Related: 1. Spring Ski Touring Basics: Weather, Corn Skiing And Avalanches 2. Planning A Spring Ski Tour: Optimize Your Peak Pursuit

The essentials of spring ski touring

Skis: While you can use any ski to get around in spring, I recommend skinnier skis. I’d target an underfoot width ranging between 90-100mm with a wider shovel in the front (130-140mm). Ideally, you’re looking for a ski that can handle the wide variety of spring conditions from firm snow to blower powder. It’s important to strike a balance between the following goals:

• Hold an edge on firm snow, which you’ll encounter often in spring
• Offer a low weight to optimize your energy expenditure on long ski-mountaineering days
• Have a wide enough shovel and underfoot width to handle those awesome spring powder days.

No ski can check all the boxes perfectly. You’ll have to sacrifice in some way. Now, it’s up to you to decide where to sacrifice. I prefer a slightly heavier ski that can hold an edge when skiing variable snow down a steep couloir or that can open up the throttle on a massive alpine face. Being a fervent downhill skier, I naturally prioritize “skiability” over weight. Some choose a skinny lightweight ski, compromising on skiability, but maximizing uphill efficiency. A little soul searching and experience in varied snow conditions will help you find your perfect balance. For more details on picking the right ski, check out the following post: How To Choose Touring Skis.

Bindings: Pin bindings (low-tech bindings) are an essential part of your spring ski touring gear quiver. Nowadays, modern pin bindings are anything but low-tech. Designers and engineers figured out how to build low-weight, user-friendly and durable pin bindings perfectly suited for spring ski touring. Gone are the days of hauling 3kg frame bindings up the hill!

Here’s one question I get asked all the time: Do you run ski brakes and ankle leashes on your setup? I run brakeless bindings and no leash. In my opinion, going brakeless removes a failure point on my setup. I often eavesdrop on folks complaining about their brakes releasing unexpectedly while touring. In powder, brakes don’t do much to stop the ski as it rockets down the slope. As for leashes, they cause more harm than good. I usually don’t run them on my setup after taking a bad fall where the leash failed to break. The one exception: I use leashes when travelling on glaciers, where the risk of losing a ski in a crevasse far outweighs the risk of a leash mishap when falling. For better insight on choosing the right bindings for you, check out the following post: How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings.

Climbing Skins: I recommend using 100% mohair skins in springtime. The increased glide truly maximizes your uphill efficiency throughout the day. I also find mohair skins tend to avoid snow buildup on a wet skin base, called glopping in the ski touring and splitboarding world. Applying skin wax preemptively at the beginning of the day or when the snow moistens helps reduce glopping. For a deeper dive on ski touring bindings, check out the following post: How To Choose Climbing Skins For Ski Touring.

The Bits and Bobs Of Ski Mountaineering Gear

Ski tourers and splitboarders love sharp, pointy tools. Ice axes, ski crampons, ice screws, you name it! They’re a crucial part of spring ski touring gear and rather situational.

Related: What To Pack For A Ski Tour: A Comprehensive Guide (Ski-Mountaineering Gear)

Ski Crampons: Those are constantly strapped to my hip belt starting in April when early morning conditions are icy due to the spring freeze-thaw cycle. They are essential when ascending refrozen snow and exposed features where slipping would be treacherous. A good pair of aluminum ski crampons should be slightly wider than the waist width of your skis. Too wide and they’ll interfere with your touring stride.

They’re especially important for splitboarders with less of an effective edge. Splitboards in uphill mode tend to offer less grip on firm snow than skis. Always ensure to test fit the ski crampons to your setup before heading out in the backcountry. Ski crampons aren’t universal and fit specific binding brands.

Boot Crampons: Your spring ski touring gear closet always includes a good pair of lightweight boot crampons made of either aluminum or steel. Aluminum boot crampons sacrifice durability in favour of low weight. If your planned route involves drawn-out scrambles on bare rock, aluminum crampons will wear quickly and often break.

I use hybrid crampons which utilize steel where it truly matters – on the front points – and an aluminum rear piece which offers a balance of durability and weight. The Petzl Irvis Hybrid boot crampons strike that balance with ease. Practice strapping them to your ski boots and verify the fit before heading out for a big ski-mountaineering day.

Ice axe: A lightweight ski touring ice axe provides an additional layer of safety when travelling on glaciers or climbing steep snow slopes. It can also be used as an arm extension when scrambling up peaks.

