The keepers seem to be more big mountain oriented (i dont have them however) while the shamans are basically pow skis that rip everywhere except for beetle sized bumps. Since you mentioned tight trees, id go with the shamans, they turn on a dime due to massive sidecut

I mounted my shamans with HHs and love 'em. I live in maine and pretty much use them every day; thats how well they do on hard pack. The massive sidecut makes it feel like your on a slalom ski. I'd say go for it, mine are mounted pins on the "a" marking thats etched in the ski and theres still plenty of tip to keep afloat (160mm shouldn't let you down)

Happy Shredding

I'd say that would be a negative. Not really any way to stiffen a boot up. But if you bought them from backcountry and don't like them, you can always send'em back, and buy a pair of stiffer boots. (I'd reccomend T-Races if scarpa is a good fit for your foot.)

The axl is much much MUCH easier to tour on, but that will go for any free pivot binding. However, if you don't plan on touring more than 50% of the time your on snow, then I would say that the hammerhead would be fine. If you can deal with adjusting the pivot points for going uphill, the hammerhead is quite tourable. Also, the hammerhead has 5 different pivot points, while the AXL only has 3. If you tour alot, then go with the AXL, its worth the extra $$$. If you don't tour so much, then the hammerhead is the way to go.

As much as I love the hammerhead, I think that it would be a little much for the 10th mtn. These bindings are heavy, active and absolutely bombproof. The latter is always good, but having a binding this heavy on your light waxless setup won't mesh well. I would look at a lighter binding for your skis, maybe a Voile 3-pin hardwire, which is also significantly cheaper and more tourable(The hammerhead is not free pivot, adn even though the hardwire isn't either, you can undo the wire for less resistance). Also, the Voile Switchback would be a great combo for the 10th mountain, and it has a free pivot mode as well. Happy Shopping!

I am 6' 185 lbs and I have the 184, and use it for trees and pow on the east coast, but it is the Ice Coast so I still ski lots of hardpack, whether it be in the trees, moguls, or on groomers. I feel like this length is perfect, and I would definetly bring it anywhere. The weight isn't noticeable, even coming from my super light backcountry setup. This is probably because they really float and still rail on groomers. However, I have used the 173, and they are still stable, and are even more manuverable, with only a little less floatation. Hope that helps.

This is definitely a great pow ski, but if you telemark on it, it becomes somewhat hard to use. This ski has huge rocker in both the tip and tail, which can lead to the wheelie effect. Since the telemark stance isn't balanced the same as the alpine stance, the tail rocker will cause you to "wheelie", and lift the tips up high in the air. I had an opportunity to try these with hammerheads a while ago, and I constantly felt like I was going to fall backwards. I recently bought the Icelantic Shaman instead of the pontoons, and they are great. They float awesome in pow (the shovel is the same width as the pontoon), and still carve well on groomers because of huge sidecut. And they also have no wheelie effect. Hope this helps.

Yes, to mount these to k2 skis without drilling, you will need the adapter plate. However, you could always just drill the ski, cutting back on weight if that's an issue (probably not by the sounds of your setup). I would personally recommend using the adapter plate, because you can then get the best connection to the ski, won't have to worry drilling close to the inserts, and also can retain the manufacture warranty. Hope that helps.

Skis with tail rocker are difficult to tele on due to our weight distribution being more towards the rear of the ski (you get the wheelie effect really easily). You should check out the Black Diamond Megawatts, which have a huge rockered tip, but a flat tail for tele stability. Plus, I've heard mixed reviews about the Pontoons...I saw a nice tele video on you tube, and one athlete had pontoons with tele bindingsheres the vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjjZoU_05P8

No, the liner is quilted Heetseeker synthetic jacket.Heetseeker insulation is the North Faces proprietary synthetic, offering a great warmth-to-weight ratio, is highly compressible, and is extremely durable. However, if you do buy a fleeceTNF jacket, such as the Khumba, it is compatable