I love my rock skis
 

Can it be that my favorite pair of skis are the dumpiest looking of the
dozen pairs in the house? Let me count the ways.

I didn't pay anything for them. They're really my friend's skis. She
probably didn't pay for them either, they were her little sister's. Her
sister may or may not have paid for them either, they might have been from
her high school.

I can ski on the trails with occasional rocks and dirt without worry. No
babying these things. Today, I bashed around in the trees today after my
dog, skiing over roots and stuff, skied over a little island and didn't
worry when I jumped off a steep untracked section with who-knows-what
underneath back onto the lake. Then skied on multi-use trail with rocks
and dirt dug back up by the groomer because the snow is still thin.

They are really lame looking. White Skilom by Madshus skating skis with
duct tape labels on the tips. Sandbagging potential.

They have actual ski tips and are only 160 cm long. This makes them great
for narrow trails (snowmachine trails, skijor trails, unused sled dog
trails, etc.). The tips ride over snow berms on the sides of the trails and
you don't get tripped up. That's a nice plus over my old rock skis (193 cm
Atomic Arc Skates that finally broke last spring after a lot of abuse in the
backcountry crust skiing and the like). Why don't skis have tips anymore?

They are actually fast. I scraped them with a metal scraper last spring and
structured them with a file card (idea from Zach Caldwell's website, article
on hand structuring). The first time I tried them out, they were so slick I
could barely stand up in them. The file card structure feels slicker than
the factory grind on my RS:11 or RCS. The Z40 grind on my new (used ) pair
of Madshus is nice, but those skis are a bit long for me. Despite the short
length, the flex isn't horrible. My long Arc Skates were softer and
bottomed out under the foot in hard conditions making them unstable. These
are stable enough on hardpack. I just might wax them up and compare them to
my race skis next skate race.

I scraped the summer wax off them a month ago and haven't waxed them since.
They are still fast.

I bought some used skis last month with immaculate bases and already put a
few light scratches in them. Nothing serious, but I should have stuck with
these with the thin snow conditions.