Skiing Denali

Most interested in what Skis/Bindings and boots folks are using.

Dynafits.

Wildsnow has lots of beta on skiing Denali including gear beta. I'd suggest reading all of their Denali posts if you're planning on skiing it.

Something really light with dynafits and overboots for your ski boots. Intuition liners and a boot that's not too tight. I think Lou Dawson used K2 Waybacks at like 88 underfoot. There are lots of skis that are lighter than this nowadays. That seems like a good waist width for such an endeavor. It's almost certainly going to be survival skiing anyways up high. I can't imagine the snow up high not being complete wind funk. Something light and on the narrower side will make it easier to skin on firm snow.

That being said I have absolutely no personal experience on Denali, so take my advice with a huge grain of salt.

I appreciate the insight. Ill read up on the wildsnow posts.

I did it in May, on a snowboard.

I used dynafit tlt-5's with closed cell foam under the liners, and 40 below fresh track overboots.

bindings were older Dynafit tour lite tech's (toe piece only, phantom bindings for snowboard)

I had amazing snow from the summit ridge to zebra rocks, where i dropped into the headwall above the autobon.

beautiful smooth windbuff, throwing up double over head rooster tails. stuff dreams are made of, in fact I still dream of it often...

Most people will say intuition liners are a must, I didnt have them and I had warm feet, but it wasn't the coldest it could be on my summit day.

hell yeah Christoph. nice work. pretty rad you found good snow.

Hey chris, I saw you on the mountain. I was the dude with skis, Fischer ambition 12s with Fischer hannibal 94 177cms. Scarpa Spirit 3s sized a shell size up with Intuition pro tour liners, aerogel insoles, and overboots. To be honest, I thought the snow was pretty shitty above 18k, but thats probably because I cant ski worth a damn.

are you the guys from UMASS?

the snow had good and bad places, but where it needed to be good it was great.

you could find little veins of good smooth snow running down the mountain, and from the football field down to zebra rocks was entirely smooth and super awesome.

HAHA yes! Glad you had a good run on the way down. It was way over my head in terms of high altitude skiing. Need to train more!