Reverse camber skis for touring

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Originally Posted by FREESKIER_FIVE-0

upallnight-

Oh, and what, may i ask, is your preferable AT setup/setups?

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depends on the job.

a 179 fat ski (Bro or Seth Vicious) w/ Dynafits for moderate tours involving skinning or skiing something steep & narrow (say, something in GTNP).

a 190 gotama w/ Fritschis for pow closer to home/more bootpacks (eg Teton Pass). might take the lotus 120s for deeper days on similar tours...will have to see how they do.

the fat boards (>120mm waist) are pretty much sidecountry sticks where i'm either traversing or bootpacking it.

super-long tours would be a lightweight ski (eg DYnafit 712) w/ Dynafit bindings.

carrying a bigger pair of skis is not that noticeable on my back for the short stuff, but it is *very* noticeable when skinning. the difference in weight & motion with dynafit bindings is dramatic, too.

it helps that i ride on AT setups 100% of the time, including inbounds and firmer days.

Thanks upallnight. That is a pretty serious and great quiver. I think your my hero.

(I am eventually working my way to a bc quiver like that.)

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Originally Posted by upallnight

couloirman...sounds like you've been riding the 138s, yeah?

i'm going to put Fritschis on my 138s and Dynafits on my 120s (current plan). not sure that full-on alpine bindings are required for tearing shit up (esp for a powder ski)...except for maybe some race/ice skis.

the extra weight just means more time on the tour, true....but it also means fewer laps...or going further so you've got more untracked or a longer ride down. or getting back to some beer & the hot tub/hot spring faster.

what doesn't kill you...

...tearing shit up on AT bindings since '96...

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I guess its all just personal preference, but i plan on using these monsters for straightlining purposes, and hucking big with a large landing platform. Since this is the biggest ski i will own it is being designated as my charging hard pow ski, and i cant see myself putting anything less than a rock solid alpine binder on it. THat being said, i see your point about them not needing it for just regular pow skiing and the 120's being the more versatile pair, but i guess to each his own.

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Originally Posted by couloirman

I guess its all just personal preference, but i plan on using these monsters for straightlining purposes, and hucking big with a large landing platform. Since this is the biggest ski i will own it is being designated as my charging hard pow ski, and i cant see myself putting anything less than a rock solid alpine binder on it. THat being said, i see your point about them not needing it for just regular pow skiing and the 120's being the more versatile pair, but i guess to each his own.

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point taken. i don't think that one has to do just light pow skiing with alpine bindings, though...i will ski hard or go big on that 138 AT setup without hesitation (although with 120/Dynafit setup the only thing I won't do is take much air).

in any event, the skis hold lots of promise regardless of the binding.

So I'm thinking about EHP 193s or, more likely Hellbents and throwing some dukes on them. I'm not overly concerned about weight, since I have no intention of doing redunkulously long tours. I'm interested in doing slackcountry, and am getting the impression that since the hellbents have a traditional shape, they will be pretty manageable on the skin trail? Any additional info would be great... Thanks!

After a lot of debate and help from threads around here, I went with P18's and trekkers on my 138's. I'm quite happy with that until the Dukes get a track record. I've got two 5k nights after work last week and would say that touring on the 138's is not that bad as some might think, but I wouldn't do a 7 day tour on them. For starters the 138's have 165cm of running surface which is flat or has a ever so slight standard camber. So you actually have a good skinning surface even without the tip and tail touching. I would guess this would not be the case with a Spatula, as others around here have mentioned. The 138's also break trail like a dream with their softer tips and are not heavy considering the size.

I ended up not putting NX21's on mine and I'm glad I didn't. Regardless of how big you are or aggressive you ski, I really can not see that many pivots holding up or not developing a lot of slop with the torque that a 130mm + under foot ski will place on a binding. This goes for both skiing and when skinning across a slope. In my situation for after work touring, I don't have a lot of side slope, but that will really take its tole on any touring mechanism with this wide of a ski regardless. In soft snow its not big deal, but as its been said on other posts, the 138's are surprising in the versatility. So I'm taking them out on lots of days without the deepest snow and you often have to ski on some hard stuff to get to the soft stuff. They really don't do that bad, but you can really feel in your boots how much torque a ski that wide under foot places on your binding. I don't think a mainly plastic binding with that many pivots is going to go the distance.

bumping a great thread with good info.

something I learned and had not thought about was the difference between Lotus 138 with its short straight (normal) sidecut under the foot versus spats and Praxis which are more continuous curves and might be tough when sidehilling.

