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#1
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Saas Fee mini-report
Skiied the weekend at Saas Fee and thought I'd report back on
conditions. Clear skies were the order of the day (and nights) throughout, with temperatures well below freezing at resort level (1800m) overnight. Quite cold throughout the day too. On the slopes the snow was holding up very well indeed, despite no new snpw for nearly two weeks. Glacier runs were well groomed and as nice as you could ask for, particularly yesterday morning when they'd obviously been working hard overnight; quite hard packed but with enough grip to make it a carving paradise. The Northerly aspect of the valley means that the top slopes get no sun at all, so there's not a trace of any freeze-thaw effect. Which also meant that the off-piste was surprisingly soft - I even found a couple of decent pitches of chopped-up powder, which made me very pleased I was on my Pocket Rockets. Ripped it up, I did :-) Lower runs (back to resort) still had 100% snow cover (i.e. no rocks) but were getting somewhat scraped on the steeper sections - not really icy as such, but requiring a lot of effort to hold an edge. Which was where my skis were perhaps less than perfect - not bad, as such, but I was aware that with different skis it would have been less effort. Still fun to ski, mind. One thing I made my mind up about before I'd even got on the slopes - I'm not taking my boots on our forthcoming trip to Canada - they're just absolute agony until my feet have adjusted to them (takes a couple of weeks skiing) and my recent experience of poorly-fitting, but comfortable, rental boots in Tahoe made me realise that I now no longer need moulded-in-concrete, close fitting, rock-solid boots[1] and inners to ski well. C So now I'm in a bit of a dilemma - clearly I don't want racing boots again (I'll keep the , so I'm not sure what I should be looking for. Touring boots are a possibility, but I know sweet FA about them. Also not sure if the semi-soft boots would be too soft in practice. Anyone any thought on this? [1] I'm currently using 7-y-o Nordica GP RTs with 2-y-o Conformable racing inners. -- Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club. |
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#2
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Ace wrote in
: So now I'm in a bit of a dilemma - clearly I don't want racing boots again (I'll keep the , so I'm not sure what I should be looking for. Touring boots are a possibility, but I know sweet FA about them. Also not sure if the semi-soft boots would be too soft in practice. Anyone any thought on this? [1] I'm currently using 7-y-o Nordica GP RTs with 2-y-o Conformable racing inners. I'd suggest time in a really decent shop, like Precision in Val D'Isere or Footworks in Chamonix, they should be able to look at your feet and discuss the issues and come up with solutions. 3 of us went for new boots during opening weekend in Val last year. For one guy they didn't have the boot for him in his size, so they didn't sell him any boots. cheers, greg |
#3
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"Greg Hilton" wrote in message ... Ace wrote in : So now I'm in a bit of a dilemma - clearly I don't want racing boots again (I'll keep the , so I'm not sure what I should be looking for. Touring boots are a possibility, but I know sweet FA about them. Also not sure if the semi-soft boots would be too soft in practice. Anyone any thought on this? Ace I'm currently going though the same dilema - as I use Approach ski for touring - they are fitted with only the front binding of the Dynafit Tourlite - which is then combined with specially adapted soft snow board boots that have the Dynafit binding lugs in the front of the boots - anyway cut a long story short, they were fine on the first trip of the season, with thermo liners etc - and then touring in May they gave me seriously bad blisters - plus soft boots, when you're ascending some tricky technical sections do not have the support - hence I'm now looking to change my setup, and switch like a few others to Alpine Touring Boots - my options being Dynafit or one Scrapa design - see http://www.telemark-pyrenees.com/sho... 396be21818078 for a good selection for AT Boots - obviously I will not buy over the Net as my feet are tres weird and there is no logic in one manufactureres sizes and anothers - but I'm in Les Houches for New Year - so will suss things out then, but on ringing around a few shops in Chamonix in advance, their selection is limited - there is alsways Italy through the tunnel, so if any one knows of a shop for AT kit please advise ! Regards WC |
#4
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Reposted as I believe Bruce may have plonked you.
