Gear for Spring Summits

For some reason, the Atomic Janak must never have sold that well - but it's ridiculously light for how stiff and fat (99 underfoot) they are. They are findable new (prior years) on web outlets for very cheap prices. I ski 'em tele - one of my partners AT - perfect up/down for volcanoes and powder.

In all seriousness, I'm a huge fan of the TeleDaddy (now Janak). It's a great ski. It's a bit wide for corn (though it skis it well), but the width is really nice for shmoo and elephant snot. The Kailas is a good compromise, at 88 in the waist.

Dear Biker,
One of the stated aims of your gear advice quest was more ski mountaineering. Despite the beauty of the telemark turn ( And if you've ever seen Marcus ski you'd know that there are telemarkers who can ski almost anything in style), it is a FACT that most serious practitioners of ski mountaineering and even the esteemed guide associations believe AT gear more suitable for serious ski mountaineering.

Even the venerable Noah Howell, one of the founders of the telemark film crew called Powderwhores, recently admitted in his blog that he was adopting AT gear for serious ski mountaineering.

His blog his here, if you are interested.
noahhowell.com/

The Kalais with Dynafiddles is an excellent choice as would the Dynafit Manaslu . A ski that has had rave reviews.

Baker Super-lights skis are really nice, light and decently stiff.  You can find 'em cheap since they've been around for awhile.

Had the Baker Super Lights and thought them too soft for the mank we regularly experience here. 

Moved up to some Atomic RT86 (nearly identical dimensions as the Baker Superlights, but stiffer longitudinally) and never looked back.  Just for kicks I skied a few runs on them at Alpental with 20" of new to see how they'd handle the deep stuff, and they continue to amaze me.  There's a lot of very capable skis out there right now and this is certainly one of them.

Add some Dynafits and Scarpa F1's and that's my go-to setup.

build up your legs and you wont have to worry about all the lightest gear...

I use a pair of K2 Sahales for that sort of endeavor and have been very pleased. They are not fat by any means, but that doesn't really matter to me for steep glacier corn. Check em out (if they even still make them).

Mind the skinny skis when it gets deep and wet on hot spring days. While it was far from the primary cause, I believe my narrow Sahales (combined with my wider-ski mindset) contributed to my injury in wet glop last May. They're fun skis, with great torsional grip, but corn-'o-clock strikes half an hour earlier than with my fatter skis.