Yesterday in Part One I explained the booming popularity of Alpine Touring gear, on which you ski downhill just like you already love to do, but also ascend under your own power, combining a great fitness workout with all the thrills of skiing (If you haven’t read that yet, you should or the following might not make sense). Today I take a quick look at the gear itself and how to best get started with quality equipment.
Because I’ve been writing about skiing for more than twenty years, I’ve gotten to know a lot of knowledgeable people in the field, including manufacturers, instructors, guides and editors. I wanted to test a top shelf AT setup this winter, both within ski resorts - where most of this “backcountry” gear will actually be used thanks to the fitness appeal of AT gear - and in the wilderness. After doing my own research on what would be the best setup to buy, I came up with the following, though in the interest of full disclosure I didn’t buy it, I borrowed it from the various manufacturers, which is standard in the world of gear testing. Also in the interest of honesty, I plan to buy it at the end of the season, because I’ve been enjoying it so much: SCARPA Freedom SL boots; G3 Synapse ski with G3 Ion bindings and G3 skins (Genuine Guide Gear). I’ll explain a little more about each below, along with some general shopping tips.
Yesterday we met backcountry skiing expert extraordinaire Zahan Billimoria, a full-time guide for renowned Wyoming based Exum Mountain Guides, the country’s oldest alpine service. I’ve known Zahan for years, and when he’s not guiding clients, he’s skiing on his own, training, racing on AT gear, or working with top athletes on extreme films from Teton Gravity Research - he guided free-riding snowboard legend Jeremy Jones up the Grand Teton for the movie Higher. Zahan was also a member of the 2007 U.S. National Ski Mountaineering Team and competed in the 2008 World Championships in Switzerland. I asked him to share his advice for buying Alpine Touring gear with my readers for the simple reason that I don’t know anyone who knows more about it.
“The challenge with AT gear (unlike downhill) is it has to meet two opposing criteria: lightweight and flexible for the way up, burly and stiff for the way down. AT gear developed and evolved enormously in the last eight years with these two trends: lighter and stiffer. In other words, the AT gear of today feels more like a sneaker on your way up, and more like a traditional alpine rig on the way down. That combination has made the sport infinitely more attractive and accessible to downhill skiers. Ultimately backcountry skiing is like taking the leash off: you make your own track, up your own mountain, under your own power, on your own schedule. The concept that skiing can truly be adventure is a very magnetic idea that people are latching onto.”
Nowhere is the change he describes as evident as in boots, which weigh half what they did a decade ago, while performing and enduring much better. While ski movies have long relied on helicopters to reach pristine powder, pro skier Chris Davenport, like snowboarder Jones, is another extreme film star who has been at the forefront of promoting human-powered uphill for the full mountain experience. Davenport helped SCARPA develop its top of the line Freedom SL boot ($769), designed for people used to the feel of an alpine boot, but very light with an amazing range of motion in uphill touring mode, the best of all worlds. So far I haven’t encountered any terrain I wouldn’t ski in it, and the boot gets perfect 5-star scores from major sites like REI.com. Finally - and importantly - it is part of the new breed of convertible boot, where I can unscrew and swap out the sole plate and use it in my regular alpine bindings, making it two high performance boots in one. Unlike skis, for the most part AT boots remain the province of companies specializing in the sport (though Tecnica has gotten more into AT), and in addition to SCARPA, an Italian company that has been making mountaineering and backcountry gear for almost 80 years, top brands include Black Diamond, Sportiva and Dynafit, long geared at serious backcountry enthusiasts, which is what Zahan uses.
Boots are most important for comfort and ultimately enjoyment, in terms of fit, but bindings are the more confusing decision, given that unlike alpine skiing, there are basically two industry standards to choose from, tech and frame. Frame binding are based more on traditional alpine designs, which means they are considerably beefier but much heavier, with many made by traditional alpine companies like Marker and Atomic. These are a good choice for more extreme backcountry skiers jumping off cliffs, or resort skiers who repeatedly do one shorter local ascent, but the extra weight and wasted uphill energy has little benefit to the typical recreational skier I addressed in Part 1. For most of us, tech bindings are the easy choice, much lighter and designed with climbing in mind. As Zahan explains, “Tech style bindings are the only serious option for human powered skiers, as they offer vastly improved ergonomics for hours of walking, as well as less than half the weight of frame style bindings. Dynafit first developed the tech binding some 30 years ago, and still leads the industry in terms of a simple and highly reliable lightweight binding. However, new developments in frame bindings from Atomic and Salomon are offering a good all-around option for skiers who are 90% resort based, but occasionally venture out of the gates in search of side country exploration.”
