Touring with reverse sidecut, reverse camber skis

[altasnob]

Did a search on this and came up with a bunch of people speculating on whether it would be good/bad idea. It'd be nice to hear from someone who actually has Spatualas, or other reverse sidecut/camber skis, set up with AT bindings.

All this K2 Pontoon gossip has me itching to get a pair mounted with some Naxo/Fritchis. The weight really doesn't scare me too much, but I am concerned the reverse camber will cause them to slip on the uphill. Also, I'm sure the 130 mm waist won't make it easy to cross icy, hard pack sections and currently, they don't make wide enough ski crampons to fit over that wide of a waist. Oh, and I doubt I can bend the Naxo/Fritchi ski breaks out to 130 mm so I think I may just have to chop them off. Advice is much appreciated.

[upallnight]

Couple thoughts:
1) I successfully bent my (white) Freeride brakes to fit the Spats. Not sure if they'd actually stop the ski, but the brakes have enough clearance to deploy and (sorta) hold the skis together when I'm clamping them with a single strap for carrying.

2) I *rarely* tour with my Spats...for longer tours I much prefer something lighter...but I occasionally throw skins on there for short jaunts. They're OK for breaking trail -- they float pretty well and the tip doesn't get stuffed.

3) I've never had them in an super-sketchy sections on a tour (as much as I love my Spats, I'd rather just have a regular ski like the Gots or Explosivs or something) for any tour with sketchy terrain. That said, I don't think it would be too much worse than crossing steep, icy terrain in-bounds. I'd probably clamp down the heel and sidestep, or I'd throw 'em on my back/shoulder and kick steps/slip on my crampons.

4) Most of the time I'm "touring" with my Spats it is in the sidecountry (i.e., lift-accessed), and I'm throwing 'em on my back as I hike. The Spats don't feel heavy when they're on your feet (well, they're heavy, but the swing-weight is light for what we're talking about)...but on your back they feel like big, all-metal skis.

Hope this helps.

I think some of these issues would be mitigated with a lighter (Pontoon?) ski, but I'm not certain I'd ever want to do alot of touring (in mixed terrain) with any reverse camber ski.

[altasnob]

Thanks for your insight. I have Scarpa Denalis and have been told the vibram soles prevent them from releasing from normal alpine bindings. So looks like I'm stuck with AT bindings on whatever ridiculously fat skis I get.

[Huck_Schmuck]

Naxo make a 125mm break, that'll get you started.

Thought about putting some nx21s on some Prophet 130s but decided against it, pleased I did, traversing on them can be hard enough, never mind skining up the side of an knarly hill on your edges.

[marshalolson]

Thanks for your insight. I have Scarpa Denalis and have been told the vibram soles prevent them from releasing from normal alpine bindings. So looks like I'm stuck with AT bindings on whatever ridiculously fat skis I get.

i'd use salomon bindings, open the toe as wide and tall as possible, and set the toes din 2 clicks below what you usually. set the heel 1/2 click below what you usually do. they'll release if you really need them too...

not "DIN" but those what do those germans know about prescision anyways?

[upallnight]

Thanks for your insight. I have Scarpa Denalis and have been told the vibram soles prevent them from releasing from normal alpine bindings. So looks like I'm stuck with AT bindings on whatever ridiculously fat skis I get.

I've ridden my Denalis for a long time now... and I've ridden Fritschis on all of my skis. My skis rarely come off, but they have released on a couple of occasions when I absolutely needed them to. Never felt at risk or worried about them not releasing. I would probably reduce the DIN a couple clicks. For example, I generally ride them at 9, whereas on alpines I might be at 11 or 12.

I have a theory that AT boots are more flexible than full alpine boots, which means they absorb some of the load in the system. I think the net effect is that when the $hit hits the fan with an alpine setup, much of the force is transferred to the binding (alpine bindings can handle it; a Fritschi may not be able to). However, with AT boots, the boot absorbs some of the force, so the forces acting on the binding are lower.

Seems like most of the Fritschi incidents I hear about are from users with Alpine boots.

Just a theory.