Touring Kit

Was thinking about getting in to it, always plenty snow to skin up in Scotland, what do you guys use/recommend... don't fancy trekkers and have been put off Fritschi due to the play I have seen in the binding. Dynafit would make for an expensive set up requiring new boots, are Dukes really that much too heavy to take up the hill? What is the deal with skins, BD Ascentions the best? Was thinking about mounting the appropriate binding on my ARV's and retiring the PX15s which weight a bloody ton.


Any info would be cool...

Think I'll let ise answer this, with the exception of the so-called "play" in Fritschi Freeride bindings.

How did you "see" the play?

I own some Freeride+, and I can't seem to achieve any "play". To me, they seem just as good as alpine bindings, much lighter, of course.

A video posted elsewhere showing the different directional forces the binding is subjected too and compared to alpine bindings the lateral movement looked pretty noticeable which was pretty off putting for me. Also the stack height looks pretty ridiculously tall...

RossF wrote:Was thinking about getting in to it, always plenty snow to skin up in Scotland, what do you guys use/recommend... don't fancy trekkers and have been put off Fritschi due to the play I have seen in the binding. Dynafit would make for an expensive set up requiring new boots, are Dukes really that much too heavy to take up the hill? What is the deal with skins, BD Ascentions the best? Was thinking about mounting the appropriate binding on my ARV's and retiring the PX15s which weight a bloody ton.


Any info would be cool...

I've skied hundred of days on FR+'s and never noticed this play, I don't know anyone (personally that I trust) that has either, I ski with a bunch of people who mostly use FR's, FR+'s and Explores and between us we've probably 1000's of days and again none of them are aware of it. I just put it down to internet nonsense personally. The only corner case I can envisage that might be the source of these rumours is if you used a binding that was too big and had to have a really long bar, I'm at the top of the size so my bar is a few mm and it couldn't flex.

Dukes look really heavy to me, but it's also the the boot, people are using Dukes with alpine boots and that really adds up. I say that, they might be in bars in Chamonix but I've so far only seen one person with Dukes actually skiing.

I've got some BD Voodoo's with Dynafits on I was using today and some BD Kilowatts with FR+'s on and they're both just fine.

I can't weigh up some of the stuff said about FR+'s, when I read between the lines, particularly when they start going on about boot stiffness, I'm fairly certain the comments are coming from people who aren't leaving the piste much and are pretty much never climbing.

As for skins, I use some colltex sometimes but my own choice at the moment (and I was using them today) are G3 Alpinists as they're pretty light. BD ascensions would be fine if you can get a good price on them. The G3's are working fine in a range of temperatures, I had them re-glued last season as well.

I think I will keep my eyes open for some cheap deals kicking about...

Small Duke - 1354g per binding (from Spyderjon on sH's). I just don't think I can justify a Dynafit set up for the amount of use I would get although depending on what work I pick up into summer this may be different. A couple weeks fixing some cars could do it so we will see :lol:

Skins pretty easy to cut/use with twin tips? I think I would mount whatever binding I got on my ARVs which are apparently quite light...(not experienced this due to current bindings) what are your thoughts on the ARV
+ Freeride (or similar) as a start-out set up?

RossF wrote:I think I will keep my eyes open for some cheap deals kicking about...

Small Duke - 1354g per binding (from Spyderjon on sH's). I just don't think I can justify a Dynafit set up for the amount of use I would get although depending on what work I pick up into summer this may be different. A couple weeks fixing some cars could do it so we will see :lol:

Skins pretty easy to cut/use with twin tips? I think I would mount whatever binding I got on my ARVs which are apparently quite light...(not experienced this due to current bindings) what are your thoughts on the ARV
+ Freeride (or similar) as a start-out set up?

a lot of people go tailless for skins on twin tips which makes it easier, someone I ski with who's a guide reckons using tails on skins for twins is a real no-no and it pulls the skin off, I can't say I find that normally although the one time it did happen I was with her :oops: bad glue I thought

dynafit's are good, I've just moved them onto my Voodoos and it's really nice. Then you're into the whole boot thing though, I love my MegaRides but it's a choice about how stiff a boot you need. Again, I'm not much convinced by the trend for stiff boots, if anything I loosen mine skiing off piste and tighten up for on piste which makes me wonder where people who are demanding stiff boots are actually skiing.

You're probably young and fit enough to handle the weight of the Dukes :lol: I'm down under 4kg for my skis and bindings now which is great with 2.6kg on the boots, didn't weigh the socks though :lol:

Cheers for that, something for me to mull over when I should be studying. Have you seen G3's dynafit offering? Looks like a hell of a lot of plastic to me....

they've a microsite for it :

http://g3onyx.com/

I can't quite understand what it's bringing to the party really. It's not especially light, I think around 1400g. Look at it another way, a 1400g AT binding with DIN sole compatibly that would be big news.