Light(er) weight tele

[mattaboy]

So I climbed (part of) the Mount Washington auto road earlier this year with some friends. While it was fun, I'm certain I was the slowest person of the 100 or so folks at the event, except maybe a 12 year old and his mom. There I was with my Targas and Crispi XP boots, shuffling along, listening to people with AT gear saying "on your left" the whole time.

Now I'm not an expert at uphill travel, but I don't like being the slowest one in the group. Since then I've been working out, and strengthening my body to reduce the shame quotient when going uphill. Even so, I really can't go faster than anyone with a free pivot. I've demo'd NTN gear, and I could keep up with the modern stuff, but with the 75mm gear I own it's a bit of a challenge. I've already ordered a Targa Ascent in the mail, but I'm not sure if the free pivot solves the whole problem here.

Current setup:
Atomic RT80 166 w/ G3 Targa
The Targa will be swapped for the Ascent version when it arrives in the mail
Crispi XP boots

So Telemark Talk: what would you do?
Is a free pivot binding enough?
Would you start touring in T4's?
Are there any lighter, but supportive boots that could make this xcD venture easier in the forests of New England?

Note: I picked up Tele this year, so I'm not very good yet. I'm spending every day I can on lift hills to get my tele turn down before I hit the backcountry again. Even so, I'd like to find the best way to melt my friends' faces when we're touring next time.

[stilltryin]

I think your Crispi is a 4-buckle boot. A T4 (2-buckle) will go up well, but it may not have the support for you to go down the same lines as the friends whose faces you want to melt. Always good to have gear that matches reasonably well with your friends. The T2 3-buckle might be a good choice.

[Spiny Norman]

Man must suffer for his art.

[spopepro]

There’s a lot going on here. First is the kind of skin track AT folks set, which is often unnecessarily steep. That’s where I think a free pivot binding will help, especially with duckbills. There’s only so far you can go until you’re fighting the resistance of the system with every step.

Second is that no plastic tele boot currently on the market has a good “walk mode”. There’s no way around this except going with leathers or tele-tech.

Straight up and down steep stuff isn’t really where tele gear shines. If you want to keep up with the AT folks in Lycra you’re going to need to be much stronger than them, even with light tele setups. Where tele shines is on rolling terrain and transitions. I’ll leave AT folks in the dust in those spots.

I wouldn’t change out gear, especially if you’re newish. First get stronger, and then you can decide if you want different tele gear, or if tele might not meet all your desires.

[lowangle al]

The free pivot should be a big help and a T4 will help even more with keeping upon the uphill. I think the T4 is a good boot to learn on and being that you are just learning you're not going to keep up with AT skiers regardless of what boot you are on. The T4 might not be enough boot for the resort (it is for me) but you can use the Crispis for that.

[bornaginalpiner]

The most important thing about climbing is physical fitness regardless of the equipment. Sure you'll be able to climb a little bit faster with the Ascent, but that won't catch youup with physically fit AT skiers.

I think the best Telemark binding is the Meidjo 3.0. it's light, free pivoting and an excellent downhill binding that is the closest thing to 75 mm on the market. The catch is is that you need a a boot that fits the binding. This is a very expensive setup at about $1,400.

The free pivot Ascent should be just fine combined with physical fitness. Best wishes.

Personally I don't care about people climbing faster than me. My focus is on the feeling of enjoying the beauty of nature. I climb at the local resort where I am definitely the slowest one out there almost every time. But I'm out there on my Targas, Ultravector s and T4s because it's such a great feeling on the down. No NTN binding can match the feeling of connectedness with your ski and I have an NTN setup with free pivot on Waybacks. The NTN setup is significantly lighter than my 75 mm setup so I could absolutely climb faster with my NTN setup. I ski the Targas for the experience it gives me instead of the speed.

It's all a matter of personal preference and there's nothing wrong with wanting to go faster. I guess it might be different if I didn't climb solo and was with others.

[Stephen]

@bornaginalpiner, sent you a PM…

[telerat]

A free pivot helps greatly I think. If the skin track is steep I find that the worse walk mode isn't as important as with a more low angle one where long strides are faster.

Regarding binding; I have used Voile Switchback and still has skis with them, but have since switched to NTN and Meidjo. Even though Meidjo skis better and is lighter, I could still ski 75mm boot with Switchback and be happy.

The Targa Ascent is a bit more dubious though.. A friend had those and was constantly plagued with icing and finally sold them, bought Switchback and was happy afterward. If you still will try the Ascent, check up on icing and prevention. I think the G3 Ascent looks nicer than Switchback, but function trumps looks. Sorry for the bad news.

Regarding boots; if you prefer Crispi they also had CX4/CXA and has the X-P model which are lower, softer and slightly lighter than your boot. That might be an alternative, but if buying both boots and binding new I'd look at NTN too.