Priority of touring gear: Skis, Bindings, Boots, or Skins

[rfconroy]

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.

[tgapp]

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.

[~mikey b]

boots

always boots

[Stairmaster]

boots

always boots

Boots! With intuition liners and foot beds. Custom foot beds if you can. Oh and CEP compression socks. I can spend 12hrs in my boots no problem.

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[shafty85]

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.

[DGamms]

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

[rod9301]

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.

Actually, bindings, boots, skis

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[galibier_numero_un]

Beacon, shovel, probe.

[AK47bp]

Tacoma, Yeti mug, flat brim hat, boots, bindings, skis, poles, pack, and some Tide pods to snack on.


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[XXX-er]

ask her if she thinks she needs a new binding

or would she rather have a boob job ?

[skis_the_trees]

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.

[Tailwind]

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.

[skibrd]

Pin bindings if she has frame bindings. Then I’d say good boots, then skis.


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[gregL]

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.

[jacob_dbu]

Get the shifts. Sell the F10s while touring is hawt.

[XavierD]

A compass

[toast2266]

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.

[auvgeek]

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.

Hard agree with this.

If she has small or difficult feet, boots will likely be the most money. Used pin bindings can be had for cheap these days, ~$250 ish seems reasonable without scoring big.

[Boissal]

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.

[jillybeans]

Beacon, shovel, probe.

Requested BD to replace mine. We'll see...

[Danno]

boots

always boots

I don't know how anyone can disagree.

For a backcountry newb, boots that are uncomfortable/painful/unpleasant for skinning will mean the newb doesn't go a second time. If someone's feet don't hurt, you can move on to the next items.

[tgapp]

I don't know how anyone can disagree.

For a backcountry newb, boots that are uncomfortable/painful/unpleasant for skinning will mean the newb doesn't go a second time. If someone's feet don't hurt, you can move on to the next items.

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)

[3PinGrin]

Has she taken an Avy 1 class? That trumps gear if not.

[XXX-er]

Boots and boobs not necessarily in that order

[smartyiak]

ask her if she thinks she needs a new binding

or would she rather have a boob job ?

Actually: post naked pics and we'll decide for you.