Fjellski for backcountry-mountain tours

[Femundsmarka]

Hello!

I hope it is okay that I start an english thread, unfortunately I don't speak Norwegian/:

I've been to the Femundsmarka region almost every year since I've been a kid, in summer and winter, doing many trips and tours with my father or friends. We've done the winter tours on backcountry skis with steel edges like the Fischer E99, so the classic nordic Fjell set-up I guess. That set-up also seems optimal for tours with long distances to cover through changing and often difficult terrain over frozen lakes, through the forest or to the top of mountains in the region.

I've also done alpine skiing since I've been a kid, but I never combined both sports to Alpine Touring. On our Fjell tours we would summit mountains with the backcountry skis and skins, but the descents would then be more of a "trying to get down the mountain without hurting yourself"-kind of thing, instead of actually enjoying the descent. 

So basically I'm looking for the right equipment to do trips/tours that are centered on getting up and down a mountain, with a focus on enjoying the descent, whilst also requiring a significant and long approach. An example of such a tour would be for example: 

Day 1: 15km approach over a frozen lake and a bit of slight up/down through forest area

Day 2: summit a mountain (maybe sth like 700-800 vertical meters to climb from the bottom) and descend back to camp

Day 3: return to starting point 

 

Classic Alpine Touring equipment seems hardly fit to do a long flat/rolling approach for example (especially when your friends use thin nordic skis because they put no emphasis on the descent), mainly as the kick-and-glide technique is not possible with them I guess. Important information: I've never learnt the Telemark-technique and I'm looking for a set-up, that allows me to use the standard alpine downhill technique like classic touring skis do. Weirdly (to me), when researching this seems to be a pretty specific niche that nobody is really interested in - there is the alpine touring community, the nordic backcountry/fjellski community, the telemark community, but the area of doing alpine touring combined with something like a fjell tour seems not very popular.

According to my research I would require an Alpine Touring Tech-Binding with Pins, that allows me to fix the heels when descending. There seem to be pretty lightweight Alpine Touring Boots for those bindings (e.g. Scarpa Alien), but I don't know how well those boots and bindings would work for a 15km approach day on mostly flat terrain.

For the skis I'm looking for something that gives me a similar experience on the downhill like classic alpine touring skis, but at the same time they must be better at the approach, for example by allowing kick-and-glide technique to some extent. Obviously I don't expect them to be as efficient on the flat as Fischer E99 or Asnes Amundsen would be, but they should not be a total pain in the ass on that terrain like classic touring skis would be probably.

I found those skis for example: Asnes Nosi 76 or Tinten 86, Fischer S-Bound 112 - those skis seem like they would offer a really solid downhill capability whilst at the same time having either scales on the bottom or a short-skin like the Asnes, although I don't know how well those Asnes skis would do on flat compared to the E99/Amundsen type of fjellski again.

 

I hope I could explain what type of tours I'll do and what I'm looking for. I would be extremely grateful if someone here has some experience with exactly that kind of activity and could give me some tips/hints at the type of equipment I'll need!

 

Thank you a lot and kind regards(:

 

 

 

 

[Omnilite]

Åsnes Amundsen or E99 are commuters and will always be faster.

Since you more than less always have a long flat approach, you can also consider a slightly different solution: Use a Paris Expedition sled pulled by a rope and use your E99 to do that job. Then you can select skis with tech bindings which are more up/downhill oriented. Those you put in the sled until the climbing start, swap gear and leave the sled, have fun up and downhill, swap again, and pull everything back home.

[Femundsmarka]

34 minutter siden, Omnilite skrev:

Åsnes Amundsen or E99 are commuters and will always be faster.

Since you more than less always have a long flat approach, you can also consider a slightly different solution: Use a Paris Expedition sled pulled by a rope and use your E99 to do that job. Then you can select skis with tech bindings which are more up/downhill oriented. Those you put in the sled until the climbing start, swap gear and leave the sled, have fun up and downhill, swap again, and pull everything back home.

Thanks for the answer!
I thought about that approach too. Maybe that actually is the way to go..on our last tours we took a pulk sled either way to take our sleeping bags, food and other needed equipment. There would be more weight in the pulk obviously when taking an extra ski-set incl. boots, but maybe that would be compensated by the efficiency of using E99s during the approaches..

[Femundsmarka]

I've thought about it and checked the different sorts of skis/equipment; I will definitely go with Omnilite's suggestion to go with an Alpine Touring Set-Up.

Now I'm just trying to figure out what Set-Up to go for. I will use it either for day tours up and down mountains or for multi-day tours that include summits on more or less every day + some approaching (but not for tours that are 80+ percent commuting on the flat).

90% of my touring will happen in the Femundsmarka region in Hedmark (+ the Grovelsjoen area closeby in Sweden); maybe I will do some tours in higher mountains in the Rondane range for example. Accordingly there won't be 2000 vertical meter ascents for single mountains, more like 500-1000 vert. meters max. On the other side I will do some multi-day tours on the skis, so there will be some approaches on the flat/rolling terrain or maybe also linking several summits in one day.

Although the mountains aren't huge, my tour profile seems to ask for a lighter weight, walking-oriented AT Set-Up. I could get the Dynafit TLT8 CR Expedition boots very cheaply (315€), so the boots are probably fixed in case they fit my feet well. Now I'm mainly trying to figure out what size of touring ski to go for, and unfortunately I have no experience there. I haven't encountered a lot of deep powder on the mountains in the Femundsmarka region, which makes me think I shouldn't go for a very wide ski (waist >90mm). From my experience (most tours were in March/April), the snow above the tree border was mostly wind-pressed and rather hard, maybe a few inches of light, fresh snow sometimes but nothing too deep.

For the bindings I'm thinking something rather light like the Marker Alpinist. It seems to fit what I'm trying to do, similar to the TLT8 boots. But what kind of ski would you suggest?

I'm looking at mainly two categories:

(1) Superlight and rather slim waist, for example:

- K2 Wayback 80 (up to 1kg per ski, basically weighs the same as a Fischer E99; around 400€)

(2) A little bit heavier and wider, but probably more capable on the downhill, for example:

- K2 Wayback 88 (about 1,25kg per ski, around 370€)

- Salomon MTN Explore 88 (around 300€)

 

Or would you say a wider ski (like 95mm) makes sense even if I don't expect to ski powder very often?

My problem is I can hardly evaluate the weight-downhill tradeoff between the two categories listed. If the superlight skis perform more or less equally on the downhill as the slightly heavier/wider ones, but are far easier to make distance with over frozen lakes, rolling terrain and the uphill, then I would tend to go for super light. If there is a significant difference in downhill capability, I'd rather like the slightly heavier category.

I'd be happy for any general or concrete equipment advice;)

 

Endret 7. februar 2020 av Femundsmarka