Marker Tour 12 Tough Enough for the resort
After years of abuse my Gotamas are done and I need a new resort/side/slack country ski.
I bought a pair of DPS Lotus 120's last year and mounted Dynafit Radicals on them and am very pleased with them for the backcountry. They are great for moderate to bigger snow days and served me well on an extended trip at Sekirk Lodge last year. They are a complete nightmare on anything hard though. Its possible but not much fun and way too much work - plus they were never intended for the hill thus the tech binding and AT boot set up.
I'm leaning towards DPS Wailer 99's for my hill/sidecountry ski. I'll be going to Italy in the spring to tour and I think they will be great for the variable conditions we'll encounter there.
I'm a little stuck on what to do about bindings until that trip (I'll have the radicals mounted for the trip). I was thinking Tour 12 but having skied Fristchi Freerides on the Gotamas for about 7 of the 10 years the Gotamas were functional but I really noticed how flexy the Fritschis were on harder snow and actually think they kind of ruined the Gotamas in anything other than powder.
My question is, would a Tour 12 stand up to the resort (FAR) pounding they would get? It seems silly to slap a super heavy binding like a Duke on a super light ski like a Wailer 99 but in that I'd only be doing short tours on them (until the Italy trip when I will swap bindings) should I go for durability over the weight saving the tour 12's will offer?
I'm 6 ft, 185, strong skiier (40 days per season usually). Rarely break equipment.