020, 10:10 AM #16
A compass
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11-20-2020, 10:15 AM #17
Boots that fit well.
Pin bindings.
The right size ski for the person.
You don't have to spend gobs of money on all the fancy widgets, but if any of your equipment falls below those basic criteria, spend more money and fix it.
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11-20-2020, 10:22 AM #18Registered User
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"Alpine rock and steep, deep powder are what I seek, and I will always find solace there." - Bean Bowers
photos
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11-20-2020, 10:34 AM #19
I can ski a 200cm steel beam or a foam-core noodle with a solid pair of boots, regardless of the way the boot is connected to the ski.
If you put me in a 60-flex rear-entry low-cuff slipper I'll barely make it down a run alive even if I'm skiing on the perfect ski mounted with P18s (the universally recognized best binding in the world).
It's ALWAYS the boot, it conditions how the rest of the system works. A ski could give you a 10% improvement or penalty at the edges and a binding maybe 5% (and that's assuming most of the complaints I read about slop or elasticity are actually grounded in some objective reality). A boot that fits poorly, doesn't have enough ROM, is too soft, too heavy, too fidly, too cold, or any other number of flaws can ensure your day starts sucking 15 seconds out of the car and never improves."Your wife being mad is temporary, but pow turns do not get unmade" - mallwalker the wise
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11-20-2020, 10:35 AM #20Registered User
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11-20-2020, 10:37 AM #21"fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
"She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
"everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy
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11-20-2020, 10:46 AM #22
i agree with the importance of comfortable boots, but i don't think that high performance boots are strictly necessary either. get a boot that fits your foot, bake the liners, do whatever boot work you need to do, etc. that's basic. but - a beginner backcountry skier usually does not need a top-of-the-line, $900 boot. IMO, a good pair of skis makes a bigger difference than a super-premo downhill oriented boot. ymmv of course.
with regard to bindings, same deal. the move from frame bindings to pin bindings is a nearly exponential upgrade, but once you're on pin bindings, i don't think that there are too substantial of differences between various models (unless of course you're comparing shifts/tectons to race bindings or whatever - but that's a different class of binding alltogether)
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11-20-2020, 10:56 AM #23
Has she taken an Avy 1 class? That trumps gear if not.
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11-20-2020, 11:23 AM #24Registered User
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Boots and boobs not necessarily in that order
Lee Lau - xxx-er is the laziest Asian canuck I know
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11-20-2020, 11:30 AM #25
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