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The place to start is probably picking up a cheap second hand set of alpine gear and just getting reps in the resort to build your ski skills and comfort. I guess really the place to start is investing in good boots, then the above. One theme I've seen from friends making the switch from board to skis, is they tend to underestimate the importance or degree of forward pressure needed on skis. You will probably tend to ski in the back seat at first, or at least with your weight further back than it should be. Then again if your kids ski raced for a long time, they can probably drill you on this kinda thing.
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Nov 9, 2023 20:32
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Yuns posted:As a long time snowboarder, I wanted to get some advice on learning to ski. My kids have aged out of ski racing, and while I'm still involved heavily in racing, I've been moving more to search and rescue. I've started volunteering with one of my state SAR teams with a view to becoming part of the mountain rescue unit/high angle rescue unit. Being versed in backcountry skiing would give me more versatility so I'm interested in learning. How should I start and what gearbshould I start with since it's SAR focused and not so much pure alpine skiing. Am I remembering right you’re east coast?
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Nov 9, 2023 20:41
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Anyone have an opinion about the CAST touring conversion kits for Look? I have an idiot long term low priority new ski project and I’m trying to decide if I want to try setting them up for touring. My first inclination is to go alpine with 15s (if I can find some on sale) and my existing boots and keep an eye out for a good deal on touring boots and slap the conversion on, but it isn’t cheap. Alternatively, how bad is touring gear in resorts, if I go straight to touring bindings and boots?
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Nov 9, 2023 20:49
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I haven't used CAST but freeskiing types really swear by it. If you're looking for a 50/50 set up though why not Shifts? Seems like the kinks have been mostly ironed out or are at least pretty well understood. And a little less expensive. I'd say don't ski on touring gear at the resort, too much risk of getting hurt.
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Nov 9, 2023 20:56
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I have like 20ish resort days on my Shifts so far and have zero complaints. Actually that's not true, the shape of the brake arms is stupid and they simultaneously don't lock together well nor separate easily when needed. But in terms of the skiing they are indistinguishable from an alpine binding.
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Nov 9, 2023 21:07
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Thanks; the Shifts came up but I saw some cranks unhappy about them, so I wasn’t sure.
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Nov 9, 2023 21:38
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I learned to ski in shifts, ~35 resort days on them last year and a couple of tours, no major complaints. I only had a problem with them one time: it's possible for compacted snow to get jammed under the moving plate (below the arch of your foot). I was able to dislodge it with a pole tip and banging on the bottom of the ski a bit.
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Nov 9, 2023 21:56
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in a well actually posted:Anyone have an opinion about the CAST touring conversion kits for Look? I ski the resort occasionally on touring skis but I wouldn't suggest doing it full-time. Higher injury risk on pin bindings and more delicate skis (generally) getting worn out faster. Many people complain about binding feel as well but I don't notice that really. The crossover bindings like the shift, duke pt, and cast conversion are not going to be as nice to tour on vs alpinists or ATKs or etc. but they work. You can certainly find complaints about most/all of them for different reasons. The path forward here depends on how much you tour vs resort ski, how much you ski overall, how much money you want to throw at this and how particular you are about the skis you're skiing. If you are touring just a couple days a year shifts or duke pts are maybe the way to go. More than that and I think it's pretty easy to justify a dedicated touring setup. You need to think about boot sole length differences from your resort boots to whichever new touring boots also and whether you can mount the bindings to accommodate that on a single ski setup.
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Nov 9, 2023 21:59
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Cranks are going to crank. I skied with a guy who had Shifts and I asked him how he liked them. He said he’d never buy another pair, so I asked why. He told a long story about some kind of malfunction, but it ended up that it was because the ski shop made a mistake when they mounted them  .
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Nov 9, 2023 21:59
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IDK how big/young/aggressive you are but for reference I'm 6'1" 175lbs and rapidly approaching 40 so I don't put as much abuse on gear as some. For touring the Shifts have been a godsend compared to the frame bindings I've had in the past (Duke, Adrenalin) but I also don't do very long tours. And I have them on the regular layup Moment Wildcat 108, so it's not a dedicated touring ski because the majority of my time on them is lift serviced. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 22:02 on Nov 9, 2023 |
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Nov 9, 2023 21:59
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Thanks; I don’t anticipate that I’m going to push these skis too hard and I’m more touring curious than committed, so the shifts sound like the right direction.
