Spring touring setup

Got a tour in on the Vanguard 107 Saturday - they're less squirrely in the pow, but the forward mount is odd when skinning. Light0ish on the up. Loved the confident edgehold on the underlying ice crust. Still kinda missed my reliable/predictable Hombres, though.

Scotsman, I've been lusting after a pair of DPS skis since they first came to market. The Cassiar 95 seems like a ripper...plus only 1600g in the Pure 3 is pretty sweet. I may need to do some serious looking at their lineup... and my budgets... Are you skiing the Cassiar inbounds as well? If so, what does your binding setup look like?

I use the Cassiar both inbounds and BC and have them mounted with Dynafits. All my skis are mounted with Dynafits and I have skied only Dynafits for nearly 4 years now.

They are stiff and love to rip.... I think the softer and lighter Tour1 version would be a very good spring touring set up although I use my Pure 3 versions for that purpose.

You like the Huascarans? Why not Cho Oyus. A very light and very good ski.

Thanks for all the input!

River, Charlie, Kam, and Todd, thanks for quieting my fears on the Speed Turns. I certainly want to like them, so looks like I'll be giving them a try.

I want anyone who has ever experienced a pre-release on tech/pin style bindings to please try the bindings again with this method. In the future: articulate your toe/ski at least 45*x2 (90* total articulation) three times. This will give the pins opportunity to cut into and clear any remaining ice in the toe cup for the pin.

I hemmed and hawed at first when I got three or four pre-releases in the first week of skiing my tech bindings (I currently ride Plum, but whatever the design is the same). I have employed this foot/ski articulation trick every_single_time I have stepped in since, and have yet to experience a condition where the ski released before it should have.

^^^^^^^I have been skiing tech binding only for years both resort and BC and use the above mentioned technique most times when I step in. It's a good protocol but doesn't completely ensure no pre-release.
In the half dozen times I've had pre-release it has ALWAYS been because there was ice build up UNDER the toe-piece, usually after a long skin track or putting on skis in deep powder. The failsafe protocol is to check UNDER your toe-pieces for ice-build up every time.

2 Cent worth.

Agreed with Scotsman that ice build-up is important to monitor. Removing skins without removing skis helps cut that down by half. Being careful to clear boot soles of stuck-on snow helps too. If you have a sticky-snow day with many transitions, you'll have to clear the space below the jaws sometime.

A trick I use to verify proper pin engagement: After stepping in, pull the toes to full lock, then unlock them if you're skiing down (one lock-toe broken ankle is enough; I only ski unlocked). If the pins or jaws are blocked, it's not possible to reach full lock.

The only two pre-releases I've experienced that were 'memorable' were on bulletproof ice. The chatter is a real challenge for the low elasticity of the Dynafit toepiece. Solution: I no longer ski bulletproof ice. It's turned out to be easier to do than expected. Avoiding icy conditions on November volcanoes took care of most of it.