"Telemark" skis mounted with Randonee bindings - a faux pas?

My girlfriend is looking to buy some skis, and we found a set of K2 "telemark" skis (shi devils) on sale. She would be mounting them w/ randonee bindings, though, which begs the question - is there really any difference between a telemark and an AT ski?

I'm pretty sure that it doesn't matter - I think my skis were technically sold for telemark but I have randonee bindings on them and they ski just fine. But, just wanted a second or third opinion - is there anything significant that makes a ski company label their skis telemark vs. AT??

Go for it -- several of my friends have AT bindings on tele skis of one iteration or another. Tele skis have gotten stiffer and much more capable and, as far as I can tell, are very similar in most aspects to AT skis, unless the skier is very particular. Flex patterns may be a little different, but the construction is probably very similar.

The only thing I might worry about is whether the area under the heel of the boot has enough reinforcement/beef to take a binding mount. Unless your girlfriend is a really aggressive skier, I doubt it would be a problem. I think most K2 skis are wood core, too, so they probably offer good purchase for the mounting screws back there...

If those K2 "telemark" skis have telemark binding inserts your could get the "Voile TLT adapter plate " and not even need to drill  (if by AT bindings you mean Dynafits)



www.voile-usa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc...e=CS&Product_Count=2

Thanks for the info - that makes sense. I was thinking Fritschi or Naxo bindings, though, as she would be using the skis for both inbounds and backcountry skiing. The skis have already been drilled for telemark bindings, so it sounds like they would require additional drilling for the AT bindings...

Almost all (or all?) K2 tele skis have pre-drilled inserts for standard 4 hole tele mounts (Randy's post).  I don't know if this will interfere with mounting AT bindings or not.

My wife has a pair Shi Devils from a few years ago (the blue ones) and hates them.  She is a strong tele skier and prefers a stiffer ski, but found the K2's to be too soft.  She replaced them with yellow foam core BD Crossbows (a much stiffer ski) for spring and summer touring.  We also found the skis to be pretty thin (from base to top sheet, not side-to-side) and dimpled the base when installing the plates for Voile ski crampons with the stock screws.  Again, not sure what this means for an AT mount.

My impression was that AT binders on tele skis was OK, but the reverse might not work, since the forces generated by telebindings could rip out of a non-reinforced ski.

My impression was that AT binders on tele skis was OK, but the reverse might not work, since the forces generated by telebindings could rip out of a non-reinforced ski.

Maybe that is possible with the newer high tension binders, but for the most part that has not been an issue in my experience with alpine specific skis.

I agree with Marcus and Randy that they can be mounted AT on tele.
The real trick besides preset tele screw holes is to determine boot center on the ski to get a good location for the bindings.
Not going by telemark specific toe piece locations. AT bindings are different in that regard.
Good Luck,
Joe

My impression was that AT binders on tele skis was OK, but the reverse might not work, since the forces generated by telebindings could rip out of a non-reinforced ski.

My wife and I have been ski AT with tele bindings forever, including Tua Excalibur, Excalibur Plus, Excalibur Mito, and Mito; Black Diamond Vertige, Kneissel Tourstar Ultra, Atomic Tourcarv Alpin, Volkl Snowwolf, and a pure alpine ski, Atomic R:EX with no problems (every kind of tele binding). I did mount tele bindings with Voile release plates on some older Volkl alpine skis reputed to be great tele skis and, I think with foam cores, and I tore the bindings out a couple of times.