Some manufacturers sell all-aluminum ice axes specifically designed for ski mountaineering on snowy slopes. While acclaimed for their low weight, I prefer an ice axe with a steel pick and an aluminum shaft as a good compromise between weight and durability when climbing technical rock routes. Since you’ll be using it on steep snow slopes, ski-mountaineering axes are typically shorter than their summer mountaineering counterpart. Double up on the axes if you’re expecting to climb a particularly exposed section. The added safety is a great idea!

Harness & All The Dangly Bits: A ski touring harness is designed with low-weight and all-day comfort in mind. You’ll be amazed at how light those things are. How on Earth do they hold a crevasse fall? Well, they do, a testimony of advanced material science and careful engineering. The harness and the bits & bobs dangling from it are required when travelling on crevassed glaciers or skiing technical routes involving rappels and belays.

Specific objectives can require advanced rock protection or extra accessory cord/slings to build bomber anchors. Do your research to avoid heading out the door unprepared. For standard glacier travel, I typically carry enough gear to rescue from a crevasse fall effectively. It includes the following:

Hyperstatic Ropes: While a single ropes (9-10mm in diameter) work fine to arrest crevasse falls and rappel into big mountain lines, they are rather heavy to carry up a mountain. Most people now use lightweight, hyperstatic ropes (6mm diameter) engineered for glaciated travel, crevasse falls and technical rappels.

Hyperstatic ropes are designed to minimize rope stretch under load. It increases their efficiency when rigging rescue systems and hauling people out of crevasses. However, those fancy (and expensive) ropes have their limitations. Hyperstatic ropes aren’t designed to take lead falls and shouldn’t be used near sharp rocks. Their skinny diameter makes them prone to slicing. On the flipside, a study by Petzl has shown that hyperstatic ropes are more effective at arresting crevasse falls than regular climbing ropes due to how the shock load is absorbed. The skinny glacier ropes only work in tandem with approved hardware such as the Petzl Micro-Traxion.

Springtime Extras

There are a few extras that should be included in your spring ski touring gear bag: alpine sunscreen, shaded headwear and glacier sunglasses. Those components are indispensable when the sun is beating down on your head. They will save you from getting gnarly sunburns in weird places.

Alpine Sunscreen: If there’s one thing that’s constantly on my mind in spring, it’s the strong solar radiation and how easy it is to burn my skin. The beaming late-season sun reflects off the white snow and tends to irradiate often overlooked body parts such as the bridge of your nose, nostrils and underside of your chin. I’ve even burnt my palate (my mouth’s roof) on a boiling-hot ski traverse many moons ago. Some days, the solar radiation makes it feel like an oven outside. I carry a bottle with 50+ SPF sunscreen for my hands, arms and neck. For my face and lips, a hydrating zinc oxide paste. I wear breathable and UV-protective tops and gloves to shield my skin even more. I apply sunscreen in the morning, lunch and mid-afternoon to guarantee maximum sun protection.

Shaded Headwear: Protective headwear is key to shielding your head from sunburn and potential heat exhaustion. While a breathable cap works well enough, I prefer a wide-brim hat such as the Patagonia Quandary, which provides 360-degree shade and covers the back of your neck. It’s also very packable. On the downside, you can hardly wear it under your downhill helmet.

Glacier Sunglasses: The strong solar radiation during springtime is deadly to the eyes. In the alpine world, this is called “snow blindness”, resulting in unbearable stinging eyes and temporary eyesight loss. It’s a key piece of your spring ski touring gear. Look for sunglasses with flexible side & nose shields, CAT-4 glacier lenses and comfortable temples.

Smart Layering Goes A Long Way

The spring season brings a wide array of weather patterns from endless storms to scorching sun and bluebird days. Wearing the appropriate layer for the atmospheric conditions makes your day a whole lot smoother. I typically carry five layers:

• A moisture-wicking layer
• A lightly insulated jacket
• An insulated puffy
• A windproof and waterproof layer
• An insulated parka (larger overcoat-type puffy)

With experience and common sense, you’ll figure out which layer to wear to minimize overheating and protect yourself from our temperamental Mother Nature. It’s a question of striking a perfect balance, like most things, ski touring or splitboarding. For more insight on picking the right layers, see How To Get Into Ski Touring (Layering).

