Ski Review: 2018-2019 Åsnes Gamme 54 BC

[Woodserson]

Woods, what length did you get?

The best part about these skis, and the E99s, is that you're not sacrificing much in weight, camber, or stiffness from traditional XC skis. These are not bad skis for doing laps around XC ski areas. But they also turn enough that when it comes to downhills you enjoy them as a tele ski. Or if you're skiing a completely flat tour but you want more flotation than an XC ski it's good for that too. As soon as you get into a wider tip or a softer flexing ski things deteriorate for XC mode quickly....straight tracking and glide speed suffer