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Nov 10, 2023 01:15
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I went to a patrol meeting and none of the 6 dogs were there 
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Nov 10, 2023 05:49
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It does very much depend on the boots and the skis. My touring stuff is less fun and harder to ski than full downhill stuff, but I got it to be lightweight, efficient, and fast uphill, which it does very well. I did try doing a one boot, two skis setup, with some technica zero gs, but really disliked walking uphill in them (they were the more basic "guide" version, maybe the fancy ones are better). the atomic backlands are practically running shoes in comparison. I still have plenty of fun skiing but I don't go ride lifts with them and more demanding skiing on hard/variable/moguled snow gets a little rough. Anyway there's a range and in general the better something is at going uphill the worse it's going to be coming back down, and vice versa. My touring skis are 88mm underfoot and I wish I had a narrower, lighter ski for fitness laps and skimo and then something a little wider for fun skiing and deeper snow. But I need new alpine stuff more right now so this stuff can manage another season.
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Nov 10, 2023 06:13
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Anyone know what makes the Helly Hansen Steilhang $200+ better than the Alpha? I have an Alpha 3.0 that had a zipper break and I'm getting store credit at Backcountry, debating paying a bit extra to upgrade it it's worth it. Surprisingly hard to find any definitive answer though. They both have the same exterior materials and insulation type and amount. Main difference I can see is where the vents are at, pit vs chest.
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Nov 10, 2023 07:54
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ought ten posted:Am I remembering right you’re east coast?
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Nov 10, 2023 13:11
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Well, Evo has the Duke PTs at half off right now so this idiot project is moving faster than I expected.
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Nov 10, 2023 15:56
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Yuns posted:Yes east coast but not New England so it's not strictly necessary for me to have skiing for SAR/MRU. But we do have winter mountain searches even out here. And surprisingly enough we occasionally do get skiers lost. That’s very cool. I’d love to hear more as you get into it. It’s definitely something I’m interested in doing. But my kids are still little so it will be a long time before I can get going.
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Nov 10, 2023 16:59
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in a well actually posted:Anyone have an opinion about the CAST touring conversion kits for Look? I've been happy skiing my Hoji Frees in inbounds. I'd go with a shift or a duke PT before loving with CAST.
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Nov 10, 2023 22:31
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ought ten posted:That’s very cool. I’d love to hear more as you get into it. It’s definitely something I’m interested in doing. But my kids are still little so it will be a long time before I can get going. There are a lot of other SAR units in the state with differing specialties and ranges: one is focused on confined space/cave rescue, one is focused on underwater recovery, a few other that are K9 focused and the FEMA team is focused on urban SAR and natural disasters. Our state Civil Air Patrol even maintains a SAR aviation unit with a focus on lost planes and providing aviation units to support other SAR teams. The stuff we have to learn includes: survival (being self sustaining for multiple days including fire making and shelter building for keeping the subject sheltered and safe), a minimum of wilderness first aid/wilderness first responder medical skills (about half the team are wilderness EMT-qualified), incident management and coordination with multiple agencies, search techniques, land navigation/orienteering, radio use, crime scene preservation, lost person behavior, human tracking. In addition to those, the mountain rescue unit has to high angle rescue (rock) and ice and snow rescue so they should know climbing and avy rescue. When I initially volunteered I thought it would be all lost hikers and hurt climbers but there are a lot of elderly with dementia and autistic kids who get lost too. Also unfortunately a lot of suicides. Many people who are reported missing want to go missing and we do a surprising amount of body recovery. I can't be a full member until I've been through a year of training so I'm still just training with the team. Also thanks to everyone on the advice on how to transition to skiing. I'll just get some cheap downhill gear until I am competent then start with learning the AT stuff. Yuns fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Nov 11, 2023 |
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Nov 11, 2023 06:43
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I’ve always wanted a Venture Storm and I’m about one beer away from buying one
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Nov 11, 2023 06:48
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Everyone I've talked to with CAST has loved them with the caveat that they're not doing long tours. And it's not a binding problem but a boot problem because they're in hybrid boots, not dedicated touring boots. I don't understand how people ski inbounds in touring gear. My Hojis are great boots but nowhere close to my Langes for downhill performance.