The post Spring Ski Touring Gear: The Essential Goes A Long Way appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features

Pick Your Playground

Rule #1: Pick your playground. Where will you most often go ski touring? The answer will determine which binding is most applicable to your terrain type. Are you skiing lift-accessed powder right out of Whistler’s bounds? Or, are you completing a self-supported 9-day traverse from the Bugaboos to Rogers Pass?

In the former’s case, I’d recommend picking up a pair of hybrid or SHIFT bindings, perfect for both resort and sidecountry days. As for the latter, a pair of ultralight pin bindings would do the trick since you’ll be hauling those babies up and down mountains for more than a week. My best advice: choose ski touring bindings that make logical sense in the environment you’ll be skiing in most often.

Choose A Binding Category

There’s a ton of ski touring binding models available on the market. All of them can be brought under 5 umbrella categories: frame, pin, hybrid, SHIFT, and swappable.

Frame Binding: The frame binding has a standard alpine skiing toe and heel piece joined by shaped metal or polymer tubes. While this beefy setup is great for hucking cliffs and sending big pillow lines, it is rather heavy and better suited for short lift-assisted ski tours. The frame linking the toe and heel piece stiffens up the underfoot portion of the ski considerably: this alters the ski’s behaviour. Frame bindings are the only category that is compatible with standard ski boots (devoid of pin inserts). By now, this binding category is pretty much obsolete.

Pin Binding: the pin binding (also called “low-tech”) uses two sets of pins to secure the skier’s toe and heel welts. Being the lightest and oldest design, those bindings excel at high-mileage tours. Keep in mind that some models are known for poor reliability, inefficient power transfer on the downhill, and premature releases. Do your research before buying. Those bindings require a significant investment as they need special boots with embedded metal toe and heel inserts.

Hybrid Binding: The hybrid binding is a combination of the two options mentioned above: a light pin-style toe piece and an alpine heel piece. This arrangement provides an adequate blend of stiffness for hard-charging skiers, consistent heel release for those awkward yard sales, and low enough weight for long summit days. Like pin bindings, they require boots with pin inserts.

SHIFT Binding: the SHIFT binding, pioneered by renowned gear giant, Salomon, is a class of its own. In 2023, Salomon released the SHIFT 2.0, an updated version of the original design, fixing issues, such as the notorious pre-release problem. The binding consists of an alpine-inspired toe piece with embedded front pins. Through some clever mechanism, the toe piece morphs into its pinned counterpart. The heel piece is just your plain Jane alpine setup with a nifty retracting brake design. It’s light enough to bring on longer missions, fast enough during the transitions, and skis as well as an alpine setup. Like pin bindings, they require boots with pin inserts. Marker came out with their version of the shift binding, the Marker Duke PT, offering DIN values ranging from 11 to 16. I’ve personally never used those bindings, so I’ll leave it up to you to decide if you like the product.

Swappable Binding: the swappable binding was first seen in the CAST Freetour Upgrade Kit, with a fixed alpine heel piece and an interchangeable toe piece. On the uphill, you swap the alpine toe piece for its pinned counterpart. On the downhill, you replace the alpine toe piece. The CAST system provides an efficient option for touring up and a burly one for skiing down. The downside: it’s heavy and ices up frequently. You also have to toss the alternate toe piece in your pack and risk losing it. To me, it’s a little obsolete. I would always go for the SHIFT bindings first as they are much lighter, provide a faster transition, and perform as well on the downhill. Like pin bindings, they require boots with pin inserts.

My advice here is to go for the pinned binding categories (everything except the frame bindings) even if you’ve just started ski touring. To be honest, frame bindings will suck all the fun from the uphill part of the journey. You’ll end up hating ski touring. I’d usually recommend getting a pair of shift or hybrid bindings if you’re just getting into the sport.

Check The Boot Sole Compatibility

No one seems to agree on a standard sole design, making matters worse when it comes to binding compatibility. Sadly, some soles aren’t certified for use with certain bindings as they either wouldn’t provide a consistent release, or they simply won’t fit in the bindings. Binding manufacturers now advertise their products using a few keywords that can be cross-referenced with sole standards. Here’s the best way to navigate the systems.

