Splitboard.com Forums

Has anyone hear anything about using NTN (new telemark norm) boots for splitboarding?

http://www.telemarktips.com/RevNTN07.html

thanks

I'm waiting for a light, touring-oriented boot. Garmont is said to have 3 boots in the works, so hopefully we'll see a prototype this winter. I hope they follow the trend of adding dynafit compatibility.

Shep

Hell no, dude. You'll never get me away from my leathers and my 75mm fischers! Oh wait... I thought I was on ttips for a second there.

Wouldn´t Dynafit be a better bet? Just curious, having tried neither, and am a softbooter.
The NTN binders alone are pretty heavy, and I don´t quite see the advantage. I might be alone on this one, though.

Why?

If NTN boots were extremely light weight i could see them being an option for hardbooters. More flex than a standard AT boot. i'm not overly excited about the idea though. Not sure if it fits well in the voile mtn plate either.

Heavy is bad I hadn't heard that.
I am a softbooter as well and just recently started spliting. While trying to sidehill on 2" of dust on crust the lack of support in the softboot was evedent. The Tele guys I was with said you really need a stiff boot for doing the hardpack sidehill. I started thinking about what someone on another thread said "you spend 95% of you time going up and 5% going down" so you might as well gear up for the climb. If a hard bood is better at that, I figured I could get one boot that could do lots of things. I don't have any ski gear but I do want to learn to Tele, and I've been know to borrow alpine gear when it's rained then froze and the groomers are the onlything worth riding. If I gewt the NTN boot then I can watch tramdock or steep and cheep for steals and I'll have boots already. It seemed like a good idea to me, but I didn't really know anything about the NTN's other than their ability to be used for alpine and tele. So I threw it out here to get the advice of the "sages'

While there is some truth to that logic......the main reason I'm going up, is so I can come down. So for me, I'd rather compromise something on the ascent than the descent. Probably doesn't make the most sense but that's my logic.

As for sidehilling in softboots, tightening the upper cuffs on your boots and using Spark bindings can help a lot.

What would you think of frankensteining on a calf strap like on the old school kempers?

Do you mean like a booster strap on the boot itself or a third strap on the bindings?

Like these:


I imagine both could help when sidehilling but if you're going to add that much stiffness to the boot and ride feel, you might as well just use hardboots and be done with it.

A thrid strap on the binding, like you picture, is exactly what I was thinking. The benifit being you could leave unstrapped while riding. In fact you'd probably leave it unstrapped while skinning untill you hit a side hill. That being said I did some sidehilling in soft snow last night and it was no problem. So maybe I'm just being a little to anal and the few time I encounter a sidehill which gives me trouble I should unstrap (or get crampons); in other words "man up"

If you haven't gotten some spark binders yet you may find that answers your grip issues - there's just someting more solid in the connection that makes sidehilling better & Mr. Chomps will get you there if its really dicey. Other advantage is the short downhills in the tours where its not worth converting. Sparks will give you way!!! better control there.

Got a local buddy with sparks who is still waiting for his Venture to get built. I'll ask if I can test drive them.