backcountry touring skis
 

Having been recently lost my skinny skis to stupidity (my own), I'm in the
market for new skis. With rare exceptions, all of my skiing will occur on
Mid-Atlantic hiking trails (6-16" mixed conditions), with occasional forays
into higher elevations such as Dolly Sods in WV (24"+ powder possible at
times) or Mt.Rodgers etc. Also, most of my skiing will be day trips, with
an occasional overnight. I'm used to waxing 200cm skis (I weigh around
145lb, maybe 175 w/full pack) and I'd be wearing Snowfields or a similar
synthetic boot (midweight...) with 3-pin (no cable). I recently tried 195
plastic no-wax's and they were ok although not as slippery as my old
woodies.

So far I'm drawn towards the Karhu Ursa. I've also considered E99's and
Madshus Voss Multigrip E+. I'd be very interested in hearing any comments,
suggestions, or other words regarding my options. I realize beforehand that
there's no such thing as a do-all ski, but I'll admit I'm looking for a good
balance of glide, durability, gumby downhill control, maneuverability in the
sticks, light weight...etc...yikes!

TIA
a

E99's have been around for ever, just gradually getting better, for a
reason. For a ski that compromises everything in order to do everything
reasonably well, it's a darn good Eastern, rolling terrain, off-trail,
sometimes icy/sometimes mush heavy touring ski. If you really spend most of
your time breaking trail in stuff over a foot and sometimes want to do 24"
powder days (in the Mid-Atlantic? I think we have a translation problem
here) you will be happier with something wider. But, for what I think
really exists in the Mid-Atlantic, the E99 is made to order.

Tommy T.

"a" wrote in message
...
...With rare exceptions, all of my skiing will occur on
Mid-Atlantic hiking trails ... I realize beforehand that
there's no such thing as a do-all ski, but I'll admit I'm looking for a
good
balance of glide, durability, gumby downhill control, maneuverability in
the
sticks, light weight...etc...yikes!

Tommy T. wrote:
E99's have been around for ever, just gradually getting better, for a
reason. For a ski that compromises everything in order to do everything
reasonably well, it's a darn good Eastern, rolling terrain, off-trail,
sometimes icy/sometimes mush heavy touring ski. If you really spend most of
your time breaking trail in stuff over a foot and sometimes want to do 24"
powder days (in the Mid-Atlantic? I think we have a translation problem
here) you will be happier with something wider. But, for what I think
really exists in the Mid-Atlantic, the E99 is made to order.

Tommy T.

"a" wrote in message
...

...With rare exceptions, all of my skiing will occur on
Mid-Atlantic hiking trails ... I realize beforehand that
there's no such thing as a do-all ski, but I'll admit I'm looking for a

good

balance of glide, durability, gumby downhill control, maneuverability in

the

sticks, light weight...etc...yikes!



I am a fan of the Fisher S-Bound Rebound skis with Karhu Convert or
similar bindings matched with vola 3 pin bindings. They will turn well
in all but the toughest sub suface conditions, climb well enough, and
are some of the fastest bc no wax skis you will find oweing to the full
double camber.
Nick Branch

I am a fan of the Fisher S-Bound Rebound skis with Karhu Convert or
similar bindings matched with vola 3 pin bindings. They will turn well
in all but the toughest sub suface conditions, climb well enough, and
are some of the fastest bc no wax skis you will find oweing to the full
double camber.

How do you manage to turn on double camber skis?

--
The suespammers.org mail server is located in California. So are all my
other mailboxes. Please do not send unsolicited bulk e-mail or unsolicited
commercial e-mail to my suespammers.org address or any of my other addresses.
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam.

[ Hal Murray ]

How do you manage to turn on double camber skis?

It's a bit harder/heavier, but quite doable. Like many Norwegians I
started telemarking on Åsnes Sondre (doble camber "telemark" ski,
actually more what we call a mountain ski). Upgrading to Tua Grande
Neige (my, they're skinny and straight when I look at them now!) was
one of the high points of my skiing career. But still, double camber
might be a reasonable compromise to get kick&glide if the turns isn't
the single most important part of your trips.


Martin
--
"An ideal world is left as an exercise to the reader."
-Paul Graham, On Lisp

"Tommy T." wrote in message
news:7700e.13172$aS5.3561@trndny05...
E99's have been around for ever, just gradually getting better, for a
reason. For a ski that compromises everything in order to do everything
reasonably well, it's a darn good Eastern, rolling terrain, off-trail,
sometimes icy/sometimes mush heavy touring ski. If you really spend most
of
your time breaking trail in stuff over a foot and sometimes want to do 24"
powder days (in the Mid-Atlantic? I think we have a translation problem
here) you will be happier with something wider. But, for what I think
really exists in the Mid-Atlantic, the E99 is made to order.