1. Look up the keyword in the binding description online (GripWalk, MNC, WTR, Sole.ID). Ex: Salomon SHIFT Bindings MNC 13.
2. Look up the keyword in the touring boot description online (Alpine, Touring, GripWalk or WTR).
3. Cross-reference the binding sole standard with your touring boot’s sole standard using the table below to ensure compatibility.

Check The Maximum DIN Setting

You’ve seen the number scales located on both the toe and heel pieces of your bindings. This is the DIN setting (stands for Deutsches Institut für Normung). This setting is the industry-recognized scale for the release force of ski bindings. The setting makes the difference between a cushy fall and a torn ACL. By all means, please go to a professional ski technician if you’re not familiar with the system. Otherwise, there’s an online DIN calculator you can use to determine a safe DIN setting. This is only a starting point. Most skiers tweak the settings based on the binding’s model and personal experience. For instance, the calculator recommends a DIN setting of 8.5 for my weight, height, experience level, and boot length. I started with that value and increased it in increments of 0.5 until I was releasing out of my bindings at the desired pressure. I ended up with a DIN setting of 9.5 for my pin bindings and 10.5 for my SHIFT bindings.

Now that you’ve narrowed it down to a few models, take a moment to check the maximum DIN setting located on the manufacturer’s website. Ensure that the binding supports the setting that you usually run on your downhill ski setup. Honestly, most ski touring bindings run DINs up to at least 8. This is plenty enough for most backcountry skiers.

Go Skiing

You’ve managed to choose great ski touring bindings. Now, go skiing! There’s no better way to know if you’ve picked the right one than to test it out in the field. Remember to tweak your DIN settings. Don’t worry if you’re not feeling them at all: there’s a savvy used market for ski touring bindings.

Related Articles

– How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On
– How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features
– How To Get Into Ski Touring (Backcountry Skiing)

The post How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip-In & Ski appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip-In & Ski

Pick Your Playground

Do you plan on skiing the powdery fields of Rogers Pass or the rock-hard snow of the Rockies? In the ever-expanding outdoor gear industry, manufacturers design skis to perform well in a narrow set of operating conditions. A ski that excels in powder snow will most likely perform poorly on ice. Likewise, a heavy “charger” ski designed for lift-accessed touring will be quite the burden when hauled up a 4000m peak. Here’s an example. A powder ski (such as the DPS Alchemist Lotus 124) has a specific set of design features that provide ample floatation and easy turn initiation in soft snow (i.e. wide waist, wide shovels, short effective edge, early rocker, and twin tips). Those features render the ski useless on packed snow or icy slopes.

Here’s a sad fact (for your wallet that is): there’s no single quiver-killer touring ski – the industry is getting damn close, but we’re not quite there yet. All skis have strengths and weaknesses. You have to pick one with which you can live with the drawbacks. You’ve got to ask yourself:

• Would I rather shell out the big bucks for an array of skis covering all snow conditions and burn a hole in my wallet?
• Would I rather choose jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none touring skis and save some money in the process?

That’s really up to you and your budget. If you decide on the former, the solution is simple: get a pair of skis designed for every snow condition or outing type you would see in the backcountry. If you decide on the latter, tailor your ski selection to the conditions you will most likely encounter in your local terrain. Being a die-hard backcountry skier, I went with three pairs of skis that are still tailored to the local terrain and mostly always powdery conditions of Rogers Pass:

• Ski-Mountaineering: Salomon MTN Explore 95 with pin bindings – light, fast, floppy
• Backcountry Powder Skiing: Atomic Backlands 109 with pin bindings – rather light, stiffer, directional, powder-charger
• Resort and Lift-Assisted Touring: Moment Wildcat 116 with SHIFT bindings – heavy, burly, playful-charger

For a description of binding types, see How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip In & Ski.

Choose A Waist Width For Your Touring Skis

We use several width measurements to describe a ski, notably the waist, shovel, and tail width, with the first being the most important. The waist of the ski is located right under your boot. It’s the first measurement I look at when I choose touring skis. To simplify the process, let’s divide the waist width into three categories.

Narrow (75-95mm): The narrow waist width prioritizes performance on hard snow/ice, low weight, and edge-to-edge transition. It’s ideal for ski-mountaineering on wind-scoured faces, narrow couloirs, and days when you’ll be chasing some big vertical. They excel in areas with typically low snowfall, such as the Rockies and the East Coast. Be wary, skis with a narrow waist are usually designed with other features (i.e. low weight, minimal tip rocker, and low stiffness) that accentuate their drawbacks, such as terrible high-speed stability and low flotation in deep snow.

