I got keen on backcountry skiing last year and rocked a fairly ghetto setup (old Atomic twintips with Cobra 75mm bindings and near-dead skins) which I'm looking at replacing. Though late in the season, I'm eyeing off a set of tele skis for sale on Facebook and tossing up whether to pull the trigger on them or splurge on a new setup. I'm aware of the dwindling popularity and availability of 75mm but have no intention of moving to NTN at the moment. The availability of 75mm bindings is limited and at the moment, locally, the Cobra is the best I can get so I'd just reuse the current ones if I went new skis. The prospect of stiffer bindings with a release (a la the 7TM described below) is very appealing... The choices: Old - Rossignol Powderbirds with 7TM bindings, ski crampons, G3 skins for $700 posted 122-80-108 tip to tail, 3.1kg w/o bindings vs. New - Fischer Wayback 88 (2.5kg w/o bindings) with current Cobra bindings and new skins ~$900 Folks, what are you thoughts?
Of course I am; I seek pleasure in hauling heavy boots, planks and puffy clothing up a hill for hours to rejoice in mere minutes of sliding on frozen water. What's your reasoning? Are the newer skis going to be radically better *to my novice eyes/legs* than the decent setup of 9 years ago? They're in good nick from what I can see; but I'm well aware I don't know what I don't know.
Ten years is eons in the ski world. The used kit is a touch over priced for age. New means warranty, support and future discounts if sourced locally. You can afford it. You deserve it. /assumptions
75mm bindings are steadily flowing into the 2nd hand market & will continue to do so. So don’t panic about choices. With reference to the choices above I’d go the Rossi ski with the Cobras. A lot of people love the 7TM, me not much. Pretty much every tele skier will give different advice, it’s a requirement of the secret brother&sisterhood of telemark skier to keep it as mystical as possible. Thinking more about it as i have pecked away here on this red oculus keyboard a phone gives I suggest you go the cheapest option now then when you have some turns, lessons & experience under your hat lash out & buy new.
Excellent, thanks all - glad I asked. I'll hold off on the old ones and look more seriously into the new ones tomorrow. Hope to see you out there, cheers for the newbie advice.
unfortunately for local suppliers, skis are much cheaper from OS even including postage and GST eg level9 Freeze Pro etc . Also after years of carting around release bindings I have decided they arent really useful. 75 mm here to stay for a long time yet.
You don't need release until you do. I lost an ACL and ended a NZ ski trip because 7TMs don't release forward. The only effective unit on the market is the Telebry Safeout ski mount and plate for common 75mm bindings. It works very well. There'd be guys here on the forum with ankles intact if the NTN release worked properly.
Plenty of 75mm bindings will come on the market for a reason, everyone is upgrading to NTN. Personally I would hold off buying new, get something second hand and work out what you like in terms of width under foot etc. I’d also try ntn and see if you like the hype, personally I won’t go back.
