Skin sizing

[sneaky_steve]

Being brand new to the AT world, I was wondering how much the fit of skins on ski's is an issue. I have the K2 Mt. Baker's, and am looking to buy skins for them. Because of tight finances I was wondering if getting skins that are narrower (tip, width, tail) would decrease performance drastically, or only slightly. The dimensions of the mt. baker are 120/88/108. The BD skins that about 60% off are 102/71/92. Any reasons why I should not try and skin with those? Any advice or suggestions are very much appreciated.

[denalidave]

Yes, narrow skins will inhibit your up-hill performance to a large enough degree it is worth extra money to get the right ones. I have some narrow skins on fatter/shaped skis and they don't bite well on steep terrain. Very frustrating doing the treadmill thing. Suppose it can't hurt to try out the ones you have but different conditions will yield different results. My narrow skins were fine on many outings but gave me serious problems the last few times I took them out.

[sneaky_steve]

Thanks dave, that makes sense. I might go for them because of the price if they will at least get me heading uphill for now. It will be interesting to notice how they perform.

[letsroll]

The narrower skins would work fine if you were heading STRAIGHT up hill and that almost never happens. If you did any side hilling you would have major problems. My G-friend found this out the hard way and ended up boot up the hill.

 

You want your skins to be wall to wall so to speak for the best performance.

[chris]

Letsroll has it right. With that difference in your ski/skin sizes, you're going to have real trouble setting a side-hill skin track on any kind of firm snow. Since up hill is rarely head-on, you'll notice the difficulty immediately. You might be up for it, but what about your partners?

 

Wall-to-wall, tip-to-tail, is best and will last the life of the skis. If you're on a real budget, treat this like an investment. Do it right the first time so you don't have to spend more money to correct a poor purchase decision later.

 

Chris

[robpatterson5]

You'll be fine, thats 2cm of room @the tip, 1cm at the waist and some overlap at the tail. Your two edges take up about 1cm and that other 1cm at the tip should not matter. I don't think you'll have any issues except occasionally (edging into very firm snow as you sidehill).

[TrogdortheBurninator]

dont buy your skins too small. you will definitely regret it. You'd be better off buying these for $80 shipped after coupon.

 

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/,2047N_Black-Diamond-Equipment-Ascension-Custom-Climbing-Skins-130mm-179-186cm.html

 

 

[sneaky_steve]

That is a good price at sierra trading post. Where do I find a coupon code?

[Water]

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/243140/?start=4900

 

if none of the coupon codes are valid right now bide your time and check that site until some new ones pop up (every few days)

[tomtom]

https://www.climbingskinsdirect.com/index.html

 

[MisterMo]

Second that and :tup: on climbingskinsdirect. I'm running their 115mm on a pair of Bakers and I'm really happy with them. At $105 they're pretty reasonably priced. You do have to come up with your own stuff sack........

 

I ran teeny little skins for decades (albeit mostly on teeny little skis) & I think they're just fine in most winter conditions where you either have soft snow or a good ski width skin track. Full width skins really shine when it's hard and you're only getting the edge and a little of the ski base on the snow. Of course, in such conditions you can often just take the silly things off and walk..........