Medium (95-115mm): The medium waist width strikes the perfect balance between hard and soft snow performance. While still manageable on hardpack, they provide just enough float in the deep stuff. Being a bit heavier, the stable platform will be a dream on the downhill, but you’ll feel the legs at the end of a big day

Fat (115-130mm): The “fat” waist width is the king of powder skiing and bottomless snow. The wide waist provides more float than a 300-lb skier would ever need. However, those skis are absolutely terrible on anything other than soft snow. Don’t even think twice about taking those babies on icy slopes. On hardpack, the large width makes the ski cumbersome during the edge-to-edge transition and requires more effort to initiate a turn. This is probably the last category to complete your quiver, as it is very specific to those ultra-rare bottomless powder days.

The shovel and tail width can be considered only after you’ve targeted a waist width category. They work in tandem with the waist to balance flotation in soft snow, turn initiation, and edge-to-edge transition.

Target A Weight Range For Your Touring Skis

When it comes to weight, I have a short saying: “Go as light as possible, but not too light”. In an ideal scenario, you would have the lightest ski to haul uphill and the burliest ski on the downhill. I’ve got some bad news for you… Light often equals soft and floppy at speeds. And, a soft, floppy ski is your worst enemy when bombing down a sweet backcountry run at Mach 4. High speeds naturally require a stiffer setup to dampen the increased vibrations. Depending on what use your ski will see, it’s important to stay within the following weight ranges for different applications.

I’ve certainly climbed to the high alpine on skis that would otherwise be better for sidecountry touring. It’s best to follow the above guidelines without obsessing over it. After all, what’s the point of having the lightest ski if you’re fearing for your life on the way down? Personally, I won’t mind hauling a beefy ski on the uptrack if it grants me the descent of a lifetime.

Select A Profile

When you look sideways at a ski, you’ll notice all kinds of curves. This is called the profile of the ski, essentially a side cross-sectional view of the ski. The profile directly affects how the ski will behave on snow. I’ve outlined four main profiles found on current models, although you’ll find a lot more variety out there.

Full Rocker: The full rocker profile, otherwise known as the reverse-camber or “banana” profile, provides maximum float in deep powder. On the flip side, they have a shortened effective edge, which renders them useless on hardpack and at high speeds. Additionally, climbing skins hardly ever stay secured to rockered skis and provide little traction on the uptrack due to their minimal contact with the snow. This profile is very specific to powder skiing and nothing else. I wouldn’t recommend it for touring.

Full Camber: The full camber profile is typically used in racing skis. It provides the longest effective edge and the best edge hold on hardpack snow. The profile also allows the ski to flex more when carving, granting it a lot more “pop” or rebound energy when edging. The lack of an early rise rocker means the profile will perform poorly in powdery conditions, whereas your tips will simply dive below the snow’s surface – either that or you force yourself to be the world’s most backseat skier.

Mustache Rocker: The mustache rocker profile, otherwise known as the rocker/camber/rocker profile, is the holy grail of shapes when it comes to ski touring. It strikes the perfect balance between a rockered and cambered ski. The tip and tail have an early-rise rocker profile for some float in powder, while the waist has a cambered profile for good traction and “pop” on hardpack. In this case, you get the best of both worlds. Most skis are designed in this way for good reasons. This is the profile I look for when I choose touring skis.

Neutral Camber: The neutral camber profile, otherwise known as flat profile, is hardly ever seen on the market. It’s not great or bad at anything. To be honest, I’m not sure why designers would target this profile.

A note on early rise rocker: watch out for floppy shovels (where the ski curls up). In an effort to reduce the ski’s swing weight, some manufacturers cut meat out of the shovels to a point where they vibrate excessively at speed. This turns your favourite super-G ski run into a horrifying experience.

Review The Laminate Construction

You should also choose touring skis based on how they are built. Originally, making a ski was a simple matter. Thin sheets of wood were cut to size, stacked, glued, and cured using a combination of hydraulic press and moulds. The process creates an arrangement of varying wood layers called the core laminate. In the last 15 years, advancements in laminate construction have resulted in the use of composites, namely carbon fibre and fibreglass. The end goal was and still is to reduce weight while maintaining performance at a low manufacturing cost. Nowadays, all skis are built with some form of carbon or fibreglass. I’ve summarized below the different types of core laminates found in 2024.

