Alpine Touring boots on XC skis

[fgd135]

There are no Telemark turns without flex at the BoF.

Got that right, this is just AT skiing without heel options, regardless of the XC racing skis.

[satanas]

I'll play devils advocate, do you not lose kick and glide ability by being in free tour mode full time? Or am I missing something? Switchbacks for example, I would only have those in free pivot mode with full skins in deep snow and likely with significant incline and standing on heel lifts, otherwise I'd be in ski mode to take advantage of leverage on the tips for "kick"

IME the exact oposite is the case. 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. Not only is there more glide, but the odds of getting blisters are greatly reduced too. And with AT boots there's vastly more ankle freedom, which also improves efficiency on the flat hugely; most tele boots suck in that respect, even when undone.

When descending steep stuff some tip pressure can help (especially doing parallels with a locked heel) but otherwise I see no advantage whatsoever, especially in deep snow.

The TN66 skis the OP is using are the renamed E99, so are in no way, shape or form XC racing skis. Using AT boots and toepieces gives a warm boot, good ankle freedom, plus excellent steering control; seems pretty sensible to me as long as there aren't too many big descents. If there were I'd be adding the heelpieces too, but the Skimo racing ones don't weigh much.

[tkarhu]

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.

[satanas]

If I'm doing any sort of serious turns (tele or parallel) on Switchbacks then the toepiece is locked down, but if I'm touring and can go straight (or snowplow a bit) I don't bother for short descents; it's a cost/benefit thing with mode changes.

While it's *possible* to do teles with a free toe (on AT gear too), there's little control or feedback, especially fore/aft. If you fall there's an excellent chance of tearing an AT toepiece out of the ski, breaking it, or injuring oneself. With Switchbacks and tele boots I suspect there might be even less control in free-pivot mode than with AT, but I'm not going to test it.