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Skiing in your Mountaineering boots

Original Post
Portwood · · Your moms house last night · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 45

Yes it can be done safely...
This last ski season I used a product from a European company called Alp Control they make a tibia support device they call the "Mountain Spring". This device supports your foot ankle and lower leg and just straps on over your boots. This allows you to skin and climbing in your climbing boots but have a safe and fun ski down. The Mountain Spring is somewhere around 1.5 - 2 pounds and made out of carbon fiber and titanium parts.

Ideal uses for this would be climbing to the summit up a moderate climb with your skis on your back and skiing down. Or skiing into an ice climb and skiing out. Or stashing your skis and supports on the summit during acclimatization and climbing a hard technical route topping out and having a fast and fun ski down.

Down side: Rolling terrain, this setup is not good for laps, simply because strapping the tibia support on is time consuming. Which really, that is not the intended use. The buckles need further development for efficiency. They are not ergonomic and add to the time to attach it to the boot. The price is the true downfall. I think I spent five or six hundred dollars on my pair. Being carbon fiber and titanium there is no surprise at a big price tag.

I was very happy with the performance of this device. I would highly recommend this product to anyone looking to ski in their mountaineering boots. I have skied with a knee straps setup in the past. They did significantly improve the downhill ski but are of no comparison to this Mountain Spring device.

I recently (June 2012) did a trip to Portland and climbed Liberty ridge on Rainier and skied down the Emmons glacier using this, all in a single car to car push. Later that week I soloed the North Face route on Mt. Hood and skied down the Coopers Spur and back to my car once again using this device. If you would like to see here is the video for Rainier: youtube.com/watch?v=-AiFJnZ… and a better video from my solo of Hood: youtube.com/watch?v=gTM9H3e….

For mountain and ice routes this fills a niche nothing else has. Other than some minor nuisances in buckle design I cannot recommend these enough. They make skiing out tremendously more safe and even fun. Here is the web site: blackpowder-ski.com/mountai…

Bang Nhan · · Charlottesville, VA · Joined Dec 2010 · Points: 35

Pictures of the Mountain Spring?

Tim Stich · · Colorado Springs, Colorado · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 1,520

Cool idea. Yeah, got any pics?



Thanks for the link. This very similar to what I have read about people doing in the past, down to the cord attached to the ski tips. Looks a lot nicer.
sqwirll · · Las Vegas · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 1,360
Stich wrote:Cool idea. Yeah, got any pics?
It was in the post above. Pretty funky gadget.

blackpowder-ski.com/mountai…
Rick Blair · · Denver · Joined Oct 2007 · Points: 266

Your edging on that ski descent looked really squirely, I would have to see a video of you skiing the same terrain without them to determine if there was much benefit. Would you have been at least able to survival ski that terrain without these?

Bang Nhan · · Charlottesville, VA · Joined Dec 2010 · Points: 35

So I assume those are only for plastic mountaineering boots only then, no leather boots like the La Sportiva Trango Alp Gortex or so. Right?

Ray Pinpillage · · West Egg · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 180
Bang wrote:So I assume those are only for plastic mountaineering boots only then, no leather boots like the La Sportiva Trango Alp Gortex or so. Right?
Those are La Sportiva Baruntse soft double boots.

For the cost of that setup I'd rather use a Dynafit TLT5 boot and La Sportiva binding combo (lighter weight). That just looked scary and out of control. The Mountain Spring costs around 400 Euros.
harpo-the-climber · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 300

Yeah, another vote for the TLT5s. I have them but I haven't used them for any alpine climbing. But the Cold Thistle blog had a few blogs on crazy shit Euros are climbing in the Alps with the TLT5s. BTW, my TLT5s are the same weight as my plastic double climbing boots, plus you save weight with the tech bindings over a Silveretta binding and "Mountain Spring".

Portwood · · Your moms house last night · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 45

-TLT5s will be lighter and have better control. They are a ski boot. This contraption allows you to climb legitimate ice and rock while still able to do your approach on skis saving time and effort. The TLT5s are also not very warm. So it might make more sense depending upon the route and mountain to have a warmer boot. Case in point my buddy got frost bite skiing Denali in the TST5s. The run up this and liberty ridge were a final test, if you will, for their performance over several thousand feet of descent.

-You can wear soft boots as I do. Plastics would give you some better response.