Pure Composite: The pure composite laminate uses composites such as carbon, aramid, or flax fibres exclusively to achieve the desired characteristics. Those skis are ultra-expensive and usually designed for the niche sport of “skimo” racing and professional ski-mountaineering competitions. They suck at anything other than climbing mountains on skis.

Hybrid: The hybrid laminate is where it’s at today. It involves metals, plastics, composites, and wood. It also provides the best balance between price tag, weight, and performance. It’s pretty rare not to find carbon stringers or honeycomb inserts laminated somewhere along the length of the ski.

Pure Wood: The pure wood laminate has one ingredient: wood. A favourite amongst old-schoolers, the feel of a wood-cored ski is simply unrivalled (according to them). The price tag is also usually much lower than its hybrid counterpart, but the ski’s weight may suffer.

A note on metal: manufacturers use an optimized blend of aluminum, zinc, magnesium, and copper called Titanal. A ski containing Titanal will most likely be damp, stiff, and heavy. Personally, I avoid Titanal skis for touring as they are simply way too heavy for my taste.

A note on foam skis: foam core skis are dominant amongst low-end models. Cheap, so so cheap. They will lose whatever little stiffness and rebound energy they have within a week. Avoid at all costs!

Verify The Tip and Tail Design Of Your Climbing Skins

The shape of the tip and tail of the ski is also important when choosing a pair of touring skis. You must double-check that the ski’s tip or tail will be compatible with the tip and tail hardware on your climbing skins. Some touring-specific ski models have a built-in notch at the tip and tail to secure the climbing skin.

Related: How To Choose Climbing Skins: Stick And Glide

Pick A Length For Your Touring Skis

All touring skis are offered in a variety of lengths. This is a hard one. Shorter skis, although lighter, provide less float and stability than longer ones. Since I’m not willing to compromise on downhill performance, I tend to size my touring skis like I size my resort skis. The increased confidence when skiing big lines is more than enough to justify the minor increase in weight. Shorter skis are more agile in a tight spot, such as when executing a kick-turn in bushy forest or navigating down a narrow chute.

It’s All About How It Feels On Snow

While you can obsess all you want about the numbers (as I do), it all boils down to choosing the touring skis that feel good. There’s no substitute for visiting your local gear store and renting demos for the day. I recommend trying out several pairs on the same day to get a comparative idea of how they perform in identical snow conditions. Ski resorts commonly host demo days where manufacturers lend their skis for free. Give it a shot! This is a golden opportunity to try out your dream skis.

Related Articles

– How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features
– How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip In & Ski
– How To Get Into Ski Touring (Backcountry Skiing)

The post How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: How To Choose Touring Skis

Finding The Perfect Fit

First and foremost, let’s get familiar with the golden rule of bootfitting. Find a boot that fits your foot. It’s that simple, lads. Boot models vary in shapes and sizes. Boots with a small arch width, called last, are better suited for skiers with long, slender feet (like me,) and boots with a large foot box volume are ideal for people with sasquatch feet. If the geometry does not agree with your lower anatomy at all, please don’t head down the painful road of mutilating your foot to make it fit. Please don’t. I’ve been there – it hurts. Mind you, there’s a wide enough range of discomfort that a professional bootfit can solve. The procedure’s goal is to secure the foot while maintaining user comfort. It involves shaping custom insoles and moulding the liner as well as the shell using foam inserts and shims. It’s worth its weight in gold. It’s also crucial to be comfortable when ski touring.

The repetitive motion of gliding two skis with your feet encased within a thick foam liner and stiff plastic shell creates the perfect environment for blisters to thrive. In this case, friction becomes both your best ally and worst enemy. On one hand, it provides uphill traction between your climbing skins and the snow surface. On the other hand, it generates heat and sweat, a catalyst for foot blisters. Bootfitting and careful foot care alleviate part of the issue by minimizing movement as well as friction between your foot and the liner.

