Skin width question

[scot'teryx]

If you don't think that cut to fit skins are worth it, go skin up Pan Point sometime with skinny skins and tell me just how much you enjoyed it......

 

[Dustin_B]

snoboy said:

 

What DustinB wondered, about buying a skin slightly narrower than you tip dimension, is not only OK, it'll make the whole trimming thing a little easier.

 

Yeah I was thinking about this more for ease of cutting than saving money (not much price difference $126 vs $132). But, alas, BD doesn't make 100 mm wide skins so I will have to go for the 110 mm and trim it all.

 

Thanks for all the info everyone. I think I'm be doing more ski-mountaineering type stuff than touring so I'm going with wall-to-wall carpet.

[cj001f]

Dustin_B said:

Yeah I was thinking about this more for ease of cutting than saving money (not much price difference $126 vs $132). But, alas, BD doesn't make 100 mm wide skins so I will have to go for the 110 mm and trim it all.

Your size (100mm), and a better price sir:

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/product.asp?base_no=72009

of course that's only if you want glidelites....

 

As for my ability. I know I'm a cubicle dwelling crappy climber/skiier.

Edited November 6, 2003 by cj001f

[Roger]

shaped or straight ??

[ryland_moore]

I have one pair of skins that I use on very different dimension AT and tele skis. They work fine, are straight cut to fit the waist and I slip rarely. I have skinned up Pan Point and felt that the very few times I did slip was because of the angle on a switchback or two. AFter spending two weeks using them on Denali and rarely slipping with a full pack and sled, I have to say that me slipping came down more to lack of experence in using skins than from the skins themsleves. People today think that the latest gear or latest technique is going to save them instead of trying to figure out how to make what you have work for you. In my case, I found that it was the way I placed my wieght over my boot when I stepped/skinned up rather than lack of surface area covered by the skin on the tip and tail area. Get out there, practice with what you got, make it work, and quite whining! Oh yeah, and get tons of face shots in the process.....

[mattp]

Ryland, Jordop covered it in the first response and I guess we are all just wasting our time now but I'll say that the fact that you can learn to keep your skis oriented straight up the hill or that you can loosen your boots enough to stay flat-footed on a traverse accross an icy surface is not a reason to recommend narrower skins. Some valid points in favor of narrower or straight-cut skins have been made here, but I don't think it is the mark of a whiner or an unqualified skier to recommend fatter skins and fuller coverage -- assuming one wants to ski up steep mountains like 95% of the peaks in the northern half of the Washington Cascades.

[Beck]

you want as much skin underfoot with a couple of mm of ski exposed, but the benefits of a moderately wide set of straight skins are:

 

versatility. they will fit more of your skis, and you can loan them out to other people.

 

the edges don't get mucked with jacket fuzz and pine needles as quickly because when folded there is no glue exposed.

 

they are easier to fold in high winds.

 

they are cheaper,

 

and as ryland and iain mentioned, there is less difference than you would think, and some of it is about technique. I ski the backcountry on some midfats with over 100 in the tip and 70 something in the waist and run straight 70 skins and have never noticed a disadvantage on the skin track.

 

I have skied up pan point with these no problem as well as no wax skis w/o skins and wax as well. technique matters as much as whats underfoot.

 

rule of thumb on buying straight skins:

if a ski is 72-76mm in the waist, get 70 mm skins.

If a ski is 76-81mm in the waist, go for some 75s. 81-86, 80 mm skins. and so on.

[J_Fisher]

Ascension clipfix skins on sale at mountain gear too:

 

http://www.mgear.com/pages/product/product.asp?item=140108&level3_id=0&level1_id=0&level2_id=0

[North_Cascades_Mtn_Guides]

There has been some good info posted here on skin width and trimming techniques. We have found that as skis have gotten wider and have more side cut it has become increasingly necessary to have wider skins trimmed to fit the profile. We agree strongly with leaving some edge exposed so trimming the skin 1/4 inch (total) narrower than the ski leaves enough edge for traverses on hard surfaces. For addditon info on skins you canlink to the following review in Off Piste magazine from last season. It is a large PDF file so it will be slow to load if you do not have a high speed connection.

http://www.offpistemag.com/themag/gear/vol5/op_17skins.pdf

Good luck and keep doing the snow dance.

NCMG

[marylou]

Some skins on sale for cheap over at Sierra Trading Post.

[Lowell_Skoog]

I resisted shaped skins for a long time. On traditional skis, they are not necessary. But on the newer, more shaped skis, they will probably improve your climbing.

 

I finally bought my first shaped skins to use on a pair of shaped skis I won in a race. I was careful to shape them symmetrically. In other words, they are no wider at the tip than at the tail. This makes it possible to fold them carefully in half with no glue exposed. I marked the mid point with a felt pen to make this easier. The symmetrical cut makes them a bit narrower than the ski near the tip, but I've noticed no problems with it.

 

My main complaint about shaped skins is that they are a pain to fold up. You have to be very careful to avoid exposing the glue to contamination. With parallel skins, you just rip half the skin off from the tip, fold it at the 1/4 mark, then rip the rest of the skin off, fold it at the 3/4 mark, then fold the two halves together at the 1/2 mark. This is much easier to do in a windstorm than carefully peeling the whole skin off and folding it in half upon itself.

 

Another tip you might consider is to get a really wide pair of skins and cut a pair of thin skins off them (say 1 inch wide) before shaping the skins. You can use the thin skins on low angle road approaches to maximize your glide. I prefer fairly traditional skis (like the Atomic TG10) that you can use a straight skin on. I still use strap-on skins when the pollen comes out in June.

[lI1|1!]

i was warned about the consequences of leaving skin edges exposed when folding shaped skins, but have found the dangers to be greatly exagerated. sure you get the occasional pine needle, candy wrapper, or stuck on there but it's easy enough to pull off. my current skins have about two years on 'em and they still stick fine at the edges. i've lost a lot more glue at the center of the skins from it coming off onto the ski bases. ymmv.