Pretty uneventful drive down to the Outdoor Retailer All Mountain Demo this morning. It was blowing sideways when I left Jackson, but seemed to taper off once I got further away from the Tetons. They could definitely use some more of the white stuff here in SLC…to cover up all the city shit, never mind to help out the skiing situation.
The Hoji inspired, Dynafit Vulcan.
Anyway, I covered some of the new Black Diamond and Dynafit products for Fall 2012 in previous posts, but I wanted to make a few comments on the new Dynafit Vulcan and One boots, now that I have gotten a chanvce to ski on them, as well as few other tidbits I think you might find interesting from the demo.
To start with, I learned a little bit more about the new Dynafit boots for next year and one of the things that really separates the Hoji-inspired Vulcan/Mercury boots from the lighter, One boots. They both have the same last and similar shell shapes, but the One boots don’t have a removable tongue…or any tongue for that matter. This makes the One boots a little more geared for those that want to move faster in the mountains and 
speed up their transitions, as opposed to the Vulcan/Mercury boots, that use the removable tongue to gain stiffness and power.
I skied both the Vulcan and the One PX boot (the One PX being the top boot in that line-up) and they both skied really nice. The Vulcan was quite powerful and the walk mode of both was like butter, with an amazing range of motion like you would expect. I think it will be hard for a lot of folks to decide between these boots next season, as they are both, very nice.
I was a fan of the La Sportiva High 5 ski last year and their new Hang 5 ski with a waist of 117mm, pin-tail and early rise tip, follows suite as being a very stable, easy turning and fun ski. Even though the snow was pretty icy at the demo, the fat waist of the Hang 5 held an edge well and carved nicely. In fact, I enjoyed skiing the Hang 5 more than another new ski from La Sportiva, the Low 5, which was narrower, but felt sort of dead.
I’m not sure I get his whole fish-scale, waxless base thing on backcountry skis. Maybe it’s the type of terrain we have in the Tetons, but I know I typically want as much glide as I can get out of my skis and if I want to climb up something, I’ll just put my skins on. However, Voile claims that the waxless base category is quite popular for them and will introduce the Charger BC for next season. A 110-115mm waisted powder ski with fish-scales on the base? Man…I’m really confused now.
G3 had a few new skis and new a new telemark binding they were showing off. One ski was a uber fat 127mm(?) waisted ski called the Empire. It had pretty flat camber underfoot, with a rockered tip and tail. Definitely a power hog. The District looked a bit more versatile though at 112mm underfoot and has a lightweight core with two layers of metal in it. One would think this ski skis pretty well, but I didn’t get a chance to ski it.
Genuine Guide Gear Enzo-R and Enzo telamark bindings.
Lastly, and for all you telemarkers out there (hey…don’t say I never gave you anything) the days of the crappy Targa binding are over and the new Enzo and Enzo R bindings will replace it as G3’s flagship free-heel binding. Both have cables routed underfoot to provide an active feel and the Enzo has a free-pivot feature for touring, while the Enzo-R (R=resort) has a fixed toe-piece for skiing in-area. They looked cool…if you’re into that sort of thing.
Anyway, off to day one at the show for me and I’m jonesing the shred the copious amounts of snow piling up back in Jackson.
How does the stiffness of the Vulcan compare to the Titan, Titan UL, and/or ZZeus? What about the Mercury? Did you notice the BSL of the Vulcan (say in a 27/27.5)?
Bob…the bsl of the vulcans and ones will be more like regular sized boots (maybe just a few mm’s shorter), because they work with fristchis, dukes etc. A lot of the shortness in bsl with the TLT5s is that they are not compatible with anything other than tech bindings…so no extra plastic on the toe and heel.
Tough to say about stiffness, but my initial gut feeling says somewhere in between the zues and titan. Hard to say though since i didn’t ski the titans of zeus’s today.
S, can you get exact number for the BSL of the Vulcan?
Also the Vulcan/Mercury will not have replaceable DIN/AT soles like the Titan/Zeus?
Tony…the 27 i skied said 30+mm…so I don’t think the bsl’s have been determined yet.
And yes…no replaceable DIN soles on tbe vulcan/mercury boots.
BSL dudes….the 27 will be 304mm in the vulcan. Word.
Rando–
Have you tried any scaled fat skis? Seems like they would be ideal for skinning across the frozen lake?
Likin the new G3 skis with the onyx. Bring on the heavy metal!
Here is my take on the waxless touring ski…
I have a Rossi that is 90 under foot and a soft double buckle leather boot. I use them for fun fast backyard tours with the dog as well as all day exscursions. The beauty is that you are able to rip around in Nordic mode and explore all the little hollows and mini lines without committing to up or down. Five or six turns followed by a quick scamper up to the ridge, maybe make a couple dozen turns down the backside to the xc trail, head over to the farm field and do a few quick laps as morning commuter traffic slows to stare. Nothing like shredding the golf course at the mountain in 6″ of fluff under a full moon. No skins, no problem…. I have been enjoying this style of skiing since I was a kid on skinny wooden skis. Now with the waxless base powder ski, everyone should be snow sliding right from their door…
Personally, I find resort skiing odd and a lot of people seem to do that:)
Don’t get me wrong, I spend most of my time on my DPS 120s doing full day tours, but sometime the light soft setup is just what I need…
Oh, and did i mention that I live in Vermont? Kinda different terrain than the Tetons…
And by the way, I appreciate your site and visit every day. Keep it up.
How would you describe the fit of the vulcan/one?
Josh…the dynafit vulcans and ones have the same last and fit wider and taller over the instep, and are generally more volumous than he TLT5s.
I’m not certain what size I would wear, but I think I could proabaly wear my normal 26.5 size, even wih intuition liners.
sb…i haven’t tried the waxless bases. i’m afraid to.
they may work for the lake. typically i use skinny “bikini skins” for the lake crossing…or just skate when it is a hard surface. either way, i’m still stopping on the other side to put the fat skins on…just like those w/ waxless bases.
btw…vulcan/one last is 103mm.
atraslin…i must say the district is interesting. two layers of metal and it is still only 8lbs? funny math?
Thanks for the heads up, on the new G3 skis…. They look awesome….