Looks like all skimo companies have been pretty busy lately because I don’t even know where to begin with this gear summary.
Let’s start with something you might have already spotted on Skintrack few weeks ago.
La Sportiva Syborg line
The new La Sportiva Syborg boots and skis should be quite exciting as they will bring more competition into the affordable-race-gear category.
The Syborg boots should weigh 800g at size 27. See this article for more details on these boots and their sibling Syborg skis.
Scarpa Alien 2.0
Probably, the most exciting news is that Scarpa will finally bring a full carbon skimo race boot to the market! This is their stab at the feather weights such as Pierre Gignoux Morpho or La Sportiva Stratos Cube boots (or Dynafit RC1… see below).
As you can see, the Scarpa Alien 2.0 resemble more a soccer shoe than a skimo boot but that’s maybe because they are meant to make you to kick some ass. Their weight should be around 600g for size 27 or so. More pics can be found on WildSnow.
Perhaps the coolest feature of these boots is not the full carbon but the cuff vertical locking mechanism which locks the boot into a ski mode automatically when you step into your heel bindings! This feature is shared with Scarpa’s ski touring model EVO F1 pictured bellow.
And here is a photo from 2010 when only very few people had the first ever Alien boots. While still testing them, Florent Troillet (one of skimo’s past greats), beat Kilian Jornet for the 2010 World Championship individual title, but as you can see he was clearly instructed to keep the BOA system a secret.
Dynafit: redesigns + Pierre Gignoux boots and bindings as RC1
As of a year ago, my personal feeling was that for Pierre Gignoux to survive the evolution war of the big skimo brands he will need to sell his company to one of them. It didn’t quite happen but it came close – Pierre Gignoux licensed his Morpho 400 boots and bindings to Dynafit who will bring them to the market under the “RC1” label for next season.
The weights should be the same (or very close) to the originals – RC1 boots at 500g for size 26 and RC1 bindings at 75g.
» Here you can compare all lightest boots currently on the market.
Lots of new gear will be coming from Dynafit for the next season, however, the rest of their skimo racing lineup looks to be getting mostly a visual face-lift.
Two new things for both boots will be:
- new fully sole covering EVO-PDG sole ruber,
- and forward lean inserts to customize your ski position
Their racing skis seem to mostly only get a new top sheets as dimensions and weight are virtually the same, however, the claim is they have a “flex tip” feature like their current Cho Oyu skis. And so the DyNA Race skis will be 710g at 161cm (99-65-80) and the PDG 790g at 161cm (99-65-80).
» Here you can compare all lightest skis that are currently buy.
Hagan ZR bindings
These bindings are not a new item as they were introduced this season, however, they didn’t receive as much attention as other gear so I want to shed some light on them especially since I am personally using them.
Not an engineering inovation from Hagan themselves but rather a smart re-branding move like Dynafit with RC1 boots. Originally, these are ATK SL-R bindings which means top quality, but since ATK is not interested in bringing their products to the North American market Hagan decided to do it for us, skimo racers.
I put in about 10,000m on them for up and 10,000m for down so far. More testing is obviously needed but given my previous long term experience with ATK bindings I don’t expect major surprises.
» And here you can compare all lightest skimo bindings you can currently buy.
Jonathan Shefftz says
The irony in all this is that for skiers who say they have problems prereleasing from the toes of Dynafit touring bindings, they would be better off for that with race bindings, since the springs are stronger. That part has been easy for me to measure.
Otherwise, for breakage issues, who knows…
brian harder says
It’s really hard to say where the ceiling is on this application of race binders to bigger skis. Several years ago, Greg Hill encouraged me to but Low Techs on Stoke width skis as he did for his vertical obsession. I continued to use lighter, narrower skis like the Broad Peak, and Trab Free Rando with Plum 145’s without issue. My only blow out, documented here http://www.skimolife.com/journal/2013/4/6/steep-skiing-fail.html is my one failure. It’s debatable whether it was the twisting fall or contact with the wall downrange that cause the break. Bottom line is that many of have used these light bindings in serious terrain for years.
