OK here's the deal with Fischer crown bases, A couple of years ago I was
trying out waxless skis at a demo day for NorCal retailers at the gouge..err
I mean Royal Gorge and found that when I tried to short cut thru some 8 inch
powder sectionsto another groomed track loop, I was hardly getting any grip.
Then when I took out a similar purpose Rossi it worked much better in the
same situation even the Rossi base had a supposedly an inferior extruded
p-tex that has a positive (raised) pattern that looks kind of similar to the
old fishscales use by the now defunct Trak skis. Our Rossignol rep to this
day still claims at our pre-season store staff clinics that their waxless
pattern can't be beat in loose unconsolidated snow. And no I've never told
him about my experience on that demo day.

However there is no doubt that Fischer uses a higher quality sintered base
which can be saturated with hot glide wax on the tips/tails and whose
negative pattern will keep its original sharpness much longer on icy
abrasive snow over numerous seasons, so if you ski most of the time on well
groomed tracks your crown grip should be fine. Go pick up a used Rossi at a
ski swap if you want to have alternative.

"Novice Skier" wrote in message
...
I am skiing with 200cm Fischer waxless country crown skis
and weigh 152lbs.

On Dec 8 I was skiing Hubbard hill in New Hampsire and
my skis climbed well. The temperature was 30 deg F.

On Dec. 16 I skied the Kilburn Pond loop and the skis gave
little or no grip leading me to take them off and walk some
of the steeper portions of the trail. The temperture was 22 deg F
that day with 8 to 10 inches of powder snow.

What can I do to make these skis climb better? Is the poor grip
a chacteristic of this ski? The grip pattern is cut into the base
of the ski. Can you put grip wax on this ski and not spoil
the waxless grip when the temp gets to 32?

George in New Hampshire