Ski touring ESTC style is not a fashion activity but it is still expensive to acquire all the kit and you may well want to spread your expenditure overtime and to put off buying equipment until you are clear what type of Nordic skiing suits you. You may already have equipment from other activities which will be adequate to get you started.
The basic kit list for a winter weekend identifies what clothing you will need. Basically, if it will keep you warm and dry in fairly extreme conditions, it will do to get you started. Cotton clothing is not advised as it retains no warmth when wet.
The one you have got will probably do, although ideally you need a sack without side pockets and with side straps. This will allow you to fix your skis to the sack for those inevitable occasions when you have to walk to or from the snow line. A small summer sack will probably not have the capacity to hold the spare clothing and other essentials for a winter day out.
Until you have found your feet and decided exactly what type of Nordic touring or telemarking suits you it is sensible to hire your gear. The Club has a hire scheme designed especially to help new members. In Scotland braemarmountainsports.com is the starting point for hiring equipment, either from the Braemar or Aviemore shops or by carrier from Braemar. Most specialist activity holidays from this country recommend you hire your equipment from them as there are few places in Europe where you can count on being able to hire kit in the area. They offer a range of equipment for hire so you can try out different combinations and help your choice. Mountain Spirit in Aviemore is another specialist supplier.
Your choice of equipment will reflect what you want to do. The more expensive skis and boots are more appropriate to more extreme telemark activities and usually are not as suitable for touring in Scotland or the Nordic countries. In America the cross over from trail to backcountry cross country is producing a new generation of beefy touring skis with three quarter edges and fancy tails. These are not available in this country yet and there is no experience of using them in Scotland but they may have their place. In general there is a choice to make between turning and downhill control and ease in the kick and glide used to cover rolling hills and plateaus. Below there are two suggestions, one which emphasises the traveling aspect of touring one which places more emphasis on the downhill phases of the tour.
Ski behaviour is determined by a number of design parameters but the key ones are:
Wide skis with narrow waists (pronounced sidecuts), single cambered and waxed for performance, with shorter lengths and stiffer construction enhance downhill and powder performance. Indeed many more expensive telemark skis are really downhill powder skis for backcountry use. That is to say the emphasis is on turning performance in descent not kick and glide in touring. Narrower skis with less pronounced sidecut, double camber, greater flexibility and lighter construction, with or without fishscale bottoms, emphasise touring performance and kick and glide. The skis in the suggestions are compromises which reflect the choices Nordic tourer want to make as they trade before the two types of back country ski experience.
To understand what we mean by camber, hold the skis with their bottoms facing and tips and tails touching at the centre there will be a gap of between 2 to 3 cms. Single camber ski will describe a simple arc from tail to toe and should be resistant to being compressed. When edged in a turn compressing the ski forces the edge of the ski into the shape of the arc and promotes carving the turn.
Now picture double camber skis as having a second shorter more curved arc super-imposed onto the larger arc, the second arc starting just in front of the boot and ending just behind it. With this type of ski, the idea is that in normal skiing the skier's weight is distributed on both skis and the long arc is compressed occasionally to aid turning but the short, or second, arc is not. In other words, the base of the ski under the skier's boot is not pressed against the snow firmly in normal descent. However, when the skier is climbing, all their weight is placed on first one ski and then the other in the classic kick glide motion. With all the weight on one ski the ski base the second camber under the skier's boot is compressed firmly against the snow. Sometimes called the "wax pocket" this area of the base is where a skier who wants to climb will smear sticky climbing wax. If it's a waxless ski, this area is where the fish scale texture will be. The second camber, therefore, generally keeps the waxed or fishscales area off the snow and promotes gliding except when the ski is fully weighted as when climbing and then it brings the gripping area into full contact with the snow to promote adhesion. The double camber preserves the life of climbing waxes by keeping them out of contact with the snow except when essential.
Double cambered skis are bad news to the dedicated telemarker who would prefer to skin more directly to the down slopes, single cambered skis mean more work for the Nordic tourer when trying to gain traction across rolling terrain.