The thing that would be cool to know is the different amount of torque and, thus, stress placed on bindings when jump turning on little skis on firm snow versus arcing powder turns on fats skis. I don’t know the answer. Throw in some airs and it opens the discussion about appropriate binding selection even further. Lou Dawson made a suggestion to me once that he felt these bindings were not safe enough to be used in critical terrain. Complete opinion on his part. We need some way to quantify this stuff. Until we have it, we can look at what guys like Trevor Hunt, the Dorais brothers and countless other steep skiers around the world ski on this gear. Of course, we have guys like Fransson skiing in full alpine set ups. Different strokes…
Interestingly, Trevor mentions “hybrid” set ups with, I assume, a beefier toe piece (presumably Dynafit) with a race heel. This drops serious weight and gets rid of the annoying ramp angle issue with other heels. Although I haven’t done this yet, my recent forays onto Speed Radicals and the attendant ramp issues are quickly leading me in this direction. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the beefy appearance of the Speed toe and ease of entry. Certainly, I’m jaded from that one experience. Going in this direction would, unfortunately, eliminate the luxury of the additional heel lift when skiing. But this would be a worth while price to pay for additional security and more enjoyable turns.
Jonathan Shefftz says
Stano, many thanks for the great write-up! Especially nice to see a focus on such lightweight gear (as compared to most bloggers of course).
However, just a note that the Dynafit EVO/PDG went to full sole rubber for the 2012-13 season. (To add to the confusion though, the sku didn’t change, so many retailers/etailers kept selling the older version with partial rubber at full price, plus even Dynafit never changed the website pictures.) The 2012-13 version also added a two-position forward lean feature (same as on the TLT5 and now TLT6) — although looks like the change for 2014-15 is to add a shim system … which of course could be jerry rigged now for the EVO/PDG (or any other boot) just by taping down any sort of shim-type material on the back of the liner or inside of the cuff.
Josh, I have Hagan ZR bindings on Hagan Y-Flow 87mm skis — only one outing so far though, since I only recently mounted them up (with the new race pattern plates from JigaRex — more on that to follow soon…). Speaking of Hagan, lots of new wide & light skis coming from them for 2014-15!
Stano Faban says
Josh, thank you for the kudos! 🙂
I never had a race binding on fatter skis than race sticks but it definitely works and I am just about to put them on Nanga Parbats. You just need to figure out what is all the conditions/terrain you want to ski on them. I think race bindings for powder skis (or mainly soft snow) are suitable, but might not be for icy slopes when mounted on a wide ski (but depends on the binding). The best man to speak on this is Trevor Hunt, here’s my interview with him – http://www.skintrack.com/people/trevor-hunt-interview-steep-skier/
I previously had an ATK heel with Dynafit toe pieces for about 80-100 days, held up very well. Then I had full ATK setup for about 50 days and held up well. I skied them both in all conditions including some gnarly steep hard snow faces/couloirs. Now, I am about 8 days on the ZR bindings and like them a lot, and already skied a quite hard and steep couloir on them (mounted on Hagan X-race skis with Alien 1.0).
For my China-Kyrgyz trip I had Dynafit Broad Peaks 176cm mounted with the TLT Speed Radicals. I think it’s a great combination for steeps, hard snow, crud, wind slab, and even some powder (less than 20cm).
Hope that helps more than confuses 🙂
JCoates says
Hi Stano,
Thanks for the great website and all of the good information. I am looking at putting something like the Hagan ZR or some ATK’s on my “daily driver” skis (94mm at the waist). It sounds like we are the same build (except I probably have a few cm on you in the waist). How have yours held up? Can I ask what kind of bindings you used for your China-Kyrgyz expedition? Thanks in advance.
-Josh