Side Country Touring on the Condors/Bombers - Field Test

[jjue]

Had about a foot of new powder over night and spent the morning doing a bit of "side country" touring just outside the ski area before joining my son and his friend on the hill for some lift serve in the afternoon .

Here is my Condor with Retrofit touring modified Bombers with touring cable ,
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0913.jpg

On the bases are full side to side climbing skins , plenty of purchase with these skins going up hill

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0929.jpg

Breaking trail with this rig is no problem .. great float from the Condor , totally free pivot touring binding , with the retrofit bombers , .. nice !
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0916.jpg


Here is my trail ....
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0921.jpg

Just wonderful to be out on a nice cool windy day , bright sunshine and nice views .. climbing up the hill on my Condors is supercool .. no need to go up with snowshoes with the Condors on my back .. the Condors have morphed into my snowshoe !


http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0920.jpg

Wonders of wonders , the rear bail of the Bomber binding actually stays up and serves as a climbing heel elevator .. you have to position the bail just right , slightly forward but then it stays up ... super cool !!

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0922.jpg

I did noticed on side hilling firmer slopes that I was able to torque my boot right out of the binding but after I tightened up the spring cables , everything was fine ... make sure you run those cables super tight .

Converting from climbing to downhill mode is super easy , I just lift my skiboard up grap the rubber tip hook of the skin and remove the skin , then while still standing on the skiboard I just unhook my front skiboard bail and loosen the rear telemark cable lever and drop the cable right down around the rear block of the bomber binding and tighten the telemark cable lever.. the telemark cable remains there on the downhill , no need to remove the telemark cables. I then just lift the rear bail of my bomber binding and flip the front lever again and I am locked and loaded ready to shred .. never have to step off my skiboard to change to downhill mode !

Mostly low angled slopes with lots of debri , downed trees and stuff , so have to be careful making downhill turns , but fun none the less to take the first turns in backcountry type snow ..
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0923.jpg

While the snow looks pretty nice in the pictures . it was pretty nasty , refrozen breakbable crust , a few patches of powder , and windblown ice , all with logs and stuff strewn about in the low snow conditions .. the Condors are the perfect junk snow skiboard, I might not be pretty or going very fast ( worried about catching some submerged debris and getting hurt ) , but the Condor gets me downhill in one piece with no falls , sweet !


ok time for lunch , joined my son and his buddy at the lodge and spent the afternoon making high speed carving turns on the groomers on the same rig .. ( just dumped the pack , skins, , collapsible poles , and touring binding in the car and off the races !)

Here we are at the top of the mountain on a nice day !
http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0927.jpg

Lots of comments about the Condors .. I like the ski patrolman 's comment who was impressed saying " wow pretty cool , looks like they finally made snowblades right !"

[CrazyBoy-1]

I'm glad that setup seems to work as well as expected, Jack. The convenience of not having to switch between snowshoes and skiboards is a definite plus.

[jjue]

My experience with torquing the wire compression springs makes me think it might be worth the extra money and weight to use these hardwire telemark cables pair costs 60 dollars as opposed to 40 dollars for the others ...
the cable cylinders provide much more side to side resistance to your boot from twisting , again run them tight .. If you have line ff pros and a regular size boot . you will need the standard size rod .. if you use my retrofit bomber solution with , the hourglass snap link you will probably need a short rod ..
I put these on tight in my shop and they do not torque at all .

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0930.jpg

Here is a pic of the Bombers with the cylinder cable tighted down all the way my standard rods are too loose .. will order some short rods for my telemark cylinder cables for the bomber

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l88/jjue/IMG_0931.jpg

Here is the link to purchase telemark cylinder cables

http://www.voile-usa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=608-25&Category_Code=PHTB&Product_Count=8

[jjue]

Unfortunately no Skiboard touring technique video yet , but here is a nice video from our Splitboard Snowboard friends that gives you some idea how to use your touring skiboard... transitions to downhill mode for skiboards is , however, much easier then with splitboard snowboards.. just a matter of taking off the skins , stowing the telemark cables and skins in the pack and locking in and ride !

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/mayZW1sz2cU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/mayZW1sz2cU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>