A buddy and I have signed up to do the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse ski race next month. It’s a backcountry ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen (about 40 miles). Should be lots of type II fun. I’ve been working a lot on the gear list and was hoping to get feedback from anyone who’s done the race or has experience with long distance ski touring.
I took a lot of inspiration from this thread. I struggled with the decision between 3-pin/rando race/NNN-BC ski setups, but ultimately decided to go with Salomon SNS-BC bindings on Madshus Glittertinds. This setup was pretty highly regarded on teletips and did great when I demoed them. I already have a burly resort tele setup and felt like those and a BC binding setup would offer the largest range of options for ski touring throughout the season. Rando racing gear has been winning the EMGT the last few years, but I couldn’t justify the cost of a slick dynafit setup and I still wanted something appropriate for mellow days tooling around the woods.
The race organizers impose a pretty stringent mandatory gear list on the racers, including extra bindings, sleep systems, stoves, and extra baselayers:
http://www.elkmountaintraverse.org/html/equipment.html#gear
Here’s the list I’ve put together, thanks in advance for any feedback:
EMGT Gear List
