Going off trail

Hello, I have to admit that I am extremely confused as to what type of ski
I would need to buy. The basic question is what type of ski I should buy
for wandering around the snow with my skis.

I had been introduced to skiing via the alpine downhill skiing route, with
the standard relatively wide fixed-binding, plastic boot, metal-edged
skis. I skied around 10 times before deciding that I really hated
spending 90% of my time on freezing lifts and the rest 10% on extremely
steep downhill tracks. I guess those are called 'Alpine' skis.

Then I discovered cross-country skiing (the standard olympic type) and
I've had a lot of fun with it, mostly with skate-type skis. I love the
movement, the soft boots, the light skis, but it seems pretty much
impossible to go downhill on anything more than the gentlest slopes. I
think those are called 'XC' and 'Skate' skis, or occasionally 'Nordic'
skis.

I've also tried ski touring once and I loved the concept - the skis
resembled more the traditional alpine skis, with almost exactly the same
boot, a fixed/release binding, wide edged skis and skins. I think those
are actually called "AT" skis, or "skis de rando" I think the Fischer AMC
skis are of this type. However I found going downhill with such skis
a bit uncomfortable as they are far too heavy.

Then I've seen a few other types which seem to be somewhere between XC and
AT skis.. i.e. Fischer seems to have the S-Bound series (i.e. Outbound
Crown which seems to be a waxless ski) and the Backcountry series (i.e.
Country Crown, which seems to be a waxless ski). It also seems that you
are supposed to be wearing those skis with relatively soft leather boots -
slightly harder than skating boots, but much softer than AT boots. The
equipment is also much much much cheaper.

So am I a bit confused. I'd like to have, apart from my skating skis, a
pair of skis that can be used relatively well in either a track or
off-piste. Tackling very steep downhills will not be necessary.
I guess I could go and rent a couple of different types of equipment this
season to see what is best for me, but other than that, do you have some
further advice so that I can narrow down choice?

Thanks,
Christos

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Christos Dimitrakakis
Homepage: http://www.idiap.ch/~dimitrak/main.html
Music: http://olethros.dmusic.com