Ace I'm currently going though the same dilema - as I use Approach ski for touring - they are fitted with only the front binding of the Dynafit Tourlite - which is then combined with specially adapted soft snow board boots that have the Dynafit binding lugs in the front of the boots - anyway cut a long story short, they were fine on the first trip of the season, with thermo liners etc - and then touring in May they gave me seriously bad blisters - plus soft boots, when you're ascending some tricky technical sections do not have the support - hence I'm now looking to change my setup, and switch like a few others to Alpine Touring Boots - my options being Dynafit or one Scrapa design - see http://www.telemark-pyrenees.com/sho... 396be21818078 for a good selection for AT Boots - obviously I will not buy over the Net as my feet are tres weird and there is no logic in one manufactureres sizes and anothers - but I'm in Les Houches for New Year - so will suss things out then, but on ringing around a few shops in Chamonix in advance, their selection is limited - there is alsways Italy through the tunnel, so if any one knows of a shop for AT kit please advise ! Regards WC |
#5
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On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 09:53:33 -0000, "WeatherCam"
wrote: - plus soft boots, when you're ascending some tricky technical sections do not have the support - hence I'm now looking to change my setup, and switch like a few others to Alpine Touring Boots - my options being Dynafit or one Scrapa design - see http://www.telemark-pyrenees.com/sho... 396be21818078 Cheers, I'll have a look. -- Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club. |
#6
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On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 09:08:22 GMT, Greg Hilton wrote:
I'd suggest time in a really decent shop, like Precision in Val D'Isere or Footworks in Chamonix, they should be able to look at your feet and discuss the issues and come up with solutions. 3 of us went for new boots during opening weekend in Val last year. For one guy they didn't have the boot for him in his size, so they didn't sell him any boots. Well yeah, that'd be the 'normal' way I'd do things, but next week we're off to Canada, starting in Bannf, and it seems pointless to take my old boots out there, given the exchange rate situation, so I'll be looking to pretty much pre-determine what I want. The question isn't so much about fit, but about the pros and cons of touring boots or similar - I know many guides, including some of the ones that can ski, use touring/mountaneering boots all the time, but I'm not sure if it'll ruin my skiing. -- Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club. |
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On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 10:42:09 -0000, "David Brown"
wrote: Reposted as I believe Bruce may have plonked you. Thanks David. I only had him as 'Mark as read' so I did see it actually. -- Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club. |
#8
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The question isn't so much about fit, but about the pros and cons of touring boots or similar - I know many guides, including some of the ones that can ski, use touring/mountaneering boots all the time, but I'm not sure if it'll ruin my skiing. Ok, I asked this same question yesterday, when I was with mates yesterday seeing off one of our crew who is emigrating to Pemberton, 20 mins from Whistler, in Jan next year - but that's another story....the skiing part of the group, all experienced "tourers" use AT kit almost exclusivly, unless they are going on a half term piste holiday with the kids - they would not use touring kit on the pistes as being good skiers they tend to apply far more pressure / torque on the bindings - although, and I can't remember the brand, there is now a new touring binding on the market that is meant to be bomb proof on the piste - again another good forum to ask these questions is http://www.telemarkskier.com/cgi-bin...?ubb=forum;f=1 which if you're going to Banf is very much N American centric - and the only reason why I'm a liitle bit up to speed on this, is that I'm considering going back onto skis again, well every now and again, but using AT touring kit - as hopefully I'll be able to use much of the same kit for touring both on board and skis - well as we all know that's because I'm not to good on drag lifts!!!! Regards WC |
#9
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On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 12:52:39 GMT, Greg Hilton wrote:
The question isn't so much about fit, but about the pros and cons of touring boots or similar - I know many guides, including some of the ones that can ski, use touring/mountaneering boots all the time, but I'm not sure if it'll ruin my skiing. Ah ok! Your shells are 7 years old, past few years they have been able to keep lateral stiffness in boots for carving and added soft plastics in other areas, so maybe modern, step down from race boots would suit you now? Some additional info there, ta. Pretty much what I was thinking, but didn't know about construction changes. Still tempted by some of the touring-type options, mind. -- Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom) Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club. |
#10
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The question isn't so much about fit, but about the pros and cons of
touring boots or similar - I know many guides, including some of the ones that can ski, use touring/mountaneering boots all the time, but I'm not sure if it'll ruin my skiing. Ah ok! Your shells are 7 years old, past few years they have been able to keep lateral stiffness in boots for carving and added soft plastics in other areas, so maybe modern, step down from race boots would suit you now? regards, Greg |
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