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@@medius-44 Great questions, and I’m impressed that you cared enough to power through one of my old videos! Most of the time these days, if I’m touring for turns, I opt for whatever will give me the best odds in the trickiest random bc conditions, so that’s a Voilé ski with plastic boots and a Switchback or Hardwire binding. But, on skinnier skis and with just pins, I would go leather. I think that I preferred leather and pins as a beginner because my tele stance was more of a spread and less of a squat/curtsey. Plastics with active bindings provided too much resistance for that stance and it threw me off balance. I also preferred thinner skis with less sidecut because I didn’t ski with any angulation, and that meant turny skis turned too suddenly for me and were harder to get on edge. Regarding plastics with bare pins, I don’t like the feel on my Voilés (I get too spread and the tips dive), but I don’t mind it as much on the Annums for some reason (maybe because they’re 195cm and mounted near balance point?).

Good luck! May there be lots of wealthy boomers in your path retiring from the sport with nearly untouched gear (a traditional Irish blessing).

Cheers, Ben Adryl!

@@davidpfurr4350 Yeah, you’re right, scales often seem to work just fine on powder. I think that at a certain depth, and especially with loose snow (there’s powder that compacts, coheres, and conforms to the scales, and then there’s loose powder-possibly sugar-that doesn’t seem capable of cohering and holding a shape), the scales get outmatched. I think the powder on top was okay this day, but the stuff under it was the surface layer during the “arctic outbreak” in January when it got well below 0F for several nights. It’s possible the temperature of the lower layer even caused the upper layer to turn icy when I stepped on it? Not totally sure about that; I’m still trying to process it a bit.

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain Yeah, once again, you have the complexity of snow--and you had to be there. We have not been experiencing such low temps in NorCal, so the snow has been transitional--or, for a while there, icy on the surface. I still haven't deployed the Easy Skins I got for Xmas.

@@UkuleleSioni Yep! I sold mine to have money for Voilé skis, but they would have been great for the tour.

@@rockymountainwoman2618 Nice, are you using the purple Black Diamond Ascension skins of yore, or is there a newer variety?

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain I have Colltex skins- popular in Europe. I bought them a few years ago from a French company, Telemark Pyreness (online). Excellent customer service and fast shipping. They were full length skins but I shortened them.

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain I replied yesterday but for some reason it didn't go through? I use Colltex skins purchased online from Telemark Pyrenees (French company).

Wow, this whole vicarious skiing through RUclips thing works better than I thought.

@ Guess I better take the next month off to recover

@@rockymountainwoman2618 Agreed! They feel more balanced (not easier to balance, though), elegant, and like you’re working with the snow rather than against it.

@@johnbozek676 Good suggestion. I do have a video explaining the parts to my quiver ( ruclips.net/video/hbIIsshLNxA/видео.htmlsi=T9tbRwvd7kC5t-T9 ), but I should maybe talk about how I track this stuff down.

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain I'm in West Virginia and own a single pair of Rossi BC 90 skis. A Rossi BC boot has performed well. This is a great single set up for my area, but, I think used could be a great way to expand the quiver - eBay, Facebook, etc. Would love to hear how you approach the used marketplace. Thanks for your reply!

@ Here, I put something together. I didn’t mention eBay because I never use it, but I’m sure it’s got good stuff too. ruclips.net/user/shortsw5Jt3ZDhTlw?si=QNqu6YdFIT0frsZZ

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain thank you!!

@@ilovetofish Sweet! It’s always good to connect with like-minded folks.

@@NewAdventuresChannel I used some old Alpina X-Terrains because I thought I would be dealing with firm snow and possibly rocks/brush, and I don’t mind so much if those skis take a beating.

@@UkuleleSioni Thanks for the kind words! “Everyman’s skiing” is a great description and a label I proudly accept.

@@Beauvaiscrochet Squeak squeakum.

@@betterl8thannvr Thanks for being curious! I like to spam the Internet with my skiing every few days if I can manage.

@@ericferguson9989 Worthy goals!

@@juliafarmermusic Sweet, thanks for appreciating!

@@malachev Thanks for the input. Yep, It’s hard to reductively say one type of ski is best for x conditions because of what you mentioned: terrain, goals. People will have to extrapolate for themselves. Personally, I’d even prefer the V6 for touring in this because E99s would be under the crust the whole time. The terrain is nice for a tour once the snow sets up though. It’s relatively low elevation for CO and faces south, so unfortunately it usually burns off before it can turn to corn in the spring.

@@CMAdventures-f7n Agreed, I could never get any edge-hold with the universal binding and quickly swapped it.

Sure he does. I won’t speculate which one of us he gets the fur from 😉.

Based on your hairdos over the years… I’d say we both know the culprit!

@@JustinBaker2567 Thanks, awesome to hear that, JB! Hope the San Juan’s treat you well this winter.

@@UkuleleSioni Thanks, that is a great spot! It takes a while sometimes for all the undergrowth to get covered on the lower slopes there, but it’s pretty sweet once everything fills in, and it goes for miles from 7,500’-12,000’ (3,600+ in meters, not that I’d ever make it that high in the winter).

@@jamesmoreau3118 Interesting idea with the homemade universal bindings.

@@alexmacdonald258 Thanks for offering your perspective. I could hardly tele back when I had the Hoks, but I agree. They seem best suited for backseat alpine turns with a tiak/lurk. Especially for taller folks, it doesn’t take much to get too spread out in a tele turn with them (the new Tao might solve this). For quick, surfy turns in ideal conditions they’re awesome! But they aren’t stable on hard snow and aren’t fast enough for deep snow.