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Originally Posted by Core Shot

bumping a great thread with good info.

something I learned and had not thought about was the difference between Lotus 138 with its short straight (normal) sidecut under the foot versus spats and Praxis which are more continuous curves and might be tough when sidehilling.

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I have thought about this a lot especially with all the talk about Duke and Praxis setup. For me I am sticking with traditional shape skis for touring.

So what is the consensus? Would the praxis work with a Naxo or Duke? Is there enough skin surface area in contact with the snow to make it work?

Seems like it must if guys are touring in spats...anybody had a pair mounted with AT bindings?

What do they tour like?

bump the fuck up, discoduck

you've all been focusing on rev-camber rev-sidecut skis so far. whats the idea like for rockered regular sidecut skis (ep pro, hellbent, melee, dp 120)?

in theory they would collect as much snow (probably a little more) as a fattie, would not be bad on traverses/sidehilling....

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Originally Posted by Core Shot

bump the fuck up, discoduck

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This is one of the threads I mentioned I'd found via search and read, though. In fact, it's the "Don't mount Dukes on Praxis bc they suck for x/y/z" thread I mentioned reading. And like I said, I was wanting to clarify the difference in opinion between the "don't do it" and "do it" arguments. Seems reasonable to me, anyway.

After I spent a fair amount of time on the ARG's skiing in bounds, I went touring on my traditional ski, and I would be bummed that I wasn't on the ARG's. I needed a new pair of skins anyways, so i decided to cut them to the ARG's and head on with trekkers to see how the skinning would go. Even on trekkers I really didn't think it was that bad. The ARG's are not really any heavier than any other ski I would be on, and having the extra surface area right underfoot makes skinning up steep stuff pretty sweet, breaking trail is awesome and super easy. this year I'm mounting dukes on the ARG's and making them my full time touring ski. I think maybe on some super steep, side hill, icy skin tracks it might be rough, but it's definitely worth any extra struggle to ski fresh snow on the ARG's.

Wonder how bad 'Toons would be...

I have 'Toons" as a touring setup and like TYWHY on his ARG's they are great for breaking trail and skinning straight up steeper stuff cos of the girth underfoot. Not great for sidehilling on a thin track though where only the edge of the ski is on the surface.

I save em for slackcountry later in the season when my legs are in better shape and when the new snow is deeeeeeeeep!

I also carry Verts snowshoes for back up when things get sketchy on the toons

Would you say the ARG shape would be better than a p'toon

My big plan was to use these as my deep day tool for BigJay. Sidecut= good for long runout. I had planned on skinning from the resort but with the fallout from the Jailhouse chute, I may go back to my seth setup and mount a pair of naxo's to replace my FR on them. Got em cheap last week on SAC!

too bad i wont get on them till Feb.

Did that make any sense?

Anyone have much experience touring with the Praxis boards yet? I have my 188 bros/Naxos for touring/slack. I cant decide between my 916's or buying some Dukes for these monsters.

On one hand I could just throw my alpine wreckers on the 916's for the occasional skin jaunt, but Dukes would be soo much easier. Which comes down to the question, am I even going to want to tour short distances on the Praxis? Does the decrease in weight to the Spatula make any difference in skinning ability?

Toured with chris knight/yossarian the other day. he was on praxis mounted with dukes. seemed to do just fine on the (short) skin up, and absolutely killed it on the down.


endless, did you put dynafits on your 120s yet. Just got mine and was planning to do the same.

Bumping this old thread.

Anyone else share to care their experiences skinning on reverse camber skis? Surely not an issue if you're breaking trail. But how about slicker skin tracks that have already been set?

I'm thinking of picking up some Hojis this winter and I'd likely mount some dukes I have laying around, although skinning with a fully rockered ski like the Hoji (even if the rocker profile is subtle) seems like it might be very difficult given the small underfoot contact point.

Also, any thoughts/experiences with the fact that dukes move backwards on the track to tour? Does this reduce that contact point even further, making it even more difficult?

I have no idea if this is relevant, but I like skinning on my Lhasa Pow carbons. Not quite reverse camber - just solidly rockered - but they seem like an ideal compromise: plenty light, enough camber to be able to turn on ice/packed snow if necessary, but enough rocker and size to float for the fun times.

I plan on using my Rens as a touring setup w/ swap plates for the hill.

Pretty sure that it has been widely established on this forum that touring with a reversed cambered skiing is damn near impossible without a jet pack.

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Originally Posted by EEC

Pretty sure that it has been widely established on this forum that touring with a reversed cambered skiing is damn near impossible without a jet pack.

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Alright then, I'll be picking one of these as well