Telemark Tech System

I have been a rando skier for 20 plus years.  I started with Paul Ramers binding and then I switched to Dynafit bindings about 15 years ago.  I found this recent posting by Craig Dostie at the Couloir site interesting for the telemark market.  The Dynafit/Tech system is expanding its reach. 

www.earnyourturns.com/4970/dynafit-goes-...elieve-it/#more-4970

Love seeing more info about this setup. I've been on it since May. It tours incredibly well, of course, and skis well too -- much better than I thought it would.

Thanks for posting this, very useful info to have on the radar.  I've been struggling with the use of telemark as a tool for alpinism, largely because of the 'climbability' of duckbills on ice and easy 5th class rock.

After seeing what is being used in the Alps last March for ski-mountaineering I was blown away and obviously envious.

Marcus, has your use of this system been strictly skinning or booting spring/summer snow?  Have you, or anyone you know, used this system in conjunction with mixed routes or any type of ice climbing?

Morgan, my use of the TTS has been almost entirely skinning & booting spring/summer snow -- I first skied the setup in June, I think.

The boots I have (Scarpa TX) would do fine for anything you'd be able to do with a ski boot -- I've climbed easy 5th and super-easy ice in my T2s and the TX are far superior for that kind of thing.

Cool. Good to see Mark Lengel jump into a new project after losing the Trab distributorship.

What's with those boots? Terminator X's with F3 cuffs?

The TX was Scarpa's first boot for the NTN binding -- the new telemark norm. They licensed Dynafit fittings in the boot when they first produced it, so I switched over to NTN last year to get a new boot that could tele and use Dyna bindings. NTN's a good binding, but much heavier than the TTS, which is why I picked up the TTS as well when I saw it -- that, and half of my NTN setup was buried in slide debris until June.

So you ski with the toe in the fully unlocked position?

Yup -- the toe's locked up for skinning, obviously, but unlocked for skiing. I was pretty skeptical that the toe would hold the boot in place with the strong forward pressure from the heel throw, especially with the heel lifted, but it doesn't budge. Has excellent torsional stiffness too.

Anyone try it with F3's? They're quite a bit lighter . . . no "T" in the nomenclature, though . . .

I think Mark mentioned that he's had some folks trying it with F3s and that it worked fine, though maybe I'm mixing some conversations together. The TX aren't light, that's for sure -- I think lighter weight boots are still the biggest gap in tele, having held a pair of TLT5s...

The boots I have (Scarpa TX) would do fine for anything you'd be able to do with a ski boot -- I've climbed easy 5th and super-easy ice in my T2s and the TX are far superior for that kind of thing. 

You just described my current boot and some of the terrain I'm speaking of, thanks.

As far as the weight, it's a pretty heavy boot eh'? That's the other crux, when I held Silas' TLT5 last June I thought the damn thing was going to fly out of my hand! A climbable and skiable boot that feels as light as a XC low-top!

Even with the TTS, I'll still have to watch from the shadows as there's no way I have the coin to make that happen before next spring's alpine climbing season. Maybe I'll have to get my amigo tele.skier into his mad-science binding lab .

I swear I'm not just squatting on this thread... but I do love talking gear.

Yeah, it's a heavy boot. It's a couple of ounces heavier than my T2s. It's really comfortable though, for what that's worth, with power more akin to my T1s, so you're getting more out of the boot.

It's a bag of cement next to the TLT5 though.

It may not help you, but Mark/Wasatch has been selling a conversion kit which includes everything except the Dynafit toepiece -- that's the route I took, since I had a spare pair of toes kicking around.

Maybe I'll have to get my amigo tele.skier into his mad-science binding lab .

Funny that you should mention the mad-science binding lab. I finished the final modifications to the "free pivot" NTN's today. Prototype work SUCKS! Making one of a kind parts by hand is painfully slow work. They absolutely work. We shall see how much better they are on my first tour with them. The nice thing is that anyone with NTN boots on can try them. I look forward to getting some feedback from a few other NTN users.

