TomD said:
Yipes! After reading that thread and then seeing the pic of the guy holding his ripped out binding, here-
http://tinyurl.com/jabmy
I'm afraid of ruining my poor little brand new skis by doing something stupid with them. I take it I better put shims under my bindings to prevent this happening.
TomD,
I wouldn't be too worried about ripping your bindings out. I could happen. It definitely could happen. But I would still mount plain pins on those Rainiers. In particular, I would use the Voile Mountaineer (they make 2 models of basic pins).
http://home.comcast.net/~pinnah/DirtbagPinner/bc-bindings.html
Couple of things that might be helpful....
The nordic boot binding interface is frought with breakage. Need to understand why and how to control it. With the heel not locked down, you get more freedom of movement but forces get concentrated on a smaller portion of the ski. With light, low cut floopy leather boots, this means you can take pretty decent crashes with pin bindings and you won't get hurt and neither will your skis. But as the boots get higher and stiffer, somethign in the boot/binding interface is going to give. Or your bones will. Faiilueres include: torn out pin holes, busted bindings, tearing bindings out of the ski.
One thing that contributes to binding failure are highly rockered plastic boots. When you stand on the heels, the rocker acts like a lever pushing the binding upwards. Of the plastic boots, the Scrapa T2 has been known to be the worst offender and the Crispi line of boots has been known to be the best in this regard. Crispis tend to have least amount of rocker in them.
In general, ski manufacturers tend to beef up the mounting plate in their skis in accordance with the most likely type of boot/binding that will be on top of it. They do this by adding more glass or even metal plates. Banker (in that TTips thread) was using an absolutely horrible combination. The Glittertind ski he had is just a step up from an XC track ski. Very light ski made for leather boots. I'm sure the binding plate in that ski is only lightly reinforced, if at all. And his boot was the binding killing T2.
As Metsky correctly noted, the CX-2 is more boot that commonly paired with Rainier but it's not a dramatically big mismatch. IMO, this gives you a good foundation for a 2 boot set of gear. Just as backpackers end up with 2 sleeping bags, most nordic skiers eventually end up with at least 2 different sets of boots. If they fit, the CX-2s should be keepers for you. And the Rainier is a good ski too for what it does
My suggestion would be to put plain Mountaineer pins on the Rainers. This will give you something skiable for the least cash outlay. Ski this rig whenever you get the chance in the Yosemite backcountry.
When you go to Mamoth, take your Crispis with you and rent skis. Try different bindings to develop a preferance. If I were to buy lift served bindings today, I would go with the Voile CRB Hardwire, but you will hear a zillion opinons on TTips.The CX-2s are an awsome choice for you as they are high enough that you will be able to draw from your developing alpine skills. You *can* take the Rainiers to the lifts but you will hammer the patterns at those speeds. Rent or borrow skis instead.
Next, I would suggest going to a touring center and to take at least 1 day of instruction on kick and glide and turning with straight XC skis. The wedge and step turns are the most important. Those Rainiers have XC skis in the soul and trail skiing requires a mix of control (tall stiff boots) and freedom to run (short soft boots). The more you learn about XC skiing, the more you'll feel the trade offs.
Lastly, keep your eye on eBay and look for either a lighter Excursion type plastic boot or, since you already have a plastic boot in the CX-2, a leather boot like the Karhu Descent.
Oops. Last last comment. If you do feel the need to put risers on the Rainiers, go with the G3 15 mm shim. But again, I wouldn't feel too pressed at all to do this.
HTH,