Terje Mathisen wrote:


I agree that there's no room at all for three incompatible setups, but
I'd skip the alpine touring/randonne gear instead of the telemark skis,
simply because it is at least halfway possible to ski flat areas on the
telemark skis....


Terje


Terje has a good point about sking the flat areas.

Last winter I skied out from Assiniboine Lodge (Canada) with a small
group with a mix of equipment ranging from AT to traditional
backcountry skis (65mm steel edges) with 3-pin cable and NNN-BC type
binding/boot combinations and inb-between gear.

The ski out from Assiniboine included one or two KM of steep, narrow
switchback type trails and we were carrying packs. The AT gear was the
right gear for the steep descent with quick short-radius turns and the
rest of us went into survival mode.

But two thirds of the 28 or 29 KM ski out were flat to rolling then
several KMs of climbing at the end of the day. The ligher gear that
could glide was the right gear for rolling terrain and the climb. The
AT gear was slow and heavy. The AT gear was also harder to wax (single
camber). The climbs were not steep enough to require skins.

I had my Fisher Outtabounds (88-68-78mm w/ steel edges) with Garmont
Excursion plastic touring boots which was a compromise between
AT/Telemark gear and the mountain touring gear. The Outtabounds were
"in-between" gear doing neither the steep descents well nor the flats
with ease. But they also were easier to handle on the steep
swithcbacks than the NNN-BC skis and faster on the flats and climbs
than the AT gear.

So the right answer is that their is no right answer to the question
about what is the best kind of gear for off-trail skiing unless
Christos (orignal post) can better define the terrain to be skiied.
That said the best answer to Christos may be to pick gear that is
similar to the gear used by the rest of the skiers in your group.

Edgar