telemark

The K2 Work Stinx is one of the most popular tele skis. And for a good reason. It's a great all round ski that you can ski at the resorts and in the backcountry. The K2 rep told me a they sell to a lot of ski patrollers. She also explained that the ski has 2 different radius sidecuts in the front and in the back. The shorter front radius help initiate your turn and the longer radius helps hold the ski in the turn.

PROS

The Karhu Jak Backcountry is a light weight version of the popular Jak. In order to save weight, without giving up performance, Karhu replaced the Titanal with carbon fiber, and the maple core with Greenlight, an environmentally friendly core. The Jak BC weights nearly a pound less than the regular Jak. The weight savings makes touring a breeze. Click here for my Jak review. PROS

Over the years, the Karhu Jaks (female version is the Jil)have received numerous awards and raving reviews in magazines, blogs and forums. If you've been lucky enough to ski on them, then you know why. This year's version offers a top sheet of Titanal to help dampen the ski and provide more edge hold on the hard pack. I skied this ski with two different bindings. The first time I skied with the Hammerhead binding, and the second time I skied it with the Rottefella NTN binding. The ski handled much differently with each binding.

The Voile 3-pin Hardwire binding combines the 3-pin toe box with the spring-loaded adjustable heel assembly.

PROS
I like the added safety of the old-school 3 pin toe-box in case something happens to while I'm touring. I also like being able to take the spring off the rear of my boot, when I'm on a gradual skin track. I have boots for touring and resort skiing, so I can quickly adjust the binding to fit my boot. I could never do this very quickly with my old cable bindings. I like being able to adjust the tension in spring with a few turns of the cartridge.

CONS