Touring ski size guide

How to choose the right size for your touring skis?

1. Choosing the right size for your touring skis

For the uninitiated, choosing the right size of touring skis may seem difficult. In practice, however, it's quite simple: depending on your level, you'll need skis that are larger or smaller than your height.

Beginner level: between -5cm and -8cm than your height.
Intermediate/expert level: your height up to +5cm

In practice, the longer the length of your skis, the easier they are to handle in turns, but the less they sink into the powder and the faster they go downhill. Of course, the longer the skis, the heavier they are on the ascent.

The wider the skis (over 95mm), the less they will sink into the powder on the way down, but the more friction they will create on the way up, and the heavier they will be. Conversely, narrow skis (less than 80mm) will be less stable on the way down, but will allow for greater vertical drops on the way up, as they will be lighter and create less friction.

For beginners, medium-width skis (80mm to 95mm) offer a good compromise between ascent and descent, stability and weight.

2. Bindings

Ski touring bindings come in two different technologies:

- Low-tech bindings with inserts: these are lighter than plate bindings, and are also more efficient when climbing. However, they are only compatible with inset boots.
- Diamir plate bindings: similar to the bindings used in alpine skiing, these are compatible with all ski boots, but are heavier than insert bindings. This weight is felt in particular by the fact that you have to lift the whole binding with your foot for each step.

Plate bindings, on the other hand, are more precise on descents, and are therefore generally preferred by freerando skiers.

3. Seal skins

Traditionally, seal skins were made from real seal skins, but nowadays they're made from synthetic materials: nylon or mohair, or a mixture of the two.

The principle is simple: the "hairs" of the sealskin slide in one direction and adhere in the other. So when you're going uphill, you can slide your skis forward to make progress, but you won't slide backwards if the snow is good. In icy conditions, seal skins are not always effective, and may need to be combined with metal knives, which act as anti-slip "crampons".

Seal skins are generally glued to the ski base, and sometimes a fastener is attached to the heel of the ski to prevent the skins from coming unstuck due to the cold.