Hi, completeley new to this and need some advice please. I am looking initially to get fitter by climbing up pistes with a view to doing some half day or day tours later in the season. I would describe myself as an advanced skier in my 50’s doing my third consecutive season in Tignes.

I have bought some Volkl Gotama skis fitted with Fritschi freeride bindings. Before I spend the money on skins can anyone advise me if these will be ok for touring. I cannot find online any fritschi crampons that will fit the skis which are 105mm underfoot. Initially I would be using my normal ski boots which are Salomon Impact 10. I already have tranceiver/probe/shovel. If the Volkl’s are judged to be too wide I could have the bindings fitted to Bandit B83’s but I would rather not do this.

Any comments would be much appreciated

The Gotama’s are not ideal for touring. I think they weigh around the 4.2kg mark so are quite heavy plus 105 underfoot is wide, you will be making your own tracks most of the time and the will be hard on traverses. Something like the Atomic Sweet Daddy is a better “free-rando” type ski and I see they are on sale for 199 euros at Sport Conrad at the moment.

http://www.sport-conrad.com/index.asp?disp=artikel&art_nr=70005103

That said, I would have thought shorter tours would be ok and if you do buy skins they will be wide so you could cut them down to fit more touring oriented skis at a later date. The B83s are quite heavy too. They did a Respect version which was basically a lighter weight touring B83. Personally I would stick with the Gotama’s, you should be able to tour at 200-300 meters an hour depending on fitness with them.

For crampons, try these from Voile

http://www.voile-usa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=2070_&Category_Code=CMPN&Product_Count=0

105mm underfoot is wide and I think the Voile’s are the only solution. You probably won’t need crampons much early on.

Check out the pistes you want to climb, when the resort is open this can be dangerous. Early morning or evening you want to find pistes where you are not going to get run over by a piste basher and watch out on steeper areas for whinch cables crossing runs. These are very dangerous. You may find that you can climb up by a walking or snow shoe trail and ski down on or just off the run for the descent.

Thanks for the quick reply and the quality of information you have given me. The links will be very useful for me. I have considered all the safety aspects of using the pistes but thanks for the advice. you can never be too careful!

davidof - 10 February 2009 05:01 PM

The Gotama’s are not ideal for touring. I think they weigh around the 4.2kg mark so are quite heavy plus 105 underfoot is wide, you will be making your own tracks most of the time and the will be hard on traverses. Something like the Atomic Sweet Daddy is a better “free-rando” type ski and I see they are on sale for 199 euros at Sport Conrad at the moment.

don’t ley josnow read this. he’s just got his sweet daddys setup with dynafits to accompany his “wide” b94s with fritschis

Have you tried the Vieux Camper in Albertville?

I got harsheissen / couteaux to fit my Pocketrockets with Fritschi Diamir Freerides from there last year before doing the Haute Route . I got skins to suit from Lockwoods in Leamington Spa but would be surprised if the VC can’t supply them.

The Vieux Campeur have an online catalogue:-

http://www.au-vieux-campeur.fr/index.php

although it is a bit cumbersome. I think the widest Fritschi Crampon is 100mm, tbc.

Thanks for the help. I will have a look in VC when I am in Albertville week after next.

i have a pair of the fritschi 100mm couteaux which i picked up at VC last month. they are the widest ones there. actually for sale if anyone’s interested? unused.
si

Quick update.  I was back in Uk for a week and had a look at Lockwoods web site. The skins and couteaux worked out a lot cheaper than in France and as an added bonus they had some Scarpa denali touring boots at just about half price. I found them very helpful on the telephone so took a chance on ordering the boots online as one of the sizes they had was mine. Everything arrived the next day as promised and the boots were spot on. As far as I remember this was the first time I had used our convection oven at home and it was to heat up the boot liners!

Used the boots and skins every day this week for a couple of hours after skiing and there is less pain every day in the legs.