Why not even a short Mountain Race 48? Or a similar Fischer ski.

For touring in icy rolling terrain, may steel edges be most crucial, and the ease of edging. For that reason, could narrower be better there?

Does FTX = Falketind Xplore? (I've not seen this before.) I'm semi-interested in something to pair with Xplore bindings and boots, but would need to deal with firm to icy conditions frequently - no powder - so going too wide is a nono. My guess is that the Falketind should be narrow enough to edge,...

satanas wrote: ↑

Sat Apr 05, 2025 9:30 am

With Switchbacks I only use downhill mode for serious descents, otherwise it's free pivot mode, with a bit of rearward weight shift on downhills to prevent going over the tips.

Do you think it’s possible to ski tele turns in the free pivot mode of Switchbacks? Or do you always ski parallels.

Nice video! The points of using plastic boots on multi-day tours seem valid. Especially the ease of drying inner shoes, but also a wide range of boots feels liberating for finding a good fit. Old-school Finnish way is hiking and ski touring with rubber boots, e.g. Nokia Naali. Winter models have rem...

Depends quite a lot on terrain and snow… I refrained from exploring a fresh snowmobile track though a ravine last week because there were steep falls where you would have had to side step, if deciding to turn back. The ravine had 50+ cm powder besides the track, where tails and tips of my XC skis go...

Yesterday I was skiing an even lighter setup, old Atomic race beta XC skis and SNS Pilot sneakers. At the end of a long day trip, I skied down a 1 km toboccan piste of 5 and 15 degrees varying steepness for fun. I could link parallel turns most of the way, but telemark turns were out of question. At...

Here is a video clip from last Saturday. I was skiing FTX’s and Alfa Guards. That is the middle one of three runs at the spot (image below). IMG_2408.jpeg In the first run, it was cool to move from XC to downhill skiing without a transition. The last run was coolest. It was longest and had best snow...

A few core principles: -The whole thing is based on rotation of the hip flexor. Your big toe could be thought of as a pivot point. If you are sweeping out the heels or buckling your knees, you're not rotating properly. -Pressuring the balls of the feet and toes puts pressure on the tips of the skis...

Sondre Norheim introduced the Telemark turn to Norwegian wider public in 1868 , when he participated the very first national skiing competition in Oslo (then called Christiania). Btw. his journey there included some XC, too, because he and two other competitors skied to Oslo from their home village...

the T turn goes back to the mid 1800s. I doubt that there was any special jumping gear, people just had skis. Sondre Nordheim not only developed the technique to turn skis, he also was supposedly the first to make skis with sidecut. I also think that he was the first to promote the idea of making t...