-This setup is not squirrelly at all. The snow I'm skiing through is warm and heavier (it was also wind blown and choppy below the icy section) maybe that’s why it appears that way? I am very comfortable skiing steep terrain in these. But I was very uncomfortable on the upper ridge because of the tremendous fall potential (2,000') and that I could hardly edge on the ice. The boot I used was quite un-consequential for those conditions (and edging), I would have felt the same with ski boots. Better skiers might have felt more comfortable.

-They are a niche tool and I like them allot and want to get the word out about them because… well they kick ass! I have skied with the knee/ski tip strap and there is simply no comparison as the knee strap is scary and dangerous.

-There is no way that I would have been able to ski this terrain with out them. Too steep and especially that icy top to the ridge!

Ray Pinpillage · · West Egg · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 180

The TLT5 is as warm as your LS Baruntse. Just because someone got frostbite in them doesn't mean they're cold, cold weather injuries happen for a variety of reasons. Palau makes the inner boot for the TLT5 and Baruntse.

harpo-the-climber · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 300

U can size up the tlt5s and also get intuition liners to make them warmer. They don't French point as well as a climbing boot, but they do pretty good in that respect because they have so much fore/aft ankle mobility in walk mode.

U would save the weight of the mountain spring 1.5-2 lbs and also 2-3 pounds on the bindings, I am guessing.

Auto-X Fil · · NEPA and Upper Jay, NY · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 50

I climb ice and mixed in TLT5s, and they are awesome. Very precise and technical boot. As mentioned, they don't french technique well. But on actual hard terrain, WI4 and up, and M5 and up? Awesome. Way better than Invernos, probably as good as most single boots I've used. By the time the terrain is so hard you really need a more technical boot, you probably want fruit boots anyway.

They also ski exceptionally well, and are wildly light.

They are not warm. The Baruntse liner is made by Palau, but it's thicker than the TLT5. You also tend to size climbing boots bigger than skiing boots to improve circulation. My Phantom Guides are easily warmer than my TLT-5s, and the Baruntse is much warmer than the Phantom Guide.

But, you can size them up and use Intuition liners, again as mentioned already. This would be my tactic for serious skiing on something like Denali - size them up a full shell size (2 if you were already on the edge), and mold Intuitions with extra room. The slop would hurt skiing a little bit, but they would still be way lighter and better skiing than any mountaineering boot setup, and plenty warm. Of course, it's expensive, but if you're into skiing Denali it's probably not the only cold, high-altitude skiing you're going to do.

SilverSnurfer · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2012 · Points: 5

Ah, the return of the NAVA system. Proof positive that everything comes back around in due time

Portwood · · Your moms house last night · Joined Sep 2010 · Points: 45

Please understand this setup is not meant to repace your ski mountaineering setup or to replace your BC ski boots. It is intended as a support for approaches and decent's for ice and mountain climbs to make it safer... obviously it can preform much better than just making it safer as you can see from the video.

Altho the TLT5 is one of your best choices for ski mountaineering they dont take the hammer well when doing a lot of ice and mixed climbing. They just dont have the durability, especailly the buckles. If you are going to put a lot of milage on them it's just something to consider.

BTW Ray Pinpillage you are simply wrong the Baruntse is substantially warmer than the TLT5

chris · · CO · Joined Dec 2007 · Points: 5
rando cuff

Homemade versions have been around for years. Here's mine. < $10.
Taylor-B. · · Valdez, AK · Joined Oct 2009 · Points: 3,186

Chriss, how did you make those. They seem like the simple ticket to better performance.
+1 TLT5s for a ski and mixed combo boot.

Tim Stich · · Colorado Springs, Colorado · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 1,520
Rowdy Wrangellian wrote:Chriss, how did you make those. They seem like the simple ticket to better performance. +1 TLT5s for a ski and mixed combo boot.
Looks like a PVC pipe elbow of appropriate size cut to fit. Nice.
chosspector · · San Juans, CO · Joined Oct 2008 · Points: 1,296

No thanks, but I love mountaineering in my ski boots...duh.

chris · · CO · Joined Dec 2007 · Points: 5
Rowdy Wrangellian wrote:Chriss, how did you make those. They seem like the simple ticket to better performance. +1 TLT5s for a ski and mixed combo boot.
http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/424946/Re_Made_Modified_Climbing_Gear#Post424946

Old thread about homemade gear. Easily done with common parts.
MTN MIA · · Vail · Joined May 2006 · Points: 405

I can easily ski in my plastic mountaineering boots and old plastic ice climbing boots (but who uses those anymore.....lol)

I havnt tried to ski in my Nepal Evo...... I think it would work ok as the fit is tight....... But I probably wouldn't do it with a big pack........and why????

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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