The Atomic Backland XTD 120 is a new touring boot for the 2023 - 24 season. It's intended to be a 1400g boot that tours extremely well and has reasonably good ski performance but misses the mark in a few ways. More in the review.
Summary
Get the Hawx Ultra XTD 130 BOA GW if you want a low'ish volume boot with high-end downhill ski performance and if you don't mind lugging weight around touring. This boot also rewards those who can work with a good boot-fitter as there are so many tuning and boot-fitting options.
MSRP will be $1,049 Cad. Sizes will be from 24.5 to 30.5. If you have a smaller foot then the only available option are the Hawx Ultra XTD 115 W which goes down to 22.5 in size but is priced a tad more affordably at a MSRP of CAD $849.
The Salomon/Atomic Shift is a great binding but it can be fiddly. Anything from a minor adjustment issue to snow on the boot can cause pre-releases. Here's how to get the most out of your Shift Bindings and to how to fix some common issues/problems.
The Fritschi Xenic is a light yet high-performance alpine touring binding with a safety story. It has (optional) brakes, adjustable vertical and lateral heel retention, is under 300g and is priced relatively affordably at a MSRP of USD $420.
New for the 2019-20 season Blizzard completely revised its ZeroG lineup releasing all skis in the lineup with new molds, new construction, and in three widths. For review, Blizzard provided the ZeroG 105 ski in 180cms length. To recap, the ZG105's predecessor (released in 2015) was the ZeroG 108 touring ski. The ZG108 was an instant cult-classic. It was reasonably light, mid-fat, stiff, relatively straight and rewarded aggressive skiing; truly transcending the one-ski-to-do-it-all bullshit that marketers constantly spin. People loved the ZG108; it made me a Blizzard fan-boi.
The ZG108 made few concessions to user error. By contrast, the new Blizzard ZeroG 105 reviewed here upholds the virtues of the ZG108 while tweaking tip, tail and rocker profile slightly to bring out different aspects of the ski. Bliizzard cult-members can rejoice in that the ZG105 still has the aggressive bones of its predecessor but still has enough forgiveness that user error is not corrected by a series of tomahawks.
So you want to tour. You ski like Hoji. Or MikeD. Or Candide. You want a ski touring binding that can handle your radness. But you're also a purist so you're going to be walking uphill. For hours and hours on end. For the 2018-19 season there are two choices which make sense. The choice is between Fritschi's Tecton or the Salomon/Atomic Shift
The touring boot that can do it all. Everyone looks for it. It skips uphill on fairy dust. Downhill you're transformed into Candide; ripping turns, straightlining chutes, producing instabangers. I'm a cynic. There's no such thing. But every year we get closer. And the Tecnica ZeroG Tour Pro is a fairly massive step in that direction.
The Folsom Cash hits a lot of sweet spots. If you want to hit mach speeds in pow or variable conditions then go with the stiffer build. If you want to ski tight trees, arc tight or medium radius turns or hop-turn steeps go with the medium or softer builds. If you want a handmade in North America hard-charging ski which lasts practically forever this ski should be a consideration.
As recently as Dec 1, 2018 the MacDonald West permanent closure in Rogers Pass was poached by a group. Therefore I think it's time I reposted these links and resources
This is a public service announcement to try to put together links and information about the Rogers Pass winter permit system. I've vetted the links so know it works.
Folks this permit system is free. It's an effort by ParksCanada MtRevelstoke-Glacier to let us ski cool stuff while not getting blown up by howitzers. How about we show a bit of gratitude and respect it?
Pass this around and encourage people to get informed. As a bonus I've put together a lifetime of useful weather and navigation links/resources
The SHIFT binding is flawless on the downhill. We had some minor quibbles with the touring performance but it is essentially a refined, high-quality touring binding that performs impeccably well both up and down.
The SHIFT is Atomic and Salomon's new touring binding. Pins on the up. Alpine on the down. This is a first looks article
Fritschi Tecton and Fritschi Vipec Evo Alpine touring bindings. Safety, performance, light-weight yet reasonably priced
The Dalbello Lupo AX120 skis beautifully, tours well and can be customized for flex. And at $600 USD you won't have to sacrifice a kidney to buy it
A review of the Atomic Hawx Ultra XTD - a new entry into the superboot do-it-all category for touring.
