Klisterless skis

When I headed out to go skiing today my son suggested I try out the new
Peltonen Zeta base skis he has on loan from the shop where he works.

The base looks a bit like it was roughed up with sandpaper in the wax
pocket. This is supposed to be the latest generation in waxless ski,
designed for wet snow.

I try to hit the trails after the ice from overnight has softened up, but
before it turns to slush. With luck I get some good klister skiing.

I was dubious about these skis since the base didn't seem to have any means
of gripping the skis, but I set out. The snow was nice wet corn snow at the
parking lot and the skis gripped quite well, but glide was also good. I
would judge them to be somewhere between the rock solid grip you get with a
good klister job and a reasonably good hard wax. I was really enjoying my
ski until I climbed to a higher elevation where the temperature was a little
lower and the trail was shaded so it was still icy. The skis stopped
gripping very well, sort of like a hard wax that is starting to wear off.
If I had used a good klister I would have had much better grip. Once I got
back out in the sun again the skis gripped. The only other time the skis
did not perform well was when I skied over a section with a lot of pine
needles. These seemed to grip the skis and cause them to stop unexpectedly.

In my opinion, a good red or universal klister would have worked a little
better, but the convenience of not having to get out the heat gun and put on
klister and not having to clean up my skis when I got back to the truck made
the day rather enjoyable. I wish I had used these skis the week before when
I was using klister and it started to snow at the highest elevations. By
the time I got back I had about 5 cm of new snow sticking to the klister and
had to walk. Even if I stopped and scrapped off the skis the snow would
build up again almost immediately.

I didn't get to try the Zeta base in wet, new fallen snow, but it seemed as
if they might work well in those conditions. If so they would make a
welcome addition to my ski bag since neither hard wax nor klister work well
in those conditions and it is often hard to find the right combination of
klister covered with hard wax.

Has anybody tried any other "new" bases that work well?

Yesterday morning I was lazy and just took my old, partially worn down
fishscales from the basement. It hardly had any grip on the corned
snow, let alone on icy track. Skiing was tough -- my arms did have a
really good work-out though.

This morning, I switched back to klister and skiing was enjoyable
again.

Can fishscale ski ever work on icy track?

Is this like the base that Atomic is putting on their new waxless ski?
Sounds the same and I've heard good reports. Similar (the reports) in
a way to what I've heard about the Rex grip tape - great and very, very
convenient in certain conditions, not necessarily optimal but often
worth it.

These sound like the hairy skis that I bought in 1983, and still use in
wet red klister conditions. I know I bought them then because they have
a 1983 Birkie sticker on then. The skis were made by Karhu and were
called Kevlar Plus. They do work great in the conditions they were
designed for and since mine have adequate camber for me they are indeed
fast when gliding. They do not grip in dry snow nor on ice.

Fishscales or the other patterned bases will work well in corn snow but
will not grip ice.
Ralph Thornton

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Fishscales or the other patterned bases will work well in corn snow but
will not grip ice.

....and on the 8th day, God created real x-country skis with metal
edges... =)

Chris

Mike H wrote:
Yesterday morning I was lazy and just took my old, partially worn down
fishscales from the basement. It hardly had any grip on the corned
snow, let alone on icy track. Skiing was tough -- my arms did have a
really good work-out though.

This morning, I switched back to klister and skiing was enjoyable
again.

Can fishscale ski ever work on icy track?

Yes! Ever since I cleaned off the hairies on the scales of my rock
skis, they do not grip very well (but glide better!)
gr

We were told that several races at the Junior Olympics two weeks ago
were won on Fischer Zeros, the similar Atomic classic skis, and
hairies. The weather was warm and variable all week; ma veritable
waxing nightmare.

I used a warm klister mix for the Great Bear Chase in the same vicinity
at the end of that week, and had very fast skis, if not bomb-proof
grip. Many of us old folks had pace times of well under 3 mins/K for a
26 K classic race.

Randy