Waxed is better if you are expert, you like playing and fine tuning your equipment, or you intend to ski in colder snow. Waxless or fishscale is better if life is too short to clean the refrigerator, or if you are skiing in snow around freezing point. Waxes work by forming a bond between the wax and the snow as the snow crystals penetrate the surface layer of the wax. The optimum bond is a function of the structure of the snow which varies with temperature and the nature of the wax. .A well waxed ski will outperform a fishscale ski, but a fishscale ski will climb steeper hills than all but the most carefully waxed skis. The waxing pocket and its kick waxes or the fishscale pattern is situated on the base of the ski under the skier's foot and provides grip to prevent the ski sliding backwards. The weighted ski thus grips the snow and allows the un-weighted ski to slide forward. Fishscale or bears claw describes the pattern of raised tread that replaces wax in this area of the ski on waxless skis. Remember, however, that all skis need good maintenance and waxless skis still need glide waxing and edge sharpening. See the waxing page linked to below for more information.
Below are two possible sets of equipment which would equip you to ski comfortably with the ESTC, they place slightly different emphases on touring and downhill performance but either would be appropriate.
This is the classic Nordic ski set up. Indeed the only problem with this kit may be recognising it among everyone else's gear after a hard night's drinking. The ski has a waxless bottom, it is fairly narrow with a Nordic or double camber and has some sidecut to help turning. The binding is the simple traditional three pin without cable. It allows maximum freedom for kick and glide and is adequate in gentler terrain and for lower speed descents.
This is a set up which will allow you to tour, although you may not be first up the hills you will have lots of fun on the descents, broader tips and more pronounced side cut makes this a set up you can use quite happily to downhill as well as tour. The Cable binding with Voilé safety binding offer greater rigidity and control but also should help protect your limbs when you do fall or catch an edge. The poles are adjustable to allow for traversing steeper slopes and changing from ascending to descending. (The poles can double as walking poles) You can spend much more on telemark skis but this is not recommended for club touring. Atomic, Rossignol, Karhu are other manufacturers with good products but not easily available in the UK.
Two alternatives are given. The first is better suited to basic Nordic touring but can be used to telemark. The second is more flexible but is definitely the preferred choice for the telemark option. There is a general move towards plastic boots for greater control, but there are still traditionalists who prefer leather. Leather boots with buckles offer a compromise. Boots are key to your enjoyment: nothing takes the edge off a day like bad boots. Indeed buying your own boots is stage one in addiction. Try them out before you buy if you possibly can, but if not make sure you go somewhere where the staff care and are properly trained in fitting. Remember that freeheel transfers a great deal of pressure to the toes so make sure they have room and the rest of the boot shares the load. Plastic boots can be personalised by the purchase of flow linings which fit to the shape of your foot. These add considerably to the price but are worth it, having nearly lost my toes to frostbite through too tight leather boots I am biased.
The Tour Garmont is less is a leather boot without buckles. You may well find good bargains in leather boots at a reduced price this reflects their waning following. Alico is another reputable name in leather boots.
Scarpa and Garmont are the big plastic boot suppliers. These are there two touring boots. More expensive boots give greater stiffness but probably at the expense of comfort for touring.
Neither waxes nor fishscales are adequate when the hills get steep. You may be able to zigzag but in the end you need skins to increase friction and hence climbing power. Skins reflect the history of the sport, now made in plastic or mohair, they were original made from mole or seal skin. A natural skin has a direction, when stroked one way it becomes smooth and silky, when stroked the other it becomes rough and ruffled. Attached to the bottom of skis the skins were cut to slip easily forward and to become ruffled and grip the snow if pushed backward. Modern skins attach to the tips of the skis with buckles and are glued to the base with a permanent sticky layer. More sophisticated systems may have a special tail fitting otherwise the skin just glue up over the tail onto the top of the skin. Modern broader skis have lead to the marketing of new skin designs, but for most purposes of skiing with the ESTC ordinary skins plastic skins will be adequate.
Steeper icy and exposed slopes with limited snow cover require more specialist equipment. You will need this if you go on a Tour in the Alps or Pyrenees and they may save you detours in the Scottish mountains, but you can probably wait until you have been touring for a while before you need to venture into places that demand the full works. See the link page below for further discussion.
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