Steep and deep backcountry Nordic ski

[anemic]

Son of fisheater is a fine young man! Very well mannered. Truly impressive. Thanks for the comments on Mrs. Anemic's tele skiing! It made her day!

[fisheater]

Son of fisheater is a fine young man! Very well mannered. Truly impressive. Thanks for the comments on Mrs. Anemic's tele skiing! It made her day!

You just made mine, thank you.

[ddg]

Lilcliffy,

I have been out twice with my new Alico March boots on BC125s 165cm with Voile 3-pin cables. I've never connected the cables. I don't yet telemark but these boots work really well with the BC125s for XCd. Not great K&G (although that may be related to my lack of experience) but awesome for traversing for the backcountry woods. I like the March boots WAY better than my T4s, which I may very well end up selling. I was very pleased with how well the BC125s climbed in the warm weather last weekend (yellow glide wax on the ends and liquid on the scales). The boots have complete control over the skis during the small down runs too, at least for me. I never once felt that there was too much ski for too little boot. The boots are far from broken in yet.

If you are ever near southern NB (google postal code E5N 4V7) you are more than welcome to try out the skis. If I recall, I think you have the March boots?

Best,
Derrick

[lilcliffy]

Hey Derrick,

Great to hear from you! Wonderful to hear how pleased you are with the Alico Ski March. I am looking forward to them- mine haven't made it out of my office yet.

My two cents- don't give up on your T4s yet! Although in this day and age, "Telemark" skiers consider a boot like the T4 a "XC", or distance-oriented boot- the T4 is not a XC boot. That being said- I love the T4 when I am willing to sacrifice some XC performance in order to enjoy downhill power. A boot like the T4/Excursion might seem pointless to those that are on-piste or are downhill skiing in big mountain terrain- but, it is a perfect compromise for backcountry XCD skiers that either want to- or must- cover significant XC distance in order to capitalize on low-vertical steep terrain.

Thank you for the offer to try out your BC125! I appreciate it! I will be in touch.

All of my XCD skis are currently setup with NNNBC- otherwise, you would be welcome to try them out as well!

Gareth

[Swift]

This seems like a common conundrum, and one that I have experienced meself.

After hemming/hawing for a year I recently bought a pair of the Voile Objective BC and immediately laid in some mounting inserts. This allows me to cater my boot/binding choice to the intended target, made easier since I own the range of Voile binders. Kicking around the hills and woods I can use 3-pin (w/ or w/o cables/hardwires) and leather or Excursion; for more sporty terrain I can use the Switchback (ver. 1) and the Excursions or Synerg. Of course, switching too frequently can wear the inserts, but so far so good. BTW, the Objectives seem like a great ski so far: really light, floaty and basically turn themselves once initiated. Maybe not great for dicier snow conditions, though. During a recent foray on some steep frozen chunder I felt like rodeo rider - I might have stayed in the saddle for 8 seconds... total.

[teledance]

Schweitzer has the 7B skis available for demo, haven't tried them yet, but these look fun.

http://www.7bskis.com/goat-bc.html

[lowangle al]

Those 7B skis look pretty nice but it is a different world when an XCD ski is promoted as an AT ski. I just hope they stay on the steep and deep and out of my meadows.

[lilcliffy]

Bought a set of 162cm Koms.