Climbing Skins

[mbcracken]

I am in the market for a pair of skins for my ski's. I amwondering about the width issue. My ski's are roughly 100-75-90(mm). How important is it that I get the skins to cover the whole width of the ski? If I get a 85mm width pair of skins am I going to be slipping all over the place when traversing an angled slope?

 

Thanks

Mike

[iain]

Since you will have to trim those skins to fit your skis anyway, why not just go edge-to-edge? That said, I don't think you'll have a problem, but there are those times where you are just on the borderline of slipping and you think to yourself...I wish I had some wider skins....

[hakioawa]

Buy 100mm skins ant trim them. I've tried shaped and striat skins on shaped skis. The trimed ones work better.

[mbcracken]

Thanks for both your responses. So, next question...Where to buy them and stay in the NPR(Never Pay Retail) group? The BD skins seem to get some good reviews, but they are spendy.

 

Mike

[Winter]

Try to Euro web sites if you can stand the spray you will get for not supporting the local shops.

[iain]

check rei-outlet.com right now I think I saw some of their mohair ttp's on sale.

[iain]

whoops, looks like they only have 64mm left, sorry.

[Figger_Eight]

Think about leaving some of the edge exposed for when you have to go downhill. It makes turning a little easier.

[iain]

skiing w/ skins on really sucks. I'd just leave only the metal rail exposed for bite, otherwise on steep skin traverses your skis will fly out from under you when it is too steep to get your skin on the snow.

[wdietsch]

Think about leaving some of the edge exposed for when you have to go downhill. It makes turning a little easier.

 

excellent point .... one I learned the hard way

[ryland_moore]

mb, check out MEC, that is, if you are willing to drive up to or are planning on being in Canada. Or get Dru or someone to buy them for you and ship 'em down since MEC won't ship to the good ol' US of A.

 

[mattp]

Skiing downhill with skins on really DOES suck and, unless you are on some kind of tight trail with a deep track where you can't get out of the rut to slow down, I don't know why so many people think it is easier than simply traversing and crashing once in a while. I almost never have to resort to skinning downhill, the lowest form of cowardry in the entire backcountry universe, but I once used the skins turned around backward so we could simply walk down hill on an extremely broken up glacier in zero visibility. With a little help from some duct tape, it worked like a charm! And nearly full coverage was helpful on the few wind-blown bare sections.

 

For ski mountaineering, I would recommend shaped skins cut to leave just a tiny bit of the edge exposed – just enough so the edges can bite. One downside of shaped skins is that when you fold them over on theirself to put them away, it is a little more difficult to get all the glue surface covered up.

[fern]

skiing w/ skins on really sucks. I'd just leave only

the metal rail exposed for bite, otherwise on steep skin

traverses your skis will fly out from under you when it is

too steep to get your skin on the snow.

 

the flip side of this is when you are slogging a mostly

flat skin track. If you get a slight downhill section you

can turn them on edge and zoom, rather than have to skin

downhill.

[Dru]

Or get Dru or someone to buy them for you and ship 'em down since MEC won't ship to the good ol' US of A.

 

 

brokerage fee 50%

[Skisports]

man that sucks I will do it for less then that. I will be up there next week.

[snoboy]

my $0.03:

 

Get fatties. Especially if you hope to ski in dry snow, I find that when I am inland my skins have even more trouble sticking to the snow.

 

Get BD Ascension. I have never had problems with mine, unlike some others I have tried. (I missed the bad glue year mind you.)

 

Get the G3 or BD/Skye Tip-tail kits. They work the best that tried. Clip fix is supposed to be good, but fussy to set up.

 

Check the BD website they had some cosmetic 2nds I think...

 

[jhamaker]

My Montana's lasted 11 yrs of hard abuse but only needed two re-gluings. Ascention glue works a little better than the other glues.

[mattp]

I don't know what the "G3 or BD/Skye Tip-tail kits" look like, but in my opinion the ONLY way to go is the "Canadian" system where the front of the skin has a wire loop over the tip of the ski, and the tail has a strap sewn on it, which wraps around the tail of the ski (small groove needed here) and then has a loop of elastic which leads to strap and a "D" ring that slips over a screw. If your glue is working well, it doesn't matter what strap or clip system you have but the tension from the rear of the ski is crucial if not. Any system that has the elastic pulling on the front of the skin rather than the rear will allow the tail clip to slip off if your glue is starting to fail and you change angles or slip around much.

[snoboy]

I don't know what the "G3 or BD/Skye Tip-tail kits" look like, but in my opinion the ONLY way to go is the "Canadian" system where the front of the skin has a wire loop over the tip of the ski, and the tail has a strap sewn on it, which wraps around the tail of the ski (small groove needed here) and then has a loop of elastic which leads to strap and a "D" ring that slips over a screw.

 

Well they are the modern refinement of the "canadian" system that you (and I) love so much. In fact they are both Canadian too, as G3 is from BC, and the Skye guy is one of their old engineers...

 

Here is a good pic of the G3 System:

 

The Skye/BD system is very similar.

 

I used the "canadian" system for years (being Canadian and all eh?), and have few complaints. I think the G3 is slightly better though. It has no need of a screw in the top of the ski, so works on any ski, and seems to keep better tension on the tail when your glue is shot.

 

Wild Snow has a good homebrew for the canadian system, with a few nice refinements.

[mbcracken]

Thanks for all the tips...

 

Exposing the metal edges...

 

G3 or BD sounds like the ones to try and get. I just went to mec.ca and they are backordering the G3's right now. Ade has already offered to stop by MEC in a couple weeks. Darn I was hoping to pay Dru 50% broker fee. Oh well, maybe next time, NOT!

 

Plus the weather predictions is snow for the next 10 days.

[Beck]

Don't hold your breath for G3 skins anytime soon. Wurd from the factory says they won't be shipping out ANY new G3 skins until after Xmas and maybe later- it sounds like they are having a manufacturers delay. Pick up some Ascensions with clipfix, set them up right and you will be good to go.

 

One advantage to having straight skins is the ability to swap them amongst different skis with a quick adjustment in length, and no worries about overlap issues- also the skin management in windy conditions, and keeping shaped skins gunk free, already mentioned in above posts.

 

I'm recommending against shaping skins for the above reasons.

 

If it's icy, a ski crampon is a great backcountry tool that works well to provide ski "bite" on everything shy of blue boilerplate- there is a readily available skicrampon that can adapt to many telemark bindings well- IM me if you want more info on this cramp.

 

" Keep the nap nat', don't trim the skin."- Beck

 

[iain]

BD's customer support has been flat-out phenomenal through the problems I had with ascension skin glue. Course I'd like to avoid having any problems but it turned out to be a good experience. I pity the person who has to follow the skin track of someone with new ascensions on wide skis. You can climb cliffs with that setup.