Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information & opinion website. Lou's passion for the past 50 years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about
ski touring and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the
Fourteeners! Books and free ski touring news and information here.
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Backcountry skiing is dangerous. You may be killed or severely injured if you do any form of ski mountaineering, skimo randonnee and randonnée skiing. The information and news on this website is intended only as general information. Due to human error and passing time, the information, text and images contained within this website may be inaccurate, false, or out-of-date. By using, reading or viewing the information provided on this website, you agree to absolve the owners of Wild Snow as well as content contributors of any liability for injuries or losses incurred while using such information. Furthermore, you agree to use any of this website's information, maps, photos, or binding mounting instructions templates at your own risk, and waive Wild Snow owners and contributors of liability for use of said items for ski touring or any other use.
HAHA, no you didn’t mount tech toes to a fitness machine!
Hah, brilliant! What is that machine, I need one!?
You might be able to catch Catwomen now.
Praise ULLR! This is amazing!
Where is Duck Robin?
Tech toes on the elliptical, that is… just… COMPLETELY AWESOMELY GENIUS!! Hurry and patent that idea, before the NordicTrack folks beat you to it!
😀 perfect! I would like to have such a system in my living room. I have just only expected much cooler green Dynafit TLT6 shoes 🙂
OK—got me for a minute — put them on some old ski roller skis and you get to have some real fun—up hill on new pavement is like a new tracker skin on your skis and coming down puts a whole new definition to ” No Fall Zone “–thanks for the laugh !
Glad you guys are enjoying! Was fun creating the machine and vid. Seriously, it’s a fairly decent workout for skinning, but could be a bit more specific. Beyond that, can you think of anything better for a boot fitting shop? I’ll be using it myself to fit the TLT Six Shooters.
Holy Bats^!t Batman that is cheating!
How will the Joker hang on the uphill skiing?
Did you mount on the line of a few inches back?
Inserts or just drill straight in?
I’m 4 ft 11 and 240 pounds, should i dial up my RV all the way to avoid pre-release?
Kyle a bit like this? …Lou, how do you add photos?
Arnie, if you need a photo in a blog comment, please email it to us. See contact link in menu above. Lou
Arnie’s photos are added to the end of the blog post.
I have to buy my boots. Want too many snow cycles to use for only exercise shoes!
Cute though!
Arnie, how well do the brakes work?
Wow! Arnie’s training guns are awesome!!
Would like to try them!
Maybe Arnie can make an invitational special post about how they work…..
Lou,
The brake is simply a lever which acts directly onto the tyre. It’s held upright by a spring and in classic or skate it’s just there out of the way. When you want to slow down you advance the brake ski which pushes the lever back and it’s easy to keep balanced. They’ve got speed reducers on the front which add resistance and can be used as brakes. I’ve done some fairly long descents though nothing to steep, you can also snowplough after a fashion. They’re jenex V2 aeros, designed for xc practice, all I’ve done is mount dynafits instead of xc binding. Their website has some good stuff, Powerslide now do something similar.
Cheers for publishing them esteemed reader indeed!;)
I see another brand around called skrikes that are designed for nordic trainimg. Also have ratchet gears for uphill and a brake system but dont require a ski boot of any kind and wheels will ride over rough ground like crushed rock so good for bike trails.
Rob – I can’t find those online, you know where those could be found?
Lou – Kind of wish I had my parent’s old Nordic track, it’d be interesting to see how well dynafits mounted on those boards 😀
Sorry Greg…Typo.. They are called Skikes.
Annie:
I done a lot of roller skiing and have a couple of pairs, but have never thought of mounting downhill gear on them. You are definitely thinking outside of the box!
But, I can’t see the benefit of downhill training with your intriguing set up.
Can you parallel turn with them? Please tell us about how you train with them or are you just fooling with us to get us all worked up? 🙂
Thank you.
Gregg: if you want a Nordic track, check out Craigslist, where people can’t give those things away.
Ended up getting a nordic track from a neighbor’s garage sale for $20, now I just need a spare pair of dynafit toe pieces to mount on them, anybody have any leads on that? 😀
Greg, if you do end up mounting binding toes on machine, you might find you need to do what we did, which was to mount the bindings in oversized holes on a rubber pad, so the binding flexes and moves a tiny bit. We found that screwing the binding tightly to the machine was too rigid of a connection and could possibly cause some repetitive motion injury. I only allowed a tiny bit of movement, but it seems to be enough to make it feel much more like being on skis with climbing skins. Lou
This thread has me viewing my old Nordic Track in a new light! Thank you.
Mitch,
I don’t use them for “downhill” training although I do sometimes come back down on them! My original idea was more with breaking boots in, even with thermo forms I need time on my feet to get used to my boots again, after a summer in sandals they feel like feet coffins. I used to just go hiking but wanted something a bit more specific, I found references to roller ski training on camp2camp (mostly in French) and took it that bit further.
I have a few sessions/options: there’s a cycle track nearby which is fairly flat so do longish(60-90min) slow stuff concentrating on drills and technique, the downside of the set up is “perfect kick”, no matter where your weight you will get traction.
Then there’s also a couple of resevoirs in the hills behind my house with access roads of various steepness, so there’s a short, steep or a longer, shallower hill rep session which is where the speed reducers/brake/snowplough get used as I hurtle past the dog walkers. Tip..attach bike bell to a pole.
I also have some skikes which are just strap on skates really..not that specific but great fun…and if it’s bad there’s always the Nordic track or the turbo trainer.
Add in a couple of circuit training or gym sessions, a swim or two, and a long bike ride or ski gang (walking with poles)..sounds like a training plan. Bring on the snow.
Arnie:
Thank you for the explanation. I thought that you were using them like a downhill grass ski and was very impressed!
I certainly like your Nordic track idea.
Thanks again for the post.
Mitch
Lou,
How has this setup stood up to the test of time? Do you still find yourself using it/would you recommend it to others?
Many thanks,
Raff