Skimo World Champs: The Gear Report

One of the blessings and curses of skimo racing is the gear.  Skimo gear has evolved in leaps and bounds in the last 5 years.  Racing setups are getting spooky light, which is good for the uphill, and they are also getting stronger and more rigid, which is good for the DH.  There is also a much larger selection in gear.  Along with skimo-specific companies, mainstream ski companies are joining the fray.  I saw race skis from Elan, Dynastar, Fischer, and Movement, to name a few.  Here is what the hotel lobby looked like at any given moment:

From Andorra Day 2

There are some Trabs with Haero bindings, a full Dynafit setup, Movments with ATK bindings, Goodes with Dynafits.

Here is a close up of Trab's own proprietary race binding:

From Andorra 3

From Andorra 3

Of course, the design of all race bindings stems from Dynafit's genius design.

As a point of reference, gear-wise, the men on Team America were on the following setups:

Pete: Dynafit DNA skis, Dynafit low tech bindings, and Dynafit DNA boots
Cary: Hagan Race X-Lite skis, Dynafit low tech bindings, and Dynafit DNA boots
Max: Ski Trab World Cup Race, low techs, Scarpa F1 Race
Travis: Dynafit DNA skis, low techs, Dynafit DNA boots
Ben: Hagan Race X-Lite skis, low techs, Scarpa F1 Race
Brandon: Dynafit DNA skis, low techs, Dynafit DNA boots
Wick: Goode Rando Race skis, low techs, Scarpa F1 Carbon boots
Me: Ski Trab World Cup Race, low techs, and Pierre Gignoux XP 444 boots

In the US, we don't have as large of a selection of race gear, but I think (hopefully) it will trickle in.

For boots, we saw lots of different models. The majority of racers were in Scarpa, Dynafit, or Pierre Gignoux. I saw a few La Sportiva Stratos models. Some of the elite had some new Scarpa prototype Alien boots:

From Andorra 3

These are Florent Troillet's boots, one of the top racers in the world right now. He won the individual race in these boots. He and Killian Jornet were mano y mano duking it out over the whole course, passing and getting passed back. Killian passed Florent on the last ascent up the boot pack, but Florent passed him back on the final descent, in these boots. Note that Scarpa has done away with the bellows. Note: This picture was taken with Florent's consent and was not some paparazzi job.

From Andorra 3