Member VtVolk

Welcome to the darkside, Stefano!

The answer to almost all of your questions is “it depends.” Boots and boards are almost totally personal preference. For a board, in general, I’d advise you to ride what you like for your solid board setup but factor in the terrain you plan to ride and the pack you’ll be carrying to get there. I like big…[Read more]

Cripple Creek Backcountry has them in stock on their site

Just chiming in on the Spark Dynos. I have probably 200+ days on my original set and I use them riding the lifts as well. Bomber. I require nothing more.

Quick update since my last post in October: I now have about 30 days on the yellow carbons after 2 full seasons on the non-carbons. Everything I loved about the original is just as good or better on the carbons (except the color). The Palau liners on carbons are noticeably better made, warmer, and more comfortable than the generic Fischer…[Read more]

I did a tour last night in temps a few degrees below zero (much colder feeling with wind) and did notice a bit more play in the binding/boot interface than usual. I wouldn’t describe it as very loose–it was just a little easier than usual to flip the toe levers and I had a few mm of side to side play with under the toe bails. I didn’t really…[Read more]

I’d seen the Ginoux toes but not the Maruellis. That’s an elegant design, and I’d be very curious to see how they work. I would certainly trade the weight and complexity of tech toes for having to bend over to tighten them.

I made a bulky prototype of something similar five or so years ago. It worked fine for a while, but eventually the steel…[Read more]

The Dyno DH is perhaps my favorite piece gear I’ve ever had the pleasure to use.

Having done a ton of touring on tech toes, I think you’ll find locking them out is pretty critical. Carefully skinning straight ahead with them unlocked is no problem, but as soon as you start to put lateral pressure on them (sidehilling, etc.) they pop right out. Short leashes will keep your ski from sliding too far away, but it would still be…[Read more]

Very cool, Velca! Thanks for posting.

I’m currently thinking of something similar for my Fischer Travers that allows uninhibited forward flex but a hard, ideally slightly cushioned stop on the heel side. I never thought about a Voile strap as an elastomer, but might give it a try. I ride them unlocked now, and while I love the soft surfy feel,…[Read more]

Buell, will this mod be specific to Atomic Backlands, or could it be applied to other boots (e.g., Fischer Travers, or others with a similar lock bar)? Sounds promising.

Congrats on a great sounding setup! I’d love to hear your impressions of the Spark tech toes after you’ve used them a few times.

.

Those are a lot nicer looking than the last version! I loved the non-carbons, but had a catastrophic failure at the very end of last season with the shell cracking near the front rivet of the tongue area. Fischer was awesome about the warranty, and I have a shiny new pair of bright yellow carbons waiting to try as soon as snow starts falling.…[Read more]

I use the Petzl Irvis Hybrids on my hard boots. Great pons! The are noticeably light on the feet, and the dyneema cords let them fold up to about half the size of normal crampons, making them much easier to throw in the pack. Mine came stock with both fully auto and semi auto front bails, which was a bonus.

Not sure if the picture link will work, but this shows where the Boa dial snapped off. I managed to hold it mostly together by snugging the broken dial to the two rivet “posts” with a few mini zip ties, and made it through 20+ miles of skinning and some sweet pow laps in the Adirondacks this past weekend. I’m working with Boa to try to find…[Read more]

Agreed. I carry some thin static cord for just such an occasion. And several Voile straps which can fix almost anything! The Boa cable still actually stays reasonably snug, but the dial is now kind of flopping on the top of my foot rather than fixed to one side. I’ve researched it a bunch this morning, and Boa has plentiful and cheap repair…[Read more]

Hate to report bad news, but I was skinning last night and felt a sudden looseness in my right foot. I looked down and found that the whole boa mechanism had snapped off the boot. The boa dial still functions, but the tiny baseplate attaching it to the boot is apparently made of thin plastic! It looks to be less than 1mm thick. One of the best…[Read more]

Yep, BSL is very compact. 296mm on my 27.5s. Also, because the last is a bit wider, I was able to size down a full size from my previous Dynafits. The BSL is basically 10mm longer than the length of my bare foot, yet they are the most comfortable [ski] boots I’ve ever worn. They look freakishly compact poking out of baggy Flylow bibs.

The…[Read more]

I have not played around with the forward lean since I ride them “unlocked” all the time, but the lock lever is really simple, and theoretically would be easy to replace with something longer, shorter, spring loaded, rubbery, etc. The uppers on the non-carbon model are also quite soft, so I haven’t even needed to trim down the lateral or medial…[Read more]