I have a few questions about tele vs. AT that I hope someone can answer. I had a taste of teleskiing this week on groomers. Yes I only tried one day but did not feel any love for the technique. Not natural to me to have my downhill ski forward & uphill ski back. I felt comfortable with alpine style turns on tele gear but not tele style turns.... am I even describing this correctly? How does one ski on AT gear?
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Tele vs AT- newbie question
- Thread starter frontfive
- Start date
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2015
- Posts
- 1,195
You make alpine turns on Alpine Touring gear. The heel locks down for skiing,
AT or Alpine Touring gear allows you to free the heal for skinning up and then lock it down for the downhill. You ski just like you do with alpine gear.
I went through the same exercise. I initially bought some Tele gear as it was an inexpensive to try. Once I decided I like the BC aspect of skiing, I tried an AT setup. I have since sold off my Tele gear. What kept me away from the AT setups in the beginning was that I was told you could not ski with the heel unlocked ( I was looking at frame bindings at the time ) as the toe would break. The AT bindings I went with are pin tech bindings. For my beginner->novice skills ( no big down hill yet ), I find my pin toes have plenty of drive and strength for what I'm doing without having to lock the heel down ( don't have to lock the heels down for every downhill slope ). When I do come across something I want to be more connected to the ski with, locking the heel is simple. I can switch modes standing up and on the skis, not all AT gear does this. What I have been happy with are the Daimir Vipecs and Tectons.
