Back Country Telermark Skis for Alpine Skiing... ?
October 4, 2008
Can telemark skis be mounted with regular alpine bindings for regular alpine (resort) skiing?
For example, Can a telemark skis with dimensions 112-79-102, sidecut 14.1, radius of 23m can it be used for regular alpine skiing?
I think one of the features of telemark skis is to be able to ski with them 'free heel' or 'fixed' (like alpine skis) so that got me thinking if alpine skiing with them is feasible.
On older tele-specific gear, one had to be extremely careful that the heelpiece mounting area had sufficient beef (and extended far enough to the back of the ski) to hold onto the screws. Heelpiece tearout = bad.
On newer stuff, particularly gear also marketed for AT/randonee,this is not a problem. The flex may be a bit softer than an "equivalent" ski in the alpine-mount line, both longitudinally and torsionally. Oh, and some have inserts for tele bindings that you'd have to avoid.