At what point is a ski too heavy for touring? I'm just starting out in backcountry and have picked up a pair of Fritschi Freerides. I don't really plan on multi-day tours (although I won't rule that out either), but I do plan on most ski days in the backcountry. I'm considering the BD Zealot, the BD Justice, and the Salomon Czar. They’re similar in weight, but is 9.5 pounds too heavy, plus the Freeride bindings (at 4.5 pounds) and possibly the Scarpa Spirit 4 boots (at 7.8 pounds), for backcountry use?

Mr. mcatt has a point of course. If you can, get similar gear as the chaps you're going to tour with. If they're into freeriding with 110mm+ waisted skis and stuff you won't have much fun in a rando racer outfit, and vice versa.

I'm gonna go ahead and disagree with other folks. The question of heaviness doesn't depend on whether you new to backcountry or not, but rather what your skiing priorities are, aka what is most fun. I might catch some flak for making this generalization, but most of the time heavier gear performs better when your actually skiing downhill, the best example is the dukes. So if you prioritize downhill performance over ease of backcountry travel... go heavier, but if you'd rather tour around easier get the lighter gear. I think many people transitioning to backcountry from alpine fit into the former category, hence the popularity of the dukes. I started earning em' with gotamas, dukes, and my old alpine boots... probably the heaviest set-up i could have picked, and have loved every second of it. I prefer that downhill confidence over a lighter load to drag around, then again I don't do many long tours either. don't sweat the weight, get whatever will be the most fun, you'll just end up with diesel quads anyway.

Mostly reiterating what's been said above. Especially when getting into touring don't make your life hard by starting on heavy gear. Unless you're into hucking cliffs (of maybe a really big, hard skiing guy), get a Dynafit binding. And maybe a cheek-height ski. 95mm waist is being considered as a good alround width by many people, unless you're in super deep snow climate.

Yes - your setup as mentioned above is too heavy. I sold a pair of Justices this year because I was tired of dragging them up everything I wanted to ski. I think if you really want to do a heavier ski, you should consider a dynafit binding to offset the weight a bit. At 1.8lbs, a Vertical ST binding would save you enough weight to start considering a 9.5 pound ski as reasonable. Your boot choice is pretty good there in terms of weight, but you're going with a heavy binding and ski and I'm afraid you'll regret it.

well, thats sort of a relative question. Would that be too heavy for you? is really what you need to ask yourself. I would recommend getting which ever ski you would prefer, and decide for yourself. If you begin doing multi day tours, or your setup is plain to heavy, step down to a lighter ski.