Skiing in climbing boots

[Lowell Skoog]

Backcountry skiing writers almost never talk about skiing in
climbing boots--except to advise against it. I don't advise novice
skiers to choose climbing boots over ski boots, but I think climbing
boots can be effective for experienced skiers once you've invested
the time to get used to them. I use alpine touring boots for
yo-yoing and tours that involve no hiking. I use climbing boots for
longer trips and those that involve mountaineering.

I've never read a description of how to ski in climbing boots. So
I'm going to try to write one. Maybe other climbing boot skiers
will come out of the closet and help me whip these flabby ideas into
shape.

The first step in learning to ski in climbing boots is to adjust your
expectations. You can't expect to ski the backcountry in climbing boots
the way you ski the lifts in full alpine gear. I can ski just about any
hill in climbing boots that I would ski in my alpine boots, but I do it
a lot slower. Soft climbing boots require a different stance than stiff
ski boots. I think a lot of skiers who try climbing boots give them up
before making the necessary adjustments in attitude and technique.

The second step to ski in climbing boots is to adopt a centered
stance that's a bit lower in the knees than usual. If anything, err
on the side of leaning a bit forward. It's good to apply a little
tip pressure and feel some resistance against the front of your
boots, although in climbing boots, you won't feel much.

In high-backed ski boots, it's common to shift your weight back and
forth as you move through the arc of the turn. You can't do that in
climbing boots. You have to maintain a centered stance, or at most,
limit your movements between the centered position and slightly forward.

To complete turns while skiing slowly, you need strong rotary turning
skills and a bag of supplementary tricks. Most of the turning power
near the end of the turn comes from applying edge pressure to the front
half of the skis. In really bad snow I sometimes do a segmented turn
where I push, push, push with the knees to bring the turn around as a
series of little corners. The start of the turn is helped a lot by what
Lito Tejada-Flores calls dynamic anticipation. That means keeping your
upper body facing down the hill as you finish one turn and "wind up"
your trunk for the next one. After planting your pole, you unwind your
trunk, which helps drive the skis into the new turn. The pedal hop turn
(hopping off the uphill ski) is a good way to clear both skis off the
snow during the unwinding phase. Driving the new outside hand forward
can also give the start of the turn a boost.

In good snow a lot of these extra tricks can fall away. Once you
master a centered stance you can make carved, rebounding turns with
a quiet upper body just like an alpine skier in full downhill gear.

My brother Carl created a strap system that goes around the outside
of his climbing boots. The lower pair of straps goes under the
instep and behind the ankle and tightens in front with a buckle.
The upper strap simply buckles around the boot cuff. These
"Carlberg straps" provide more positive lateral control and a little
more resistance to forward lean. I've never used them but my both
my brothers swear by them.

Soft climbing boots don't apply release forces to your ski bindings
as well as stiff ski boots do. You should probably ski with your
bindings looser. Slow down and stay well within your skiing limits.
Skiers who use climbing boots accept poorer release function as part
of the compromise between hiking, climbing, touring and downhill
skiing.

--Lowell Skoog
Seattle

[Ken Roberts]

Lowell gives a really helpful description of the difference that climbing
boots makes for downhill technique. What struck me on reading it is how
closely it matches the experience of skiing free-heel parallel in mid-weight
leather boots (like Asolo Snowfields).

One idea which I've found helpful in free-heel parallel, which might
transfer to climbing boots: In uneven snow like crust or crud, emphasizing
the amount by which the inside ski leads at the finish can help with
fore-aft stability. Or maybe you don't actually lead the ski more -- just
become _aware_ of a new way to use your normal lead to supply stability.
(Or maybe that's as close as free-heel parallel can get to implementing
Lowell's ideas of getting lower and more forward).

Ken