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#1
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Skating In Back Country Skis?
I have a park near my house with ungroomed hills which also has some
trails groomed for skate. Every now and then I find that I can "kind of skate" on the skate track using my old Fischer Outlands (half metal edges). Are there things to keep in mind when skating on backcountry skis as far as stance and weight distribution that are different from using skate skis? Any tips are deeply appreciated. Ed V. |
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#2
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it's good cross training for strength and endurance if not for SPEED.
you should try getting real XC skate skis though ... especially if the Outlands have a crown kick zone. you really need a good, light waxable ski to be able to get in the long training sessions that'll burn the fat and build up speed and tempo ... training with the back country skis will give you a slower tempo ... kind of like the difference between marathon swimming and sprinting in the pool (except with the XC skis you'll also be able to ski MUCH farther too). that being said if gear isn't your thing and you like just getting out on the tracks go for it. there isn't much difference in the technique except for the fact that you'll find your skating deteriorating into herringbones and kick/glide on the hills ... with a crown in the kickzone the temptation is to alternate kick/glide with the skating since the lack of glide will effect your performance considerably, i.e. you'll be training a lot of combi and will never really build a top notch skate only outlook on your skiing. |
#3
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EdV wrote:
Are there things to keep in mind when skating on backcountry skis as far as stance and weight distribution that are different from using skate skis? As Z noted, "crown" patterned skis could lead to inappropriate positioning because they do not glide as well as properly prepared skis. That said, you will need to also consider proper pole length. My skating poles are 12.5 cm longer than my classic track poles and 15 cm longer than my usual backcountry pole length. If your poles are too short, your skating stance (arm position and angle) will be less effective and inefficient in using upper body strength and weight. I would also imagine that your partial metal edge skis will degrade the tops of your BC skis in that proper skaing motion calls for leg abduction. If you get overly concerned about damaging the tops of your skis, your body positioning, leg abduction and timing will be deviate from proper positioning and timing. It will be difficult to ski with abandon if your skis are too heavy and do not glide, your poles are too short and you overuse arm muscles with inapproapriate arem positioning and angles, and you are worried about cutting the tops of your skis. As Z implied, you would be better served spending some money and getting skate gear. A friend is enjoying his new Atomic FX-10 skate skis skiing in non-resort areas (e.g. snowmobile trails). Atomic is marketing the FX-10 as crust skiing skis. Edgar |
#4
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good point; I forgot to consider that if he's using backcountry skis
he's probably using a backcountry pole with a round basket rather than the compact racing baskets with the short plastic teeth ... the round basket and short (sometimes adjustible) poles are designed for downhill performance; you could get them to about 160 cm. for the uphills and take them down to 137 or so for the downhills. the shorter pole will lessen the leverage and shorten the stroke as well. I remember many a time in the "snowmobile sections" on my local golf course being able to maintain a "skate" of sorts with my stiff crowned skis ... it was somewhat satisfying and I thought the practice would put me in good stead when I went to the groomed trails. invariably I was disappointed though; getting passed like I was standing still by the folks with the real XC skate gear. when I eventually splurged and got my own skate skis I was also impressed with their downhill performance as compared to my relatively more flexible XC classic skis. of course the backcountry skis should be better there but surprisingly the crowns could be disappointing on downhill sections, the crown would make the downhills sections way too easy and reatively slow to boot; the double camber for the kick zone also prevented aggressive edging and turning. the most fun I had using backcountry skis on the trails was when I upgraded my half steel double cambered crowned Karhus to a Fischer GTS waxable telemark ski. the single cambered GTS waxed for full glide was really fun in the downhill sections which I could overpower and ski aggressively on ANY XC type of trail no matter how steep while I could actually skate them up most hills w/o a problem too (although I did have to herringbone some of the steeper sections) and again the weight was considerable more than true skate skis.. as far as telemarking with the GTS; I was never really able to progress much past the easier lift served trails; the lightweight Norwegian welt style 3-pin boots were too flexible and the skis seemed to deflect too much in the heavier snow. for those skis, the plastic Terminator style boots probably would have been too powerful (overkill) ... and that being said the Norwegian welts were heavy and awkward compared to my lightweight Alpina skate boots with lightweigh NNN race bindings. it's truly amazing the size your quiver could get if you factor in all of the different types of skiing that's out there and you wished to maximize your performance for each of these conditions and disciplines. based on the downhill performance of the XC skate skis I would definitely think you should consider the upgrade from boring backcountry crown skis (which are more for backpacking/touring kinds of afternoons) ... but be warned down hill sections that you might have handled easily with the crowns (and went boringly slow) could be an adventure with the skate skis ... which are much faster and will also deflect more than backcountry skis. the skate ski downhill performance is considerably better than classic racing skis though (if you've tried true classic skiing). the flexible kick zone was the downfall there.. |
#5
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Thanks for all the info. All of the skating I plan on doing currently
is to get back and forth between north facing hills so I can practice telemark turns. The skate tracks seemed to be keeping more snow than any other routes here in melty land. I am going to take some skate lessons(on skate skis) at Elm Creek next weekend. Later, Ed V. |
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