Proper touring skis then!
I don’t know much about the Atomic Tour Balanze yet but it might we worth considering
http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Gear/Atomic-Tour-Balanze
The German Bergsteiger magazine liked the Atomic Peak
http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Gear/Atomic-Peak
However I know that the MX:8 was a favourite with the girls and Atomic say that the climber is the replacement for this ski. It weighs 2500g in 170cm which sounds ok.
http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Gear/Atomic-Climber
I think your idea about the Altitrail is good. I know a lot of serious ski tourers use this ski. It grips well on traverses. You can get away with straight skins on the 170 and 178 cm - otherwise cut to fit skins are not too expensive (remember to leave the edges visible to grip when traversing). The ski a good price too at 285 € - although you can maybe get last year’s model for less. The ski works well in powder, personally I would buy these skis. I used to ski on the 4x4 Verticals (amongst the first all mountain skis) which were less around 68mm underfoot and didn’t have a wood core. The big negative is the base is in a fragile P-Tex which doesn’t like rocks, so not a ski for early in the season. Also the shovel is not very pronounced so some skiers find themselves sitting back in powder to make turns.
http://pistehors.com/backcountry/wiki/Gear/Dynastar-Altitrail-Vertical
I don’t know much about the Volkls, I know the Norbert Joos was a big hit when it first came out but had build problems and fell apart… I think they’ve fixed these issues now though. Maybe someone else can comment?