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Ski Touring Basics

Written by Dan Morgan, Thursday, 03 February 2011

Ski touring - that is the ability to walk up a mountain away from the crowded resort runs before skiing down again - is on the up and up, and we predict it will gain significantly in popularity over the next 5 or 10 years.

Call it resurgence, like skiing had after the snowboarders moved in on our territory, or the maturing of a niche skiing discipline in favourable market conditions. Either way, more and more alpine skiers are venturing into the backcountry. Off piste powder is prized, and the typical skier ego means boasts of skiing a black, double diamond or bump run will no longer cut it. It’s all well and good racing to track out the lift accessible powder after a dump, but ski holidays rarely guarantee the opportunity for great conditions like that, nor does it always offer ability to escape the hordes and the Europop.

As a European based skier, and somebody who is lucky enough to live a 20 minute drive from the nearest 4 man chair, I take advantage of favourable skiing conditions whenever I can, but I soon tire of the limits, in all senses that resort skiing has to offer. I demand more challenging terrain, but good ski conditions. I want a workout in the fresh mountain air, with just a buddy or two for company, and to be able to enjoy some more remote areas of the mountain. And so I have become hooked on the idea of ski touring.

As an established alpine skier, the tools of the ski touring trade are not completely alien to me, but I found it tough to wade through all the new terms and work out how best to get going. Even when the haze cleared on the equipment available, the safety concerns of going truly off piste presented a new problem, so over the course of an article or two I hope to share what I’ve found in the hope it can help someone else.

Ski Touring Basics

You can hike up hill by taking your skis off, attaching them to a backpack, and putting one foot in front of another. That will only get you so far, and especially in regular boots, is a tiring exercise reserved for one offs. If you are trying to get up a hill with any reasonable depth of soft snow, it’s far from fun even if the rewards are great.

Ski touring - AT (alpine touring) or randonee in the relevant local vernacular involves skiing uphill using a walking movement, using skins attached to the base of the ski to prevent the ski from sliding downhill. To support the uphill motion, ski boots pivot at the toe with a free heel, but can be clamped down at the summit of a tour to facilitate the ski down.

Ski Touring Boots

I found the discussions around boots trickier to nail then the bindings. You can use a regular alpine boot with DIN standard toe and heel pieces in the “step-in” type bindings, but for easier ascents, any regular use will probably require AT specific boots which have features to make walking uphill and scrambling over rocks easier. As with everything else, AT boots are a compromise to the downhill performance (not as stiff) and alpine boots are the same to touring (too stiff for prolonged forward movement). There have been some recent attempts to bridge that gap, but more on that later.

If you go for AT specific boots, they are also more likely to be “Dynafit” compatible, which is the non-step in binding solution and represents the “other half”.
The final key benefit of an AT specific boot seems to be weight - they are much lighter than a regular alpine boot, as a generalisation of course. If it’s not obvious now, it will be by the end - weight seems to be one of the main factors for gear selection and when you consider the weight of the equipment you could be pulling uphill for long periods you can see why.

Ski Touring Bindings

Bindings can be easily classified as “step-in” and “Dynafit” types.

Dynafit is a brand and produce a range of very light touring bindings. There are other brands who play in this space for but as a beginner, it’s fine to just concentrate on Dynafit as a brand.

Dynafit attach to the ski in a different way than a standard DIN setup. The toe piece is not connected to the heel piece at all, with clear ski between them, which is typically not the case for step-ins, and the boots fasten to the toe piece using a couple of pins on either side of the boot toe and allows the boot to pivot, rather than locating in a step-in like you would get with a standard alpine binding. Therefore you’ll need Dynafit compatible boots, which have the inserts required to work with these bindings.


Dynafit Binding

Step-in bindings look a lot more like the alpine bindings you are used to. You push the toe of the boot into the toe piece like you’d expect with a regular alpine binding, and click in at the back like you’d expect. These bindings however typically pivot at the front, with the entire heel piece moving upwards and forwards and being free.

The toe and heel piece are connected along the ski using what resembles a normal plate, and the whole mechanism pivots at the front. This means switching between uphill and downhill mode is simply a case of stop the heel moving up which can be done easily. So most alpine boots will fit these AT ski bindings along with most AT boots. Fritschi and Marker make plenty of popular products in this space. For me, the obvious choice is a Fritschi Diamir Freeride, which is still light, but beefed up to tackle the resort skiing, while the Marker Duke is a 300lb gorilla by touring standards but won’t budge on the piste.


Marker “step-in” Duke Bindings

When choosing a system, it seems to me that if you spend any reasonable amount of time skiing lift served, then the step-in solution would be ideal and a lot more similar to what you are used to. If you go step-in then you need to make a choice between weight and downhill performance.

The lighter end of the market for brands like Fritschi keep the weight down but with less weight comes a less robust binding for downhill skiing. You can get a binding from Fritschi or Marker that are as strong as some alpine bindings but they’ll be heavier and bulkier. Still for the occasional you’ll want to go with beefier bindings (and stiffer boots).

The Skis

Just with the boots and bindings, AT skis can be super light and specialised for ski touring from a brand like Voile or Black Diamond, or a regular alpine ski like Movement. You get much more freedom in your ski choice, but bear in mind you’ll be mounting them up with the AT bindings so won’t be able to easily switch to a proper alpine setup. For the occasional or short trek tourer, sticking to an alpine ski is probably a good bet.

Finally?

Hopefully it is clear that choosing touring gear, especially as someone who won’t exclusively tour, is an issue of compromise and balance. How often will you skin, how far will you go? How hard will drive your skis on the way down, and is the fun of the descent as much of if not more than the fun of touring in the first place.

I haven’t really touched on the safety angle as much as I could have, but it is a real concern and it requires more consideration than the gear itself. Not only are you away from the safety of ski patrol and lots of people should something go wrong, but the terrain is likely to be more rugged and demanding, and the risk of avalanches and crevasses can be fatal if ignored or taken for granted. Experienced tourers and professional guides die each and every year in the mountains, so even with experience or a pro alongside you, you are at a much higher risk as soon as you wander over the boundaries.

I highly recommend you visit and participate in PisteHors which is a great resource for back country skiing in Europe and mountain safety. WildSnow is another terrific gear site.

Reader Comments on Ski Touring Basics
Ski Touring Basics
Written by Skibee on 01/12

Your introduction defines me to a tee and despite skiing for ages the whole touring thing seems (or seemed) quite complex. Thank you!

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