Day Three Review: BD Helio 105, Atomic Backland Carbon Boots

I haven't had a 184oz Mountain Dew Big Gulp in over two weeks due to this Covid isolation thing, so my mind is all over the place. Somewhere below is a review of my new rig . . . . with a lot of rambling . . .

For a real review, go to Wildsnow.com, or Skimo.com (or store) or the BD Store (Cottonwood) or Wasatch Touring, they have the knowledge, time and money to provide the best reviews. The magazine reviews are mostly bullshit because you get more reviewer personality than an objective review, so it helps to know a bit about the reviewer to put that review into perspective.

Sorry for the cursing, I learned it from 30 years of employment at the Williams Companies, where "GD-Fing-BS" was included in every conversation - multiple times, and that coming  from those who pretended higher callings, Bishops, Stake Presidents, Ex-Mission Presidents, etc. There was a direct correlation between religious rank and foul mouth. The higher the rank, the saltier was their language. I'm not joking, that was my reality of my last 30 years, and I've got a $100 retirement gift card from REI to prove. Yes, 30 years = $100. I'm the bad example, don't become a company man, get out when the walls close-in.

The Helios have a low rise tip but only a problem when I skinned pigeon-toed, at which point I tripped over my own skis. They never porpoised downward in deep snow, but I have seen that complaint on the BD website. I'm guessing it's not a problem unless your skis are too short for your weight, or you mount them forward like a park-rat.

So if ski reviews are more reviewer personality that real information, here is a bit of my personality: I'm much more Bob Dylan than Donny Osmond, more Nirvana than Kiss. Make that ALL Nirvana, ZERO Kiss. I grew up in the ‘70’s and my roots are in making small-arc turns, a habit I am trying to break, but quick turns are where my muscle memory lies. If I ski a resort I always gravitate to skiing bumps, because, let's face it, there is NO powder at a resort, unless you are lucky enough to be on the 6am shift with the Ski Patrol. So I ski bumps. I love the challenge of quick, fluid turns on a steep slope, without stopping until the legs are ruined. I'm getting old (58), so skiing bumps is getting harder, not as quick from edge to edge and certainly not as fast top to bottom, but I still try every time I ride a lift. 

And why quick edge to edge? The ability to make quick turns in a pinch, like the ability to move quickly over long, varied terrain, is a real safety tool in the back country that many skiers just don't carry. They pack all the avy gear, they know how to dig a pit, and they lecture on and on about stability and hidden layers, but many are damn scary to watch trying to ski through aspens or down a narrow chute. I've read some terrible stories of skiers getting wrapped around an aspen the wrong way. If that happens it's usually game over, and you're not walking out to the trail head.

Bottom line, I don't like big surfy skis, I find them too heavy, too hard to turn. I like to savor my runs with as many turns as possible, not swallow it all in three huge, high-speed turns.        

Day Three Review 

Only used thrice, so the jury is still out, but so far the new rig has exceeded expectations. 

Skis - Black Diamond Helio 105 (175cm, 132-105-119 mm):

The skis were better than expected. Due to their width, 105mm under foot, which I consider  quite wide, I did not expect a quick-turning, nimble ski, and the Helio 105's seemed to defy that notion. I'm not sure why but Black Diamond skis have always felt good to me. BD skis are not always highly rated by the gear review folks, but they have always worked for me. My experience with them is they are easy to turn, always responsive, even when conditions suck and when I'm on the wrong width for the conditions. They seem to work above their stated purpose. In general, overall BD skis have always been the best turning back country skis I’ve owned. The Helio 105 is now my sixth pair of BD skis going back a long way: Arc Angel, Kilowatt, Justice, Aspect (my personal favorite), Helio 88 (my current go-to rig for every day use) and the Helio 105 (my current go-to for deep snow).

When I say ‘best turning ski,’ that sentiment goes back to my 1970's mogul days. I like a ski that can turn on a dime, which is critical for back country skiing, because quick turns are paramount for skiing tight aspens or skiing steep technical faces on an icy crust. I'm more of slalom guy than a super-g guy. Yes, turning is a simple equation of ski width and turn radius, but it’s not that simple. Build materials, lateral stiffness, longitudinal stiffness and weight all have an impact on a skis ability to turn at the dictates of its master. After three days on the Helio 105s, in conditions across the board - creamy old powder, sun and wind crusts, perfect corn, way-over-ripe corn, unsupportable slush - the Helio 105 were surprising nimble on all fronts. They turn quickly and nimbly in manky conditions and in soft, dry snow they fly effortlessly. I love my Voile V6s which are a full centimeter narrower under foot, but in comparison the the Helio 105s they seem slow and cumbersome in the same conditions.

