Thanks for starting this discussion thread,
@WaterGirl, am following with great interest. I would love to find and join a multi-week touring group myself in the Eadtern Sierra! I fell madly in love with touring this winter and am starting a 4 day AST2 avy course in 10 hours, excited yet a bit nervous!
I have my G3 Zest with Dynafit Speed Radical (earlier version) with me in Hokkaido this winter, my first touring setup purchased 3 years ago, super lightweight.
Last spring I couldn’t pass up a deal to buy Voile BC Vector (fish scale) from Mammoth Mountaineering and had Fritchi-Vipecs put on them. Love the new bindings, now find the speed radical a real pain, having to bend over to rotate the heel piece. I had the BD Ascension skins trimmed very slightly so I can use them on both skis.
Can really use a pair of touring powder skis. Am thinking of getting rid of my Dual compatible Warden bindings on Armada VJJ and replace with Fritchi or G3 Ion bindings on them. Any thoughts?
Have Dynafit Mercury boots also, just had the InstaPrint footbed worked on again two days ago since I still get warm spots on the medial heels on longer or consecutive ski days. Plus Liners are getting a bit packed out and am considering an Intuition Pro Tour liner replacement soon...
Want to upgrade Pieps Sport to Pro model. Really hate my BD Deploy shovel with curved blade, want a flat blade instead and need to shop for one. And also dislike my probe, gold tone with white numbering is impossible for me to read, want black and white contrast.
I needed an orange shell and had been shopping for a year, finally settled on Dynafit Yotei last March when it went on sale. Was drawn to the oversized pockets for skins but learned they’re not my favorite place for storage. I was using ski crampons in SoCal and the Eastern Sierra and became drawn to the matching Sphinx 30 backpack with a separate crampon compartment. Had to order it from Europe since Dynafit sells mostly hard goods the US, the delivery took over 6 weeks but it was well worth the wait with all the pockets and features.
Finally, I grew tired of getting snow in my back during bending over during transitions last month and got the matching Yotei bibs. Works really well but the zipper between suspenders and pants is cumbersome and hip pockets difficult to access. The Strife halter bibs I tried recently has the largest chest pocket and fantastic thigh pockets. But the narrow ankle access for buckles made it a deal breaker.