Alpine touring/randonée skiing - anyone?

I'm going to the Alps in April and am on the verge of buying a lightweight AT set-up. It costs an arm and a leg, though, so I hope I manage to nail the right stuff on the first buy.

The hardest to buy are the boots. Weightwise I would love the Dynafit TLT5 boots but they felt like torture on my short, wide, high volume duck feet. I'm hoping maybe the Dynafit One will be a bit more forgiving. I've also got my eye on two boots from Scarpa, the Gea and the Blink. And people say that heat molding makes a lot of difference, but I'm sceptical.

Anyone have any experience with these boots, or AT touring in general? I'm a pretty crappy downhill skier to tell the truth, but I can get down almost anything without falling over or freaking out ;-)

I don't have any experience with those particular boots, but I can tell you that I have molded several alpine boots with a moldable liner. They truly to help the fit, and quite often depending on the liner people will move the liner from shell to shell over a period of time. (if the shell of the boot starts to wear and needs to be replaced) Some of the liners can be remolded another time, although perhaps not to the orginal quality... so that might be a question that you could ask when looking at boots. Sorry I didn't have the info that you were looking for, but hope this helps a bit.

Good luck in your search!!

I have the Geas and I love them. They are soooo comfortable and fit my foot like a glove. I mean, obviously it is whatever works best for your foot and any shop should do a shell fit to see how the boot fits but the moldable liners definitely help tweak the boot to fit your specific foot shape.

Thanks! I got to try on the TLT5 in a half size too big, and the One and the Gea in the right size, and the liner makes a huge difference. The liner in the TLT is really thin to save weight. I don't think that will be a problem ie too cold, when it comes to touring, as I sweat like crazy all the time anyway, but there's less liner to mold, and I could really feel the "bones of the boot" through the liner. The One was a bit better, but the Gea was really cushy... :-) I was told the Geas have a more pre-shaped liner, so they often feel better in the store, while other liners need molding. There's not a huge difference in weight if I can't use theTLT's, which are radically lighter than everything else without involving carbon and an astronomical price tag, but the One is higher and gives better support for the same weight. That might be a good thing for my wimpy downhill skiing, so I don't get left way behind :-P

KimmyT, what skis do you use for touring? I need something forgiving that doesn't demand terrific skills on my part.

Oooh, I just ordered a pair of fat skis :D

Well, nothing that a dedicated powder skier would call fat, but still the fattest skis that I've ever owned, Dynafit Manaslu. My dh and I will now have matching skis... :p

Now to learn the jargon. "These skis are rad when you're doing serious vert but not that terrific in the pow." Dude.

Do you gals know of theskidiva.com?
It's a true women's only (no men allowed, period) forum that is very active. Members range from rank beginners to industry pros, all with a passion for snow sports. It's a great place to get real world gear info, share the sport and more. Sort of like this place!

Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out.

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Originally Posted by lph

Oooh, I just ordered a pair of fat skis :D

Well, nothing that a dedicated powder skier would call fat, but still the fattest skis that I've ever owned, Dynafit Manaslu. My dh and I will now have matching skis... :p

Now to learn the jargon. "These skis are rad when you're doing serious vert but not that terrific in the pow." Dude.

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Corrected: "These skis are rad when you're doing serious vert but they suck in the pow."

Ah, right. Working on it ;)

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Originally Posted by lph

KimmyT, what skis do you use for touring? I need something forgiving that doesn't demand terrific skills on my part.

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I am using an old pair of Volkl Auras for my touring. In combo with my bindings the setup is very lightweight, almost too much so. Luckily I don't do anything that crazy in the bc, mostly staying on mellow low angle stuff to avoid avalanche terrain. Anyway, I had the skis laying around so just used them for the touring setup so I didn't have to buy another pair.

Must be nice to have some Auras laying around. I love mine, you'll only get them if you rip them out of my cold dead hands.:D

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Originally Posted by Irulan

Must be nice to have some Auras laying around. I love mine, you'll only get them if you rip them out of my cold dead hands.:D

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I started using my Kikus as every day skis and haven't looked back since. :) Those chicas rip!

Where (what region) are you skiing? I've always though of and had the kiku marketed as a dedicated powder ski, but you are the second person this week who has talked about it as a daily driver. The other gal was one who skis Kicking Horse/Rogers Pass area.

I'm not a backcountry skiers, can I still post to this thread?

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Originally Posted by Irulan

I'm not a backcountry skiers, can I still post to this thread?

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Help yourself :D

Attachment 16021
Four Days at Grand Targhee!! Demo'd the Kiku's and was thrilled. They handled every condition I threw at them, powder, crude, bumps, groomed etc. I am sure they assisted in my knee holding up for some aggressive skiing. The photo is going OB and hiking to the top of Mary's Nipple on a beautiful sunny day.