@@jamesprobus3195 Thanks for the input! Merry Christmas and happy New Year. I agree, captions just feel less intrusive. The only disadvantage is when I’m playing a video while doing the dishes.

@@tomm9850 Haha, thanks. Trumpet accompanist is always available for hire. Merriest of Christmases to you guys as well.

@@RiverogueLander For sure, especially in a downhill context. But even the tour is tough if icy. I don’t mind them when they soften a bit with warm or a couple inches of fresh snow, and it beats breaking trail in deep snow.

@@jamesnewsom5899 Sweet! I was in your shoes not too long ago. You live in such a great place to take this sport up. I’m excited for you.

@@merrittwhite4189 Thanks for the tips! I’m at the point now where I still don’t weight my uphill ski enough sometimes, but I can also feel when it’s happening in the moment and address it sooner rather than later. I hear different views from various folks who know way more than I do concerning exactly how much weight to put on the trailing ski, so I think I just need to feel it out and see what works. I suspect my own ideal weight distribution may shift as my overall abilities and style shift accordingly, not to mention differences in snow conditions.

@@maxwelllucas896 Oh, that’s cool, thanks for mentioning that.

It’s not something I’ve fully grasped, but I’ll make an effort (I’ve been meaning to anyway): As far as I can tell, people categorize unweighting into two types-up and down. Up unweighting involves first extending your legs (raising upper body) to then retract them, and down unweighting involves lowering your upper body as you retract. Most folks do up unweighting because it’s easier, but racers and experts do down unweighting because it’s faster. In my opinion (I could be wrong), the two categories are helpful, but all unweighting probably exists on a spectrum from a big conspicuous hop to an imperceptible raising of the upper body followed by retracting the legs. If you have the space to carve a turn in a long arc, unweighting is maybe really only needed ever so slightly to change edges. If you need to swing/pivot your skis around in a hurry for tight turns, you’ll need more unweighting to keep the edges from catching on the snow as you pivot. The jump turns telemarkers made in the past and couloir skiers make today are really just vastly exaggerated unweighting to free the skis from contact with the snow so they can come around faster. My best advice from personal experience for people who are having trouble unweighting is to first be balanced: if you’re leaning too much (usually uphill at the end of a turn), it will be hard/impossible to rotate the skis to move in the direction of the next turn. You need to keep the skis under you for that. I found parallel turns and hop/step telemark turns to be helpful for getting both the concept and the feel from two different approaches. This guy explains it pretty well I think: ruclips.net/video/WKG3V55KPp8/видео.htmlsi=88pT94uFQazkvSiR .

@@zackspate8935 Wow, I’m flattered! I hope I did the topic justice. And congratulations!

@@tomm9850 Thanks for the high praise! It was a lot of satisfying work to put this together.

“Death march” captures the feeling perfectly.

Yep. That recent storm sure had some thick base-building snow, but it could’ve used another day or two of settling before I skied it.

@@jamesnewsom5899 Nice story, thanks for sharing! I bet that area has lots of great snow and just the right sort of mountains.

Do it! Even if those skis aren’t available, I’m curious how well the dremel pattern will work for you. I did a hasty job on some skis that I need to revisit because I could barely tell I did anything to the base. (Makes me think most base scratches are inconsequential.)

@@rearct Yep, but it depends on the resort. Double check by searching online for the resort’s uphill policy. Pretty much all resorts used to allow uphilling for free until it got popular and presented a liability issue. Now, most resorts sell an uphill pass separately or allow folks with season passes to uphill, but a few do allow it for free outside of operating hours.

Yeah, seems like a spot to avoid anytime there’s wind in the forecast. It was windy enough this day to be a bit of a bother but still plenty manageable.

@@andrewrose4946 I’m sure your family will think you’re just taking one for the team if you send them all to Disney and happen to stay behind.

@@rockymountainwoman2618 Agreed. I would have gone somewhere else and missed out if it weren’t for the snotel suggesting it would be worth it.

@@mtadams2009 Hope you get yours before too long. I guess you must ski generally around Mt. Adams?

@@JaredManninen Conditions are improving rapidly, but it’s a catch-22 between getting enough snow to ski up high and getting so much that I can’t drive to it anymore. I don’t think the lower elevations will be able to retain the snow just yet, even if they do get decent amounts this early.

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain We've been getting slight dustings in Tahoe this past week, but still waiting for a first big storm. I went out yesterday above 8,000' and the coverage was between 4-8 inches depending on aspect. Fun, but lots of hidden obstacles lurking just beneath the snow's surface 🙁

@ It’s not bad here, but for the most part, the snow this season seems to be cleverly avoiding the places where people actually ski. Who needs 3’ of snow on the plains of S.E. Colorado? Not even the ranchers want that. Maybe a bureaucrat in charge of water management is happy somewhere.

@@GoTeleOnTheMountain Haha! Yeah, mother nature tends to do as she pleases 😜

@@tomm9850 Thanks, Tom! Excited to see what you have in store for us once the snow gets a bit deeper.

@@rockymountainwoman2618 Thanks, RMW! Exciting times ahead.

@@kayakutah Thanks for the encouragement. I’ve spent a couple days at the resort over the last couple years, but it mostly highlighted the issues I was having which I didn’t notice as much in soft backcountry snow. I don’t think I improved much while at the resort, and yet it was beneficial feedback for me. I bet I could actually improve a lot faster now with a day at the resort since I would be practicing some better technique.

@@tomm9850 Thanks, I let her know you appreciated her segment and she was rather proud of herself.