Hi guys, my first post, so be gentle with me.

I’ve done a couple of half day tours and really enjoyed it.  Am going for a week of day tours in Verbier, followed by the Haute Route later this year. 

I have bought Movement Sparks with Fritschi Explore bindings and Garmont Adrenaline boots.  Used them over New Year on lifts at PDS and they were great on the piste and off, although they were so good, I’m now worried that the boot is going to be too heavy for the Haute Route.

What do you think?  Am I going to cripple myself into a blistered mess?

Cheers

H

It depends to a certain extent who you are touring with. I ski with a guy who uses Fritschi freerides and he beats me to the summit, especially on a long climb, but he is 20 years younger than me, however he is normally only a few meters ahead as I’m on Dynafit Comforts. However I’ve toured Fritschi with people who are on lightweight gear but the same fitness and it can be hard going.

I’ve not done the Haute-Route but if the weather closes in you can end up with long days to make up the distance. A friend told me they did 2000m+ in one day because of this.

Apart from that I don’t see a major problem, plenty of people using Fritschi gear with boots in the 3.5-4kg range in the Haute-Savoie/Switzerland.

Agree with David. 

Also I believe you have to decide what you want, and also understand how fit you are.  I tour more to enjoy the skiing, than to be the fastest up the hill, so I carry heavier gear than some (e.g.: regular Bandit B2 skis and not something lighter and less stable).  Philippe has much lighter gear than I do, so on a 3 hour climb he sometimes can be 10-15 minutes ahead, but I’ll enjoy the ski down more than he will with the light flappy planks

The Chamonix-Zermatt Haute Route is different from almost every other tour in the Alps. So one perspective is that owning boots which are incompatible with the HR is a good sign for your future skiing possibilities.

My view is that there are roughly 317 single- and multi-day tours in the Alps which are more fun than the HR, so a happy possibility is that after trying some other tours, you’ll come to your senses and stop bothering about the HR. Most groups don’t “make it through” the whole HR anyway, so it’s unlikely that your boots will be the main fault. If you’re with a group with experienced guides, they’re accustomed to dealing with people with all kinds of equipment - (and not by putting them through any day of 2000m+)

If you’re really worried, I suppose you could train in the month before the trip by doing some dryland hikes with weights around your ankles.

Ken