Not to sound flippant, but after picking a style, which for the purposes described earlier, fitness and resort/non-extreme skiing, would be tech, the particular binding choice is probably the least important part of the equation. The same is true in alpine gear, and while most avid skiers could reflexively tell you the model of ski they own, many would not be able to recall the model or even brand of their binding. Like tires that come on a new BMW or Mercedes, quality products but chosen for you with the bigger purchase, many times the choice is made by default, going with the same company that makes the skis or boots you are buying. This was one of two reasons I chose the G3 Ion, because for a single manufacturer their skis and bindings both stood out, and it made sense to me to simplify. Secondly, and this is also part of reason one, Outside Magazine’s 2015 Year in Gear review picked the G3 Ion as the best tech binding, giving it a perfect 5 out of 5 for tourability (uphill) and 4 for power (downhill), calling it “The most user-friendly tech binding to date,” while weighing just 2.6 pounds. Since this is the first AT setup I’ve had (I’ve always rented) and I knew I would be adjusting the bindings myself, user-friendly was important. The bindings also have some novel features which impressed me and Outside, like a heel-piece that can be rotated in both directions when climbing, one of those “why didn't anyone think of that?” simple but helpful advances. A built-in “guidance” system on the toe piece makes it simple to line up the pins that lock into the boot, not always easy, and it has best in class ski brakes that help prevent ski loss, even in touring mode. Backcountry Magazine also chose the Ion as one of just two tech bindings to make its 2015 Editor’s Choice, calling it “A contender for top tech honors - and definitely the best-looking binding available.” So I went Ion ($500), though there are plenty of other good bindings out there, and you should talk to a knowledgeable shop person, considering the entire package of skis, boots and bindings while deciding. In 2014, Backcountry chose the top of the line Dynafit Beast as best tech binding, and Zahan pairs Dynafit bindings with his boots from the same manufacturer, but at a cool grand just for the bindings, they are nearly twice the price of the Ion.
“Skis might actually be the most important piece of equipment to save weight with, as they are the furthest from your body,” said Zahan. It is similar to a road bicycle, where the weight in the wheels is more important than the weight on the frame for overall performance. “The additional weight is most cumbersome when it is moving, stepping and sliding over one meter away from your boots. Good options abound for skis from almost every major manufacturer, and I personally ski on Kastle, that has the heritage of making hyper high performance on-mountain skis, but has evolved that tech into a lighter weight backcountry line called the TX. Wide is good here as you plan on skiing soft snow. I choose shorter and wider over longer and skinnier.” Shorter and wider has generally been the direction the entire alpine ski industry has taken for the past decade.
Skis are the most crowded segment, with many more manufacturers than make AT boots or bindings, including almost every longtime alpine manufacturer like Kastle, K2, Atomic, Blizzard, Dynastar, Volkl and Salomon. The top manufacturers that have historically specialized in AT specific skis are G3 and Black Diamond, both of which made the best gear lists from both Outside and Backcountry Magazines again this year. G3’s all carbon line was repeatedly noted for being the lightest ski for the dollar available, and when paired with the Ion binding represents a nexus of very high quality and a lot of bang for the buck. The Synapse ($870) I went with is an extra-light carbon touring ski in the shape of a conventional fatter powder ski, well suited for both climbing and resort skiing. G3 also makes make slightly heavier models for more aggressive off piste terrain.
Though the cheapest piece of AT gear, the skins are in a way the most essential, what actually allow you to travel uphill. Some companies that make both skis and skins have models specifically designed to fit their skis, which is easiest. You can put after-market skins on almost any ski, but this usually involves cutting them to fit, a much more tedious chore than it sounds, especially when you are doing it for the first time. Major skin companies are G3, Black Diamond, Atomic and Dynafit. I went G3 because they pair easily with the skis.
Regardless what brands you choose, a higher quality AT setup is going to cost about the same as a higher-quality alpine setup, in the neighborhood of $2,000 plus or minus a couple of hundred for better boots, bindings and skis, though like most ski gear, a lot of this ends up discounted, sometimes steeply, especially off season or between model years. Even if never intend to explore true out of bounds backcountry, what you are buying is an entirely new way to approach a sport you already love, alpine skiing, with the added benefit of a great winter workout a lot more fun than running on a treadmill or taking classes at the gym. There is a lot of satisfaction in skiing down something you climbed without a lift, and like traditional cross-country skiing, it is an excellent cardio workout that is also low impact. But one of the best justifications for the new gear is that it is so good it can double as your regular alpine setup, so if you are ready for equipment anyway, you can get a whole lot of bang for the buck.
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