Barry B

Stiff but not too stiff, straight but not too straight, crazy light! So easy to skin, surprisingly stable on the downhill at speed, and doesn't require a ton of input to drive (at 60kg I don't have that much input to give). These are the first true race skis I've owned though I have spent some time on an old pair of PDGs and a newer pair of Aski Stealths. I'm sure you can find another ski that's better at any one aspect like skinning or downhill speed or ease of skiing, but if you're looking for a more bala...

Thin softshell material that reminds me of touring pants. Does a good of shedding snow when dealing with boots / bindings / skins. Very dextrous, I can do anything I need to do while touring with them on. Touch screen compatibility works better than any other gloves I've tried; yeah it's still not the same as bare skin but it's good enough to take photos or check the map without removing the gloves, although wouldn't want to type with them. Nice grippy palms feels secure even when choking down on a carbon p...

The bad: this is a really, really, ridiculously soft boot. I weigh 135lbs and generally like what most people would call softer boots, though they don't feel soft to me. I ski the La Sportiva Solar b/c I can't flex the Skorpius at all. Also ski an Atomic Hawx Ultra 100 b/c I can't flex the 120 at all. In the Backland Ultimate if I lean forward at all, the top of the cuff blows through about an inch of travel with basically zero resistance. It eventually does find a wall and prevent more forward motion but...

I think you'll find that any race type binding feels about the same hardness to turn, it's mostly a function of binding heel size. The torque needed to spin the heel is what gives you resistance to lateral release; different bindings with the same lateral release setting will take roughly the same torque to spin. Since the boot pins are usually about the same distance from the heel pivot point, different bindings with the same lateral release setting should take roughly the same amount of linear force to t...

I always assumed the velcro in the bottom middle is just to keep ice axe picks from tangling with other stuff. But depending on how angled the pick and shaft are the pick may not even end up in the right place to use it. I mostly ignore it. If you are only carrying a single axe you can use the bottom loop for the diagonal ski carry. If you want to carry 2 axes or simultaneously use the diagonal ski carry then you just need to tie loops of cord onto the bottom link of the daisy chain. Those combined with th...