Hunting ski, skin set up?

[Seeknelk]

I'm looking to get some skis for the big terrain here in NW MT.
Use- trapping the high country, wolf, cat hunts, late season hunts possibly, scouting, shooting and overnights possibly on trapline. Probably just single night out and back type stuff with hot tent.

Wants- ability to ski downhill fairly well with or without skins as brakes depending on needs. Stability.
It's be sweet if a mountain boot worked with it but I'm totally prepared to wear a dedicated ski boot and maybe pack mukluks.
Climbing ability is more important since that's the hard part!
Me- 5 foot 10. 250 pounds. Plenty athletic. I can certainly ski although I've mostly snowboarded the resorts. I've cross country skied off and on my whole life. Mostly skate skiing on groomed trails which leads to exciting downhills.
I did try out a buddies split board once on my marten line years ago. The climbing ability was insane! I didn't care for the split board for covering ground on mellow terrain tho. Bindings clanked together occasionally etc. If I recall, it was kinda from having such fat boots and bindings.
Anyway, what's the set up to start with? I may end up getting some for my 12 year old boy even.

 

[Poser]

A splitboard will be impractical for this purpose, unless you want to splitboard for fun and just split-ski the entire time you are running trap lines. Otherwise, too many transitions and I'm going to assume that the terrain will, more often than not, be too mellow for a a splitboard in downhill mode.

Black Diamond makes these light duty skis that you could use with mountain boots -they are closer to being snowshoes than skis, though: https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/revi...kis/black-diamond-glidelite-147-snow-trekkers

and, you won't get the downhill performance as you're not wearing ski boots and these have permanent skins on them which was one of your disqualifies. These would, however, most likely be your cheapest entry point to actually getting on skis and getting around.

 

[cubdriver84d]

Some good info in this thread: https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/bird-hunting-on-skis.291269/

I think the rottefella xplore bindings might be the right balance between stability and weight.

 

[Flatgo]

I have not pulled the trigger yet, but I’m looking at a pair of voile hypervector bc’s with the scale bottom. AT boots and AT bindings. It’ll give more glide on the flats. I would also have skins for steeper terrain.

I have a pair of atlai hoks they work decent depending on what you’re doing, but rather sketchy on any downhills

 

[TaperPin]

Telemark ski setups have been doing what you’re talking about and with climbing skins go up slopes I wouldn’t have expected. I used to hike with a guy who had telemark bindings on downhill skis and we’d hike up big steep snow fields and he’d bomb down them. I can’t remember the advantage of using downhill skis instead of skinnier telemark skis, but it seemed like downhill performance was better and they were essentially acting like snow shoes. Of course downhill skis don’t flex and grab the snow in the same way, but if you have skins on in steep country that doesn’t matter. He could go anywhere we could go with snowshoes.

 

[Marbles]

A 90ish mm waste parabolic BC touring ski and tech binding is what you want.

Tech boots work fine for walking around in. Some people even ice climb in them.

 

[peterk123]

I use my touring gear. It's a light ski, but has 108mm under foot. Lots of float for touring in and skiing out.

 

[Seeknelk]

I use my touring gear. It's a light ski, but has 108mm under foot. Lots of float for touring in and skiing out.

Thanks! What is your touring gear? 108 underfoot, seems I've heard numbers like that before.

 

[Seeknelk]

Some good info in this thread: https://rokslide.com/forums/threads/bird-hunting-on-skis.291269/

I think the rottefella xplore bindings might be the right balance between stability and weight.

Thanks! I'll dig back into that one. I recall it from a while back.

 

[elknut420]

i just put together a cheaper setup. i got used marker shifts, an old pair of k2 shreditors and blackdiamond skins. Only spent a couple hundred bucks. The boots werent cheap tho. I live near jackson hole and the facebook marketplace has insane deals.