Cross Country skiing Boots

[kellymoe]

If your going to go skiing you need to buy or rent ski gear not cold weather or snow camping gear. Those mucklucks are great for what they are made for but they are not made for skiing and you will be miserable and out of control. The array of cross country ski gear is mind boggling. You have Telemark, track, skate, touring, racing, randonee... the list goes on. Decide what you want to do and head to a mountain shop that deals in cross country ski gear and maybe rent a few types of set ups to see what fits your needs.

I have been telemarking for over 20 years and am very happy with that set up but others might find it too heavy and cumbersome, it's a matter of personal choose.

[Co-opski]

Hoping to be doing some winter camping in upper Maine and am looking to try and do some cross country skiing. What would be a good boot to get?

I know you are asking about boots but starting with the type of ski you will be driving would help us help you. Lots of great advice so far on gear. For the type of XC-skiing you plan on doing it seems you would like a XCD (a.k.a. cross country downhill or norpine) type of set up. This is more of the classical XCski that has a wider underfoot base 60-70mm metal edges and a fish scale waxless base. Think Fischer SBounds, Karhu 10 Mountains, or the ski everyone is praising this year Madshus Glittertinds. This type of ski breaks trail well, skis OK in a groomed track mostly because it is too wide for most classic set tracks and they turn ok on the downhill and that is because they are lighter and not as supportive as true down hill ski.

Boots will have to match the binding that you choose to go with. The 3-pin 75mm Nordic norm is the classic duck bill ski boots. You can get these in a hiking boot Norwegian welt leather (Scarpas Wasatch) or a lower cut plastic boot (Scarpa T3 or Garmot Excursion) or a highbred plastic and leather but these are becoming more rare but Karhu makes one for XCD.
Leather takes some time to break-in and never fit me right and they can be heavy. A lower plastic boot with a thermo liners will have more support, dryer and warmer with less blisters on your feet.

Another binding is the NNN or New Nordic Norm.
this is the binding you will find on most new XCskis besides the Solomon type. It has a bar on the toe of the boot verses the duck bill of the 75mm style. These kick and glide easer but you loss some of the downhill stability that the 75mm boots have. This style boot will most likely be a leather or plastic leather highbred.

Another option is a Silvretta 300 or the 404 bindings. With these binding you can uses a heavy leather mountaineering boot ( La Sportiva-Makalu) or a light plastic mountaineering boot (Koflach boots).

The Stegar mukluks are a good boot for cold winter weather and may fit your need for an around camp boot but duct taping them onto skis will give you little performance. These have too little ankle support and the duct tape binding reduces the efficiency of the stride. This combo is do able but a recipe for disaster on a long trip into the backcountry, I know I had to try it around the yard but a lot of Whisky was involved.

[refried]

Funny you should mention instability, I went out on my skis with NNN bindings the other day, hit a rock and fell over (I have no idea why). I landed on the edge of the ski with my hip and now have a big ugly black bruise on my leg/*** with a perfect indentation of the metal edge and sidewall of the ski.

why is the word *** blocked?

[DesertJK]

I have Rosignal NNN BC boots and Alpina skis with metal edges. I have a couple of sets of skis for different uses. I have some older metal edge Alpinas for skiing around my neigborhood and when there is crappy snow and I will be hitting rocks. I have another set of Alpinas that are a wider shaped backcountry ski. They are great in deep snow and fairly short so they turn nice and get through the bush better than longer skis.
One thing to remember is the bigger the ski, the more boot you need to steer it. Next on my to buy list is a nice telemark setup, or maybe Alpine touring gear. Got my skis from one of those discount gear consignment stores, and off craigslist. Boots were bought new from a shop that knew what they were doing, to replace consignment store boots. DON'T SKIMP ON BOOTS,EVER.
Boots are the diference between having fun, and having misery. Also, if you are unlucky enough to get standed or lost, and your feet are already cold, wet and sore, you do not stand a chance and will die, and your corpse will be eaten by wolves.

[DesertJK]

My favorite skis, but be cautious, they can be hard to turn when going fast if you don't have some boot on it

http://www.backcountry.com/alpina-x-...rrProd=ALP0282

[Co-opski]

Those Alpinas look cool with the vintage wood topsheet. I tried a pair two years ago and they are a nice XCD ski for bombing around the woods. The pair you linked to have a larger tip,underfoot and tail.

[DesertJK]

Those Alpinas look cool with the vintage wood topsheet. I tried a pair two years ago and they are a nice XCD ski for bombing around the woods. The pair you linked to have a larger tip,underfoot and tail.

I see your from Girdwood. I learned to X-country ski there. Grew up in Anchorage, went to Stellar High School, but graduated from Save 2.
Had one of the scrariest lost in woods experiences right outside girwood up the valley that goes behind Aleyeska. When I finally got to the dog sled trail at midnight with one ski, no gun, and no head lamp, I had about 10 wolves following me.

[Co-opski]

^^^^^Berry Pass and Winner Creek trail. I could see getting turned around back there, lucky you did not end up at Carmin Lake and 20 Mile River down by Portage Valley like the two kids this summer.

Here is a good website that lists the boots for XCD and BC.
http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/Dirt.../bc-boots.html