Of boots and such...

[Woodserson]

Geez, you guyz did not get dumped on yesterday?

Yeah, big dump! A big dump of steaming horseshit!

[MikeK]

We got some pow...

like 1/4" of dust yesterday and a 1/4" last night. It melted as soon as I looked at it.

[bgregoire]

We got some pow...

like 1/4" of dust yesterday and a 1/4" last night. It melted as soon as I looked at it.

Man, twas more than a foot here. Good to go for the next few days.

[connyro]

For me, these things seemed to have come full circle. Start on light gear and struggle, be it MTB or tele, crave more action and start lusting after bigger and higher-performance (DH MTB or heavy tele) gear, gain experience/confidence at high-speed/high consequence. Once experience and confidence are gained, start thinking about how to make things more challenging so move on to (back to) rigid MTB/lite tele/XCD gear.

[MikeK]

Yeah it didn't take me long to go back to a rigid MTB. I recall back in the day, when I was in a lot better shape getting absolutely pounded on my rigid bike and lusting for suspension, lighter weight frames and more gears.

Took me less than a month of local riding to get rid of 30 gears, then to 20, then to 10. About another month to start riding rigid again, and on the right trails, absolutely LOVE it... on some, it's just brutal. I honestly have no interest in a FS bike. I wouldn't give up the hardtail though.

[Johnny]

1. Take anyone who has been skiing pins and leathers for years and put them on plastic boots and they will go crazy, jumping all around and carving like crazy.

2. Now take any Level III Telemark Instructor and put him on a pair of floppy leathers. He won't even be able to go down a flat green run. He will take his skis off and walk down on the side of the trail.

[lowangle al]

Johnny, my guess is that you learned on heavier gear before going xcd, but I may be wrong.

I agree with your #2 above that until you figure out what's going on below your knees your, skis are actually taking you for a ride and you are just trying to keep up.

[lilcliffy]

Well I don't know that either technology will "make one a better skier"…

(It seems that it is my fate in my life to eternally sound like a “broken record”- I know that it annoys my students and my children (and probably my wife who is too patient to tell me so!))

What kind of skier? What kind of skiing are we talking about?

I can assume that you mean “downhill” skier and “downhill skiing”?

Downhill skiing on XC tech ain’t the same thing as downhill skiing on rigid powerful downhill tech. It just isn’t.

With a rigid, powerful boot you can force a ski to do what you want it to- try that with XC “shoes”, and the ski will just not respond- simple physics!

The physical power of rigid plastic downhill boots allows a skier to take downhill skiing to the extremes of performance- that’s why world-class downhill racers aren’t using XCD tech and techniques!

But “downhill” tech ain’t desgined to xcountry ski. You ain’t gonna kick-and-glide-fly in plastic boots man.

Focusing on “XCD” in a classical sense (i.e. downhill skiing with XC tech) hasn’t made me a “better” skier- it has made me a different skier. And it has enabled me to take my XC equipment into the mountains. It has enabled me to kick-glide-fly on the flats, scoot up slopes, and then rip down slopes on the backside. Am I going to win a world cup race, or end up on the cover of a ski magazine? Fuck no.

Here’s the broken record again:
Downhill skiing on XC tech does not rely on the same technique as downhill skiing on “downhill” tech.

To me it’s like comparing “apples to oranges”.

[Harris]

I would actually say that with the old early 80's all-leather Asolo Extremes, and the later 80's half leather/upper plastic cuff Merril Supercomps I could turn the skis much quicker and with more precision (and with gobs more style) on groomed slopes and even in zipper-line moguls than I can in any plastic version, including my Scarpa TX Pro NTN. The biggest difference is stability when the slope is less than stellar (i.e. crud, Sierra cement, ice, etc); plastic rules as far as crappy conditions go. And then there is the muscle factor; leather requires a lot more ball of foot weighting and angulation to ski the skis well, which is also why when done well it is far prettier a turn. IMO. Frankly if they brought back a like-version of the Supercomp that could be cable bindinged I'd buy a pair just to tear it up on the great resort skiing days. They were a blast, and I can assure you I'd make 90% of tele markers on new gear on even the steepest and bumped slopes look ugly, but I'd be dying in the knees doing it. IMO.

[bgregoire]

They were a blast, and I can assure you I'd make 90% of tele markers on new gear on even the steepest and bumped slopes look ugly, but I'd be dying in the knees doing it.

Harris, welcome!

Please get yourself a pair of these and show us how it is done!

http://andrewshoes.com/prodotti/it/telemark/174/