Key Features Of Ski Touring Boots

Let’s recap the key features to keep in mind when you choose ski touring boots, as discussed in How To Get Into Ski Touring:

1. A selective walk mode which decouples the upper cuff movement from the lower shell.
2. An increased articulation of the upper cuff and lower shell allowing for a comfortable gait.
3. A grooved rubber sole to ease scrambling when gaining ridges and peaks.
4. Toe and heel pin inserts, moulded in the plastic sole, and compatible with pin and hybrid bindings
5. A lightweight touring liner with added flexibility at the ankle

Selective Walk Mode: The walk mode is the single most important part of a ski touring boot. It decouples the back-and-forth motion of the upper cuff from the lower shell by flicking a lever usually located on the spine (the back) of the boot. I always inspect the locking mechanism before deciding on a specific boot model. Too many times have I witnessed levers failing to lock the boot in “ski” mode due to ice, mechanical issues, or user abuse. No one wants to “send it” down a couloir with a wonky boot. Professional gear reviews from reputable websites such as Blister are a great way to get input on the matter.

Range of Motion (ROM): The ROM around the pivot (located near the ankle) is also important. Some models offer more range than others, easing climbs on steep slopes. For instance, the Atomic Hawx Ultra XTD 130, which balances the uphill and downhill performances, has a ROM of 41°. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Atomic Backland Carbon, focusing primarily on the uphill, has a ROM of 66°, a stark difference. Typically, the increased range of motion comes at the detriment of boot stiffness and downhill performance.

Engineered Rubber Sole: The sole of a ski touring boot connects your foot to either the binding or the ground. Its design is of extreme importance for two fundamental reasons:

• The soles provide grip when scrambling on rocks. That grip can be a matter of life or death when ski-mountaineering in gnarly terrain. Typically, Vibram rubber is used for its ideal balance of durability and grip on a wide variety of terrain. Increased grip comes at the cost of decreased longevity. Keep that in mind when shelling out 1000$ for a pair of ski touring boots.
• For some reason, the ski boot industry refuses to standardize sole designs. There are 4 standards: ISO 5355, ISO 9523, GripWalk, and WTR. Each sole standard is only compatible with a specific binding standards.

Tech Inserts: The metal/tech insert is located at the heel and toe welts. The tech binding’s pins clamp onto the inserts for a secure fit. They are required for pin (low-tech), hybrid, and SHIFT bindings. In cold weather, watch out for ice build-up in the inserts. Your binding won’t fully engage the inserts, risking a premature release and season-ending injury.

Moldable Boot Liner: The boot liner is critical to user comfort and boot performance. Ski touring liners are typically made of flexible fabric at the ankle, allowing for a more comfortable stride. Their lighter weight comes at the cost of downhill performance. The thinner foam will pack out faster than its resort skiing equivalent. Heads up: your shins may be bruised by the end of a sendy resort day. It’s also worth noting that ski touring liners rarely keep your feet warm, as they are designed for intense physical activity. Keep that in mind when using them at the resort. I recommend buying another pair designed for resort skiing from a reputable brand such as Intuition Liners.

When Is It Time To Replace Your Ski Touring Boots

I cannot emphasize further the importance of getting a fresh pair of ski touring boots every few years, depending on usage. A worn-out ski touring boot will cause the following issues:

• The plastic shell will lose stiffness over time, introducing a delay in the power transmission from the user to the ski.
• The liner’s foam (the one directly on your socks) will pack out, aggravating the above issue and causing additional blisters. Personally, I ski more than 100 days per season and change out my liners every year. If I were drowning in cash, I would swap them twice per season.
• The toe and heel welts (the ones that clip into your bindings) will wear down, creating additional compliance between the boot and the binding. Compliance will eventually lead to premature releases… think high-speed ejections. Been there, done that.
• The rubber sole (typical of ski touring boots) will wear down. You will be skating instead of walking.

Those are all problems that can be solved by either refurbishing an old pair of boots or buying a new pair.

Closing Statement

And here it is, folks. Now, you know how to choose ski touring boots from the plethora of available options. Before I send you off, let me reiterate how important it is to try the boot first before buying. Go out there and support your local bootfitting shop. While they each have their own philosophy on how to get the perfect fit, as it isn’t an exact science quite yet, they will find the right boot for you. At the end of the line, happy feet will make you happy!

Related Articles

– How To Choose Touring Skis: Shred On
– How To Choose Ski Touring Bindings: Clip In & Ski
– How To Get Into Ski Touring (Backcountry Skiing)

The post How To Choose Ski Touring Boots: Fit & Features appeared first on The Uptrack.