I've mentioned in a few thread here that I'll be living in Grenoble next spring. The skis I am planning to bring are 186 Lhasa Pows and a yet-to-be-purchased 90-100mm everyday ski. The Lhasas currently are mounted with Rossi FKS, as I don't do any touring at the moment. June has some nice sidecountry, but Mammoth just isn't very conducive to touring.
Some posts in this forum have mentioned that powder is often available for a week after a storm if you look hard enough at French resorts. My question is whether touring bindings and skins are pretty much necessary to get to these stashes. If my choice is between a 10 minute skin vs. a 20 minute bootpack, it's obviously simpler and cheaper to keep the alpine bindings. However, if we're talking hour-long skins to get to untracked areas, I'll clearly need some touring bindings. Additionally, does a resort like La Grave require AT bindings since it doesn't have lifts going everywhere?
Basically, my choices are:
1) Keep the FKS on the Lhasas and put more affordable alpine bindings on the 95mm ski.
2) Keep the FKS on the Lhasas and get touring bindings (probably Barons) and skins for the 95mm ski.
3) Put touring bindings on both skis (likely via threaded inserts) and buy skins for both.
Some posts in this forum have mentioned that powder is often available for a week after a storm if you look hard enough at French resorts. My question is whether touring bindings and skins are pretty much necessary to get to these stashes. If my choice is between a 10 minute skin vs. a 20 minute bootpack, it's obviously simpler and cheaper to keep the alpine bindings. However, if we're talking hour-long skins to get to untracked areas, I'll clearly need some touring bindings. Additionally, does a resort like La Grave require AT bindings since it doesn't have lifts going everywhere?
Basically, my choices are:
1) Keep the FKS on the Lhasas and put more affordable alpine bindings on the 95mm ski.
2) Keep the FKS on the Lhasas and get touring bindings (probably Barons) and skins for the 95mm ski.
3) Put touring bindings on both skis (likely via threaded inserts) and buy skins for both.