Dump alpine gear?

So, last season I spent almost all my lift days/evenings on AT gear (Titanal IIIs and fairly stiff Garmonts). My thoughts at the time were that the more days/conditions I spent dialing the setup in, the better my BC skiing would be. I was just sorting my alpine gear to take to a ski swap this fall. Now I am wondering if there are any significant benefits (technique wise), to time spent on stiff, bomber alpine gear.
Anyone else have this dilemma?

Hey Mr. Korup,

I hear what you're talking about and had similar thoughts.  But what I've noticed for myself is that my alpine and AT techniques are a lot differnt from oneanother.

Basically for me the alpine, usually hardpack, windblown or crud skiing is a lot faster,edgier and agressive than the fresh powder or corn I look for in the backcountry.

My AT gear is AK Launchers, Freerides and TR12's; great in the backcountry, but not nearly toight or quick enough for me on the alpine slopes.  For example, coming out of Bullion Basin and onto the hardpack of Crystal after a day on fresh snow always feels freaky to me.

Maybe I need to upgrade my AT gear (donations gladly accepted).  Until then, I've decided to keep both the alpine and AT setups, each for their respective environments.

If anything, I'd say that AT has degraded my alpine technique by making me a little lazy.  It's just so much nicer at my age to ride on a cushion of powder or sluice a corn field (slow and smooth) than to pound through a churned up mogul field.

ALL SKIING IS GREAT, don't get me wrong, just some good things are gooder than other good things

JibberD has an interesting skew on this...I have similar experiences when I come back into Schweitzer after a good BC day.  
I haven't used anything but an AT set-up inbounds for 15 years.  I usually tele in the backcountry, but ski AT on the lift-served to keep up with my friends or if hard conditions make teleing more work than fun. I've found that the big boots and heavy bindings of a regular alpine setup are not necessary for the conditions I like to ski...I'm on Naxos and old Scarpa Denali boots.  Last month, I busted out my old Evolution Pearls with Ramer bindings and ripped it up on Mt. Hood.   Skied those Ramers at the area for several years, too.  I don't think I'll ever buy a regular alpine setup again...
-Bill

I've been on one setup for both lift-served and climb-to-ski for the last 3 years: KS Shuksans/Dynafit bindings/TLT700 boots.  I like it because it's light and comfortable. It's been excellent for moguls, trees, and even hardpack at the "resort" and has been great on the variable conditions on the volcanoes.

It's getting time to replace the rig due to wear and tear, so I have been wondering the same thing as you, korup: Go with a more "beefy" alpine rig for the resort days, or go with a newer version of "1-setup-does-it all" light AT similar to my current gear.  ???

My plan is to try demo-ing a few alpine boards this year and make a decision at the end of the season, when all the sales happen.

I used to only tele, then i bought an AT setup for backcountry and continued to tele but primarily in-bounds just cause i had more fun on freeheel gear.  Then my knees started to fall apart last season...a full day on tele gear in bounds would leave me hobbled for weeks...now the tele gear collects a lot of dust in the basement unfortunately.

By the end of last season I was spending all my time on my AT setup, inbounds and backcountry, so over the past couple months I picked up a full blown alpine rig and I'm very excited to give it a whirl.

I figured there were a few benefits to going this route...such as a better, safer, more advanced release from alpine binders than AT bindings (dynafits in my case), and saving the general wear and tear that I was putting my AT gear through on inbounds days.  By going to Sturtevants SkiMart and cruising craigslist I was able to pick up last seasons top of the line Lange boots, salomon binders, and some 184 REX's all for less than a pair of new AT boots. 

If I am spending a lift day, and it happens to not be a powder day, one advantageous part of riding lifts is that I can go down runs FAST, without worrying that I am wasting an entire day's uptrack for a three minute thrill ride. Since I am going to be going fast, I personally want bindings that are reliably tested under those conditions. I'm not saying I am a world cup downhiller (anything but) but knowing that my bindings are at least generationally similar to stuff that can react reliably enough under high speed crash conditions makes me feel a lot better. No one runs downhills (or even a slalom) on Fritschis.

I trust my BC bindings generally, but within those limits. In the BC I always try to savor the run, so the release-under-speed question isn't really in play. As far as Ramers ... hmmm .... I never trusted those damn things anywhere.

Also, recently I've enjoyed touring on shorter, fatter skis. These are great for climbing (easy kick turns), are (usually) fat enough to offset the shorter length and float the pow turns, and great for the survival fest through the trees that often caps a BC day. But those same short skis have serious stability problems if you try to all out a blue cruiser, mainly because of their length.

So, my line is I'm keeping my alpine gear, and am not real tempted to take my BC stuff on the lifts, because I deliberately ski differently inbounds/out.