Lite lite lite setup

[Phil]

So you are going on an extended mixed sport trip : mountaineering, alpine ski touring, climbing, and sea kayaking. Constraints all gear must fit into a modified half seakayak trailer to be halled behind bike (partner has other half). Trip will be international in nature and extend over a long period of time. Mountain, land and water... can we get sky in there ?

So question I have : what ski setup would you bring along (boots, binders, skis, probe, shovel, probe, skins) ? Price is no concern right now, the best possible gear is the most important. I'd appreciate the discussion, any concerns, thoughts or advice would be awesome.

Thanks y'all !

[Hicks]

I just can tell you what I got for lighterweight:

K2 Shuksans with Freerides, Leki Lawisond poles (can be used as probes).

From what you described I'd go with a really light midfat (besides the one mentioned Movement Red Apples or Evo Ultra Lights, maybe Voelkl Snowwolf - it's a bit lighter but skinnier than the Shuksans ). If you want to save more on weight you could go with regular Diamirs instead of the Freerides but don't go less than that - the Silvretta Pure is way too flexing and crappy IMHO and the light Dynafit is only a contender if you are permanently wearing the appropriate boots.

Hope that helps.

[snorkeldeep]

if you want to go nuts (and i dont know anything about durability yet) - why not try the drakeboinay surreal or the R - theyre really light and probably stiffer than anything else you're going to find at that weight.

[KANUTTEN]

..on your emphasis on the uphill vs the downhill.

My best recommendation is to get a pair of the db surreals. They are made from carbon and are superlight for their size. Check out the website;
http://www.dbskis.com/page.php. These skis with a good pair of touring boots, and fritchi freerides would be a lightweight, yet very solid AT set up.

If your emphasis is more on the uphill (ie weight) some traditional touring skis with dynafits bindings and boots might be better.

[Telepath]

Aggreed, a pair of DB Surreals would be my first given your descriptions. I'd go for Freerides too, but if you're after shaving even more weight the superlight Dynafit (especially the older, less plastic version) are stronger and ski better than they look. However the Dynafit's require compatible boots (I think you know that) and AT boots might not be your thing.

For extended touring wanting to ski well too I'd be in my beloved Flexon Pro T's which are plenty light for me.

[Spamhelmet]

DB R+Dynafit+Garmont Megarides = Light n burly?

[Innominatus]

I'm thinking that the biggest way to save weight on a multisport trip is to eliminate a pair of footwear. One less pair of boots to haul around with you, especially ski boots, easily equals the weight of a pair of light skis.

Is there any way to use your mountain boots in some old Silvretta 404s or similar wire/welt AT bindings? If you're not touring or turning too much, and if skiing is secondary to overland travel, that sort of compromised approach would make the most of duplicitous functions. Couple that with some scaled-bottom, metal-edged touring skis like Fischer Outtabounds and you'd be able to leave the skins at home, too. At least, if the terrain stays fairly mellow, and as long as you wouldn't have to make any descents with a pack and sled...

I dunno, I'm just thinking out loud. But that would be a lighter setup than the Dynafit route, though the compromise is obviously downhill performance.

Where're you headed with all this stuff, anyway? Alaskan Panhandle? Cordillera Sarmiento?

[Will]

Having one pair of boots for both skiing and mountaineering is pretty important for cutting weight. But which is more important to you? Ski performance or climbing performance?

Plastic climbing boots in a wire-toe bale AT binder will ski poorly. No real way around that.
Burly AT boots won't handle technical climbing so well.

Something like the Dynafit MLT 4 which (I've only tried it on in the store) is slightly stiffer and higher cut than my plastic ice climbing boots. It'll ski less poorly than a climbing boot (ever tele in low-cut leather boots?) and climb ok. So it (or another Dynafit lightweight boot) might be a good compromise or it might just be too much of a jack-of-all-trades to really be good for anything specific.



ps - Since I can't get the DB website to load, how much does a surreal weigh? More or less than a R:EX or Trab AT ski?

[Phil]

Thanks for the info,

Inno, thanks for discussing out loud. I hadden't considered that option. One boot for everything would be essential. My main priority is skiing but it is gonna be a long tour. I wanna be able to ski in Alaska and Africa
Right now I'm on R:ex's with freerides and Structura Evo's.
I'm thinking of going Dynafit but that reduces my boot options. I'm thinking the TLT4 pro with tourlite tech on the litest 75-85mm waist ski.

My question is anyone ever climb with the TLT4 pro ( 6lbs per pair) ? The dude who skied everest used the lowas but then gotta go with heavier binder and I'm not sure if he carried them as his only pair.

Trip plan would be to leave Kamloops in 2006 and make it up to AK for the spring season. Somehow cross the straight into Russia ( either winter tour or summer paddle) . Follow the mountains down to Mongolia and northern China - play in the Stan's threw turkey across Gaza, to northern Africa. Basically a few years around the world playing on land sea and mountain all supported with one mobile equipment bay that can follow everywhere. Inspired by Goran Kropp, Jon Turk, Andrew McKlean and Børge Ousland. Some sweet missions accomplished by these men.

Can we be totally free of base camps, gear cashes, porters over a long period of time across a lot of the worlds different location with all their different carictaristics (climatic, geographic, and sociologic). Blend in with local culture, eat local food, follow reindeer hurders, climb and ski peaks, paddle rivers, bike deserts... Free with one bag to do all. A quest for balance.

Gotta figure out how to make this work and how to finance this. It also might change depending on partners and further discussion, for now it is a dream, a goal to work towards...Hey would make for good lunch room chat yeah ?

Thanks again

[joshbu]

One more plug for DBs: I went poking around other skis sites to find what was comperable to the R in terms of weight. Not much. The only thing lighter were Dynafit AT race skis which are more the bastard child of an alpine and cross country setup.

Of course, the R's probably have better performance than anything marketed for AT too.

[snorkeldeep]

i love my flexon pro Ts for touring as well!

im hoping to land a few extra shells once k2 gets em going so i can put vibram soles on a pair or two, and have an extra shell for alpine as well.

[Will]

....eat local food...

You will poop like a king. (A king with really bad diarrhea)

PS - That trip plan sounds amazing!

I say go with Dynafits, light weight and whatnot, but also it's probably easier to pack along a spare Dynafit toe and heel piece for a disaster repair. Carrying an entire spare Fritschi set-up would be bulkier and heavier.

And as for climbing with Dynafits boots, I think I've heard that Mark Twight is a fan of Dynafit boots for climbs that require ski approaches. He might have something on that in his book. I'll confirm that in my copy once I find the damn thing.