The only other thing I need to do is,.... at some point skeletonize the entire binding to reduce the weight I am hoping to get the pair under 4lbs. That's a loss of 3/4 of a LB for the pair.

At some point I will publish the modification. It's waaaaay more work than anyone other then a maniac like myself would ever bother to attempt. I don't see anyone paying me to do it for them either since it would void their warrantee with rottefella... so..  the lab is open... beuller?? or should I say Uller???

Both you and Craig Dostie seem pretty high in the TTS, Marcus... Can I ask you how much you weigh Marcus?.... I am about 210lbs right now. TTS looks small to me....

Sure Frank -- I'm about 170 or so. TTS does look small, but I'll be curious to hear what you think if you get on a pair. Mark and I talked about it when I first got them and he's not 170, according to him -- he skis them hard, inbounds and out, and hasn't had a problem. Of course, he made them, so grain of salt and all that...

Pics of the NTN mods! I love that stuff. Rumor has it Rotte is working on their own NTN BC version, but if the TTS takes off they may miss the boat.

My interest was peaked at the sight of the tele boot in the dynafit toe piece and I thought that someone had developed a tele binding that would allow you to lock your heel down for parallel turns if you so desired in certain terrain conditions, but from what I have read it seems that it still remains a dynafit toe for tele turns unless I am mistaken. How great would that be to be able to do both with one binding. Back when I used to tele with pins and a cable I thought cable guides on the side of the ski to hold the cable tight with the heel down like in old cable alpine bindings might work but never pursued the concept. Maybe that will be the next step in design evolution where you can tele or alpine with one binding and boot. Remember the old tele boots without the flex part in the toe, they used to work quite well.

The only thing I don't like about TTS is that it doesn't make use of the NTN second heel. I'd like to see a dynafit toe piece mounted somehow in place of the stainless steel NTN toe piece along with all the NTN touring hardware. Someone should send Frank a Dynafit toe and let him have at it.

  Someone should send Frank a Dynafit toe and let him have at it.

Yeah, here's what he could do with just a few spare pieces.

Cool work Frank!

Very interesting my AT friend - but you must learn to Tele first!

I think Mark mentioned that he's had some folks trying it with F3s and that it worked fine, though maybe I'm mixing some conversations together. The TX aren't light, that's for sure -- I think lighter weight boots are still the biggest gap in tele, having held a pair of TLT5s...

Anyone try with Scarpa F1s? The race/carbon models would be competitive weight-wise with the tlt5.

If you want to try I put some 28.5 standard F1s up for sale.

Hey Web -- I think I misspoke. I think Mark's actually on F1s and has a bunch of friends on F3s... either way, it sounds like the system works well with both boots. If I find a pair of F1s that fit my feet, I might pick them up... I'd have to wear 3 or 4 pairs of socks to fit yours though

I jumped on the bandwagon and found a pair of F3s to test out.

to be honest- F3s not too stiff but my issue was the flex point (not designed for Tele) exhausted my feet particularly on groomers in bounds. It would be fine and light for a tour set up (less turns overall than in bounds).
Control was great!
the upside was that once feet were tired I could crank parallel turns with great control.

I'll be testing out TX pros in TTS this wkd. there is a sx 26 TX pro posted on list in case that is your size (Doug)
happy turns,
Kevin

"I'll be testing out TX pros in TTS this wkd.  there is a sx 26 TX pro posted on list in case that is your size (Doug)
happy turns,
Kevin "

Kevin:

I have a pair of f1s and wonder if  the bellows and stiff flex is too stiff for continuous tele turns.   I do think the flex point of the AT boot is an interesting point but (Dostie) and others report good success with it.

I'll let you know how it goes.

DH

the upside was that once feet were tired I could crank parallel turns with great control.

You are reminding me of the slippery slope that led me to finally lock my heels down, which of course gives even more control for those parallel turns, especially in stuff like breakable crust

Interesting to see some fairly new designs brewing for free heel