equipment advice

hello.

i'm new to this group and hope this is the right place to ask for advice. if
there is a more appropriate skiing newsgroup for my questions, please feel free
to let me know.

i'm looking for advice re skis. i have talked with a shop, but also wanted
advice from someone who isn't selling me something. (I really liked the shop
though, gotta admit.) i've read reviews, etc.

i used to be a solid intermediate downhill skier, but haven't dh skied in maybe
3-4 years. i did some casual track skiing a very long time ago and have some
old but in good shape waxless skinny skis (trak mariah's). i do have new boots
with nnn-bc i bought a few weeks back, while demoing skis.

are my old skis worth putting new bindings on for groomed use? they are old,
but weren't used very much, so are in good shape. i would like to do that (i'd
hate to get rid of perfectly good looking skis), but wonder with the advances
in technology whether it is really worth it? i think it is, but do you?

my real interest is in getting away from strictly groomed areas and heading for
the hills and woods. (i'm also a hiker.) i did demo some skis and have a small
pool of my top choices. again, i'm looking away from track and more towards
whatever else is out there. but, since i really don't know what i'm doing my
choices may be way out of wack. i don't want equipment that is way out of
my level of experience, but i do want something i can grow into.

karhu ursa and pyxis are on my list, as well as the rossignal backcountry 83.
i'm having a tough time deciding, because i would like one ski to do it all and
i know that isn't going to happen.

can anyone give me feedback on these skis? is there one that might be a better
middle ground, or do i really need to consider a specific ski for a specific
type skiiing? or recomendations on something else i should be considering? if
i put new bindings on my track skis, then should i just consider backcountry
function in new skis? some of these might be silly questions, but, hey, i
don't know enough yet to ask better questions.

thanks for you help,
colleen

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In article ,
Daviescs wrote:
hello.
[snip]

i'm looking for advice re skis. i have talked with a shop, but also wanted
advice from someone who isn't selling me something. (I really liked the shop
though, gotta admit.) i've read reviews, etc.

i used to be a solid intermediate downhill skier, but haven't dh skied in maybe
3-4 years. i did some casual track skiing a very long time ago and have some
old but in good shape waxless skinny skis (trak mariah's). i do have new boots
with nnn-bc i bought a few weeks back, while demoing skis.

_ Do you have boots for your old skis?


are my old skis worth putting new bindings on for groomed use? they are old,
but weren't used very much, so are in good shape. i would like to do that (i'd
hate to get rid of perfectly good looking skis), but wonder with the advances
in technology whether it is really worth it? i think it is, but do you?

_ For track skiing with waxless skis, I don't know of any
advances that would be worth new skis. Any new waxless ski
will be just as good as your old skis for tracked skiing.



my real interest is in getting away from strictly groomed areas and heading for
the hills and woods. (i'm also a hiker.) i did demo some skis and have a small
pool of my top choices. again, i'm looking away from track and more towards
whatever else is out there. but, since i really don't know what i'm doing my
choices may be way out of wack. i don't want equipment that is way out of
my level of experience, but i do want something i can grow into.

karhu ursa and pyxis are on my list, as well as the rossignal backcountry 83.
i'm having a tough time deciding, because i would like one ski to do it all and
i know that isn't going to happen.

_ Hard to go wrong with Karhu skis, but if you really want to get
off the set tracks, I would suggest you look at the Fischer
S-bounds skis. They are a bit too wide to work well in most
tracks, but excel once you get away from the tracks.


can anyone give me feedback on these skis? is there one that might be a better
middle ground, or do i really need to consider a specific ski for a specific
type skiiing? or recomendations on something else i should be considering? if
i put new bindings on my track skis, then should i just consider backcountry
function in new skis? some of these might be silly questions, but, hey, i
don't know enough yet to ask better questions.


_ If you want a ski that will do both tracks and off tracks then
the Karhu brand is a good choice. You'll need to stick to a ski
that's less than 70mm to be compatible with most set tracks,
so you'd need to go down one in the scale to the Pavo.

_ If you want better answers it would be a good idea to pick
some example tours or trails you'd like to do. It's hard to
answer these questions without a better idea of exactly
what you want to do. It would also be helpful to know
exactly what kind of NNN/BC boots you have, they vary
quite a bit in stiffness and control. Your boots need
to match your skis. Really light NNN/BC boots won't work
too well with the Karhu skis above.

_ Booker C. Bense





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