Tommy T.

Many thanks for the comments.
Any experience with the Karhu Ursa's?

To be fair I said 6-16", which is not unreasonable, although admittedly most
of the time might be in the lower end of that figure. 24" was meant as base
for the extreme I might ski in WV high-ground, and indeed two weeks ago I
was in Canaan Valley (WV) breaking trail in over a foot of powder. All of
which I realize is laughable to those W and N of us :-0


"a" wrote in message
...
...With rare exceptions, all of my skiing will occur on
Mid-Atlantic hiking trails ... I realize beforehand that
there's no such thing as a do-all ski, but I'll admit I'm looking for a
good
balance of glide, durability, gumby downhill control, maneuverability in
the
sticks, light weight...etc...yikes!

Tommy T. wrote:
E99's have been around for ever, just gradually getting better, for a
reason. For a ski that compromises everything in order to do everything
reasonably well, it's a darn good Eastern, rolling terrain, off-trail,
sometimes icy/sometimes mush heavy touring ski. If you really spend most of
your time breaking trail in stuff over a foot and sometimes want to do 24"
powder days (in the Mid-Atlantic? I think we have a translation problem
here) you will be happier with something wider. But, for what I think
really exists in the Mid-Atlantic, the E99 is made to order.

If you do fancy a bit more width then the recent E109 may be the thing.
My tour leading tele and nordic coaching pal reckons it's as good a
"do everything" ski as he's come across. Won't do kick 'n stick along
tracks as well as the 99, but should be easier to take round corners.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Peter Clinch" wrote in message
...
Tommy T. wrote:
E99's have been around for ever, just gradually getting better, for a
reason. For a ski that compromises everything in order to do everything
reasonably well, it's a darn good Eastern, rolling terrain, off-trail,
sometimes icy/sometimes mush heavy touring ski. If you really spend most
of
your time breaking trail in stuff over a foot and sometimes want to do
24"
powder days (in the Mid-Atlantic? I think we have a translation problem
here) you will be happier with something wider. But, for what I think
really exists in the Mid-Atlantic, the E99 is made to order.

If you do fancy a bit more width then the recent E109 may be the thing. My
tour leading tele and nordic coaching pal reckons it's as good a "do
everything" ski as he's come across. Won't do kick 'n stick along tracks
as well as the 99, but should be easier to take round corners.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

If the E109 is what is sold as the Rebound Crown in the US, then I wonder if
it's too wide (88) in the tip. although in-track would be infrequent, I'm
thinking keeping it under 70mm or so is a good thing. Dunno, the widest
I've ever skied is 60! Incidentally, I'd never measured my woodies and
recently found that they are 60-50-55. I was suprised given that most of
the 'next' generation plastic skis had all gone down to 5mm sidecut. I
wonder if that's why I'd always preferred my old skis...
a

a wrote:

If the E109 is what is sold as the Rebound Crown in the US, then I wonder if
it's too wide (88) in the tip.

The 109 is 78-60-70, so I guess it's not that one!

thinking keeping it under 70mm or so is a good thing.

You chose, you lose: wider and more sidecut means better turning, but if
you're happy with the turning on what you have I'd keep it narrower
rather than fix something that ain't broke (i.e., the 99, as Tommy
suggested).

The 109 was my pal's suggested "do everything" ski, but of course
different people have different values for "everything"!

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In article ,
Hal Murray wrote:
I am a fan of the Fisher S-Bound Rebound skis with Karhu Convert or
similar bindings matched with vola 3 pin bindings. They will turn well
in all but the toughest sub suface conditions, climb well enough, and
are some of the fastest bc no wax skis you will find oweing to the full
double camber.

How do you manage to turn on double camber skis?

_ Sidecut, but none of the S-bound skis is anywhere near as stiff
as a double camber waxable ski. They use a negative pattern base
that does not require as much camber to still be relatively fast.

_ Booker C. Bense

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2

iQCVAwUBQkGKY2TWTAjn5N/lAQE94AQAovo3FRRv4pozM51EW2Y1rohLO1gnQTh0
i3uWND0I1UL1Q7Kj9Q86/1hHvXfsFGfQzbXDySf8Zr25e4RS8HjkzGw5d79ldgBD
5jCXWtfxQD9/QQNILXocJPnm4XlcEPzfoDSgBeoemUuud4/xDKgFxQWgV1Lhi+vL
p1VwElj12JY=
=7vXD
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----