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Nov 11, 2023 15:01
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Eejit posted:I don't understand how people ski inbounds in touring gear. My Hojis are great boots but nowhere close to my Langes for downhill performance. Ignorance is bliss. ed: *MY* ignorance in never having skied in Alpine boots.
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Nov 11, 2023 16:28
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I’ve been on a SAR team for a few years now, mostly over snow focused (I’m on the ski team though we also have snowmobiles and cats). I’ve only this year made it onto a search team after the first few winters training, so I have limited search experience (and haven’t gotten out on any winter searches yet) One thing I have observed in learning about and interacting with other teams is that there’s seemingly huge variance in how teams operate and what they do, part of it sometimes related to where funding comes from (and whether volunteer). Or, at least, our team is a lot different. It’s already very fulfilling and a great learning experience so far, though
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Nov 11, 2023 17:37
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where is the god drat snow
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Nov 14, 2023 20:36
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poo poo's melting again in the Alps.
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Nov 14, 2023 21:49
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Telluride just delayed opening till Dec 2nd or maybe the 8th. We’re gonna have to rethink charging max price for Christmas week.
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Nov 15, 2023 06:54
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That will absolutely not happen btw, we’ve managed to train all these rich people to think they’re gonna make 50k rental income over the last two weeks of December and it’s gonna be a very slow race to the bottom.
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Nov 15, 2023 06:56
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The lack of snow is concerning for sure.
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Nov 15, 2023 18:21
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If anyone sees dope comfy board boots on sale, please @ me
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Nov 15, 2023 18:26
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spwrozek posted:The lack of snow is concerning for sure. It's been feeling balmy the past few days out in the sun, spring break weather, but with only 1 run open....
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Nov 16, 2023 13:13
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Ubiquitus posted:If anyone sees dope comfy board boots on sale, please @ me https://www.moosejaw.com/ 25% off any full priced item.
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Nov 16, 2023 23:28
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Tip for any US people looking to buy some gear -- check Canada. I wanted to upgrade from my cheap Amazon goggles to the Smith 4d Mags but the cheapest I could find was $238. Corbett's had a pair of last year's model (literally the same in every way afaik) for $203 CAD which is $150 USD, plus no taxes and no shipping costs if you're ok with slowish + no signature required. https://skiisandbiikes.com/ is another good one to check. Can also find deals from Euro sites like snowcountry.eu and outdoor.xl
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Nov 17, 2023 00:40
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Moey posted:It's been feeling balmy the past few days out in the sun, spring break weather, but with only 1 run open.... Yeah it is hot out in Denver. Just crazy. Looks like a few chances coming for snow though.
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Nov 17, 2023 00:56
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spwrozek posted:Yeah it is hot out in Denver. Just crazy. Looks like a few chances coming for snow though. Did it not snow in Vail today?
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Nov 17, 2023 03:57
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kiimo posted:Did it not snow in Vail today? Not to mention at least half an inch on berthoud. I could see tracks in the parking lot on the cdot cams! Dry road though, looked like.
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Nov 17, 2023 04:06
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I get my information from obviously staged tweets though. Big Bear did this the other day and it was a perfectly framed one run that they have made snow for. https://twitter.com/vailmtn/status/1725185536405520409?s=46&t=4HCQHNrQSCCyTv5_MzlCTw
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Nov 17, 2023 04:10
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kiimo posted:Did it not snow in Vail today? It looked like something big was blowing into Breck late this morning, then it just lightly rained for like 20 mins.
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Nov 17, 2023 06:58
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I feel like I must be missing something -- the 4 day Epic Pass is just flat out better and cheaper than the 4 day Ikon Pass, right? https://www.epicpass.com/pass-results/passes.aspx https://www.ikonpass.com/en/shop-passes/ikon-session-pass I'm in the 4 corners region, so Utah and CO Rockies are what I'd be eyeing. Epic: Vail, Breckenridge, T'ride, Park City $400 Ikon: Steamboat, Winter Park, Copper. $539
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Nov 17, 2023 18:45
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regulargonzalez posted:I feel like I must be missing something -- the 4 day Epic Pass is just flat out better and cheaper than the 4 day Ikon Pass, right? You're not missing anything: Epic is a better deal for 4 days.
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Nov 17, 2023 18:51
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And in general Epic Pass pricing is significantly cheaper than Ikon
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Nov 17, 2023 22:58
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