Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Having seen some interesting mods on this site, I was inspired to hack my old Garmont Squadras to make them a bit more tour friendly.
Removed two buckles and straps, plus lean lock, one buckle cut down to take webbing strap. Removable webbing tie replaces 2nd to top strap.
In all just short of 300g removed.
Yet to try out, expect some loss of stiffness, but may even approach being comfortable.
If it is a disaster, a good excuse to make the leap to a tech binding system! (Am I hoping for failure!!)

Nice work! They'll be even more comfy if you cut the top half of that cuff/tongue down. The power strap doesn't do you as much good if you removed the lean lock. Do that, and you can swap out to shorter, lighter liners, like Intuition Denalis. If the webbing strap in place of the lower buckles ends up not being secure enough, you can buy new buckles for a variety of boots online.

Yeah , like where your heads at! go for it. Interested to hear how they've been skiing. Probably make you stand on your skis more which is a good thing. Ride em!

I too have been getting fired up about hacking a pair of boots. I ski both nnnbc gear and dynafit and am looking to find a sweet spot somewhere in the middle. I've got an old pair of dynafit TLT Mountain Lites, which are a cross between a dynafit tlt boot and a koflach Arctic plastic climbing boot. Came with a (gasp) Goretex liner with traction nobbys on the bottom for use in camp! They are lace up and have a removable spoiler/power strap that slides onto the upper cuff of the boot- very simple and easy to deal with, but more importantly- it improves the ski ability of the boots. (Remember the days of "telecuffs" ?)They ski like ski boots, not climbing boots. They climb snow and ice well enough. Never used the stock liners went intuition instead and they've work well. They were very lite for the day (2001?). I skied on some Stockli Stormrider touring xl lites or something like that)

Anyway I don't ski em much anymore and have been scheming about removing some materiAl from the toe and getting some flex. They were always too narrow anyway dang it!'


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Here is a photo of the potential victims. First without the power strap;
Then with;

Not too up on the tech stuff so apologies there- one thumb covers half the keypad!

The old plastic is different than what is used now, heavier stiffer, perhaps not as flexy. Not much to lose though so I'll post back when the deed has been done...

Then to add an elastomer bumper to some tech toe pieces and make custom three position toe lever! XC-Climb-Shred!

This is all very cool hacking, I love it.

hacked Squadras had there first outings this weekend.
Overall excellent & a big improvement (boo-hoo: not new boots for me!)
About 1200m climbing over two days, almost comfortable. Mainly need better socks.
A bit loose over the foot, the webbing needs tightening, which I expected. (They are a bit of a wide fit to start)