A good freind loves Voile skis and is always giving me shit for buying Black Diamond. He tells me I need the Voile BC version of the V6's. He argues that he uses his skins 1/3 less due to the fish-scale bases on his Voiles, but I'm not convinced. MY V6s don't have the fish-scales and they are still a bit cumbersome turning-wise, so adding fish-scales would just slow them even more. The V6s do great when making big, fast, GS turns, but not so good when skiing in tight places (trees, steep technical faces). I think it boils down to tail stiffness: the 105s have a stiffer tail so I get more end-turn-power than I do on the V6s. The Helio 105s excelled in both fast, quick, small turns and fast big turns, and a complete surprise in tight trees for how quickly they could go from edge to edge given the 105mm underfoot. They are now my powder ski and the 88s my everyday ski if the powder is old.

The low-rise tip is not a problem, especially on the downhill. I tripped on them on the skin track only when I got lazy and wasn’t paying attention to ski placement, which I’ve done with higher rise tipped skis too, like the V6s, it’s just a more common occurrence with the Helios. I did find a real benefit to such a low-rise tip: they act as a glob remover, low enough you can step right on that tip without losing balance, then sliding ski back/forward to remove the stuck snow from a saturated skin.

Another plus for BD skis, my BD skins attach much more security. This is more of an annoyance, but when using BD skins with my Voile V6s, the tail clip continually unclips and flops around while skinning. It hasn't been a problem, yet, because the glue holds the skins onto the ski, but one day it could be. I assume my BD skins unclip from my V6's due to the thickness of the Voile ski vs. the BD tail clip. The sizes seem to be inconsistent. With the Helio 105s (and 88s) the tail clip has never unclipped, other than operator error like when I botch a kick turn.       

Early rise tips profiles - Voile V6 on top, Helio 105 on bottom. The V6 has a much more pronounced rise, but I've skied on Helio 88's and now Helio 105s, both with low-rise tips, and it's not an issue while skiing. The only time I've noticed it in negative terms, is when I get lazy in the skin track and step one tip on top of the other, then I trip. I must have been pigeon-toed in my youth? 

Wider, but the Helio is lighter due to its carbon layup. That said, part of the lightness is due to different bindings. The Helio is mounted with an Atomic Backland (no brake) and the Voile V6 is mounted with a Dynafit Speed Radical (no brake). Not sure what the difference is in the binding weights.

V6's (183cm) with Dynafit Speed Radicals 1.32lbs heavier than the Helio 105s (176cm) with Atomic Backland bindings (no brakes on either rig). 

You can see the wider footprint of the Helio 105 when the Voile V6 is centered over the Helio.

Don't judge me on my poor hot-wax technique, using too much wax is another bad habit I'm trying to break. 

The Helio 105 is slightly wider than the Voile V6 but it has a stiffer tail and slightly wider tail but with a similar flex in the shovel. With a stiffer tail, the Helio 105 feels more powerful at the end of a turn.  

The Helio 105's are 1cm (10mm) wider under foot but they completely eclipse the Voile V6s, and the Helio 105s are HUGE compared to my favorite ski of all-time, the K2 Super Stinx. That said, the 105s seem much quicker and easier from edge to edge than the V6s, and I love quick turning skis. That Super Stinx is the quickest ski edge to edge that I own. I'd love to see the industry swing back in the direction of narrow, turny skis vs. the current surf-board mentality that dominates the ski market. 

Ok, I'll just come out with it: in general today's skiers don't know how to turn. Fat skis surf and do all the work so setting an edge is not necessary. If one knows how to carve a turn, ski width is an afterthought. Just know, good technique on a skinny ski requires less effort than bad technique on a fat ski. Watch world cup ski racers and learn: balanced, hands forward, head up, hips in (around turn arc), feet out (around turn arc), ankles rolled in.    

Boots - Atomic Backland Carbon (Size 27-27.5):

That's an old milk can from my grandpas farm in Corrine, Utah, where my Dad grew up, leaving when he was 18 to serve in the US Navy's Submarine Service in the South Pacific during WWII, and that's how he met my Mom. He was serving on the USS Blower (look it up, it had a tragic end after the war), stationed at the US Submarine Base in Fremantle, Western Australia (a suburb of Perth). He, being a good Mormon boy (much better than his son), found the only LDS Branch in all of Western Australia at the time (an area the size of the western third of the US) and he attended Sacrament Meeting on Sunday's in the small branch located in Subiaco (another suburb of Perth, where my Mom's family lived). My Grandmother, Annie Elizabeth Badilier Whitton, invited my Dad home every Sunday for dinner when he wasn't out to sea trying to torpedo Japanese destroyers, and the romance began. (My Grandmother is French/English by way of India (where she met and married my Grandfather (Scottish/Welsh by way of Scotland/India), a school teacher to the youth of the occupying English, and, after emigrating from India to Perth they converted to the LDS Church.) Long story short, my Dad survived the war, he went home to Corrine, went on an LDS mission to Southern Cal/Arizona, while my Mom's family left everything in Australia and moved to Zion and started a new life in Utah.  When my Dad finished his mission they got married, had six boys (I'm number six), then a girl then another boy - five river runners, all skiers, several climbers, and none that really give a shit about careers when compared to floating, skiing, climbing. They settled in Bountiful, Utah, where they raised their family, then slowly faded as the years rolled by. My parents lived long lives with a strong work-ethic, integrity, honest to a fault - not a gullible, arrogant bone between them. Both have left us now and I cry when I realize how much I still miss them . . . .

Old milk cans carry a lot of history . . .   

But we're talking ski boots. . . . the Atomics are just a bit taller, lighter, thinner (liner and cuff) and stiffer than my Scarpa F1s.

The boots are indeed stiffer (just a bit) than my F1s and TLT6s, with much less fiddling, which is huge for me. I'd still prefer a single buckle over the BOA because the BOA seems to top out short of "tight enough." With a buckle you can yard on it until your foot is effectively 'tourniqueted.' I like the additional control that comes with a buckle. Compared to the F1 or TLT6, the Backlands are easier to transition both to ski or skin. The Atomic boot cuff/gaiter/tongue is much simpler than either the F1 or TLT6. Both of which took extra care and effort to ensure all the layers were in the right place and everything was wrapped correctly, like wrapping a multi-layered taco, where if you got one layer wrong the boots were either painful or did not have full responsiveness. I'm lazy and don't like to mess with details when transitioning to ski. I hated the removable tongue on the TLT6s, so much so that I never used them after the first several days and I only missed them when conditions were really jacked (deep wet snow or breakable wind/sun-crusts).

The Atomics are just simpler to transition. It has one gaiter you need to place correctly, which is simple to do, then just buckle it down. Another huge benefit of the Atomic is the upper cuff has a smaller circumference than either my F1 or TLT6, so it fits under my ski pants better (yeah, I should buy baggy pants). I can easily pull up my pant cuff to lock the boots to ski or unlock to skin. With my other boots I was constantly wrestling with those damn pant cuffs during transitions. It took a lot of work to pull the cuff up and over the buckle, then reverse the process when done. Last, the Atomics are both lighter and stiffer than the F1 of the TLT6, if only slightly but I could tell a difference at once.

Skinning is really where the test of a boot comes into focus. We spend much more time skinning/hiking than actually skiing, so a good-fitting boot makes all the difference. Ski racers like their boots tight enough to block blood flow, which is great while skiing, but it is miserable while skinning. Ok, race boots are always miserable, evidenced by immediate unbuckling at the bottom (watch world cup racers at the finish line, after flashing there skis at the camera (it's a sponsor requirement) they immediately unbuckle their boots to regain blood-flow). The trade off for tight boots which provide great ski performance is pain and cold feet. A boot that's too large will often lead to bloody blisters, but hey, they are warmer due to better circulation. It's a fine line between just tight enough and too tight.

Due to the fear of getting a boot that's too-big, I never heat mold my liners because I feel that heat molding only hastens the packing out process. When that happens you have a boot that's too big, and I'm too cheap and too middle-class to buy a new pair of boots every year. Yes, I can hear you saying "a good boot fitter will bring you seven years of great skiing," but that has never been my experience. I've had one too many boot fitters that tell ME how my foot feels and when I complain they insinuate that I'm merely a stupid accountant (so true), but they know nothin about the pain in my feet. With my last three pairs of boots I did not heat-mold them. I let my foot mold the liners naturally over time. As such, I buy boots on the small side then expect some pain ( a-lot?) for the first days of use, until they mold to my foot. So far it has worked out better than the heat-molding route. I've skied the Atomics three times now, not enough beta yet to pass along, just this: they are tight-ish which is uncomfortable at times but not painful, my toe nails are not purple and I have no blisters. For three days I consider that a big success.

Finally, the Backlands have a greater range of motion than both my F1s and TLT6s, so, while skinning, I've noticed a bit less fighting with resistance, not that the F1s or TLT6s where bad on that front, but with the Backlands less resistance, even just a tiny bit less, is a good thing. 

The liners in the Atomics are quite a bit thinner than the Intuition liners in the Scarpas, which means they will be colder, and I've struggled with frozen toes the last few years in those Scarpa's.

Atomics thinner and lighter and probably not as warm, and I've only skied them in the spring, so 2020-2021 could be a long, cold winter with frozen toes.

The Scarpas (without the power strap) are 3oz shy of a full pound heavier than the Backlands.

Drink Coffee NOT Mt Dew.

Bindings - Atomic Backland (no brake):

This is my second pair, I mounted my Helio 88s with these last year. So far I have no problems. The risers are just right and they are rock solid. Before going with Atomic Backlands last year, I was a long-time Dynafit devotee. I only went with Atomics after I broke a Dynafit when stomping down to lock-in to ski, while at the top of a peak after a long-skin to the top of that peak. When I stomped down the plastic base plate split in half, and the rear binding slid backward along the length position screw. With the broken base plate there was nothing to hold the rear binding in place and effectively turned me back into a tele skier. At heart I am a tele skier, that is where it all began, but tech toes and the mounting screws are not burly enough for the physics of a real tele turn. For good reason the new tele bindings that incorporate a tech toe binding do not use the tech toe for the restraint while turning, that comes from springs in cables or the NTN clamp underfoot. A tele-turn with a tech toe is notorious for pulling-out the mounting screws and sometimes delaminating the skis. When my Dynafit binding broke my day was over. I skinned back down the skin track and went home.

Negative comments I have with Backland bindings, although very minor, are this:

1- Rotating the heal to ski while clipped in to the toe can be tough. It's more lack of flexibility of the operator than anything, and I'm getting better. More Yoga! In fairness, that is my complaint with my newer Dynafits as well. I love my older Dynafits with the towers that allowed for rotating the heals with a ski pole. I miss those towers.

2-  Because the lever is flush with the ski it is difficult to pull up the lever on the toe piece with your fingers, to release the tension on the springs. I do it only to dry and sometimes lubricate the bindings. Annoying but not impossible, just requires extra effort. Yes, a very minor complaint, but it was easy to do on all my Dynafits. Old habits die hard.

3- Ski Crampons. Atomic does not make a ski crampon for the backlands, but you can use Dynafit crampons with one caveat: they require a plastic clip to hold the Dynafit crampon centered over the ski so that you don't impale the ski with the crampon, with your full weight, which could cause some serious damage. If you're like me you don't want to mess with a tiny plastic clip that I will lose the first day anyway. My fix for this problem was to buy Plum ski crampons. Annoying because I already have several Dynafit crampons. The Plums have two small ridges in the center of the mounting pin to keep it centered on the ski, so problem solved other than another $80 x 2 (one each for the 88s and the 105s). FYI - the BD Helio 

ski crampon does NOT work with Atomic Backland bindings because the aluminum frame does not have an opening large enough to accept the crampon mount. After using Dynafit, Helio and now Plum ski crampons, the Plums are the best design I've seen. Well made, easy to install, no plastic clip required. But they are noisy! A factor of my foot-dragging gate and the aluminum which seems to amplify the sound of crampon cutting into frozen snow. It's no wonder I never see Mountains Lions.

A Dynafit crampon shown with the Atomic Backland centering clip. Without the clip the crampon can float to either side and possible damage the ski. I'm old, my eyes are bad, and I'd lose those clips the first day, so I simplified and went with the Plum crampons.

The Plum crampon has the two center ridges which center the crampon. No plastic clip necessary.

Where it counts, that is holding ski to boot, the Backland bindings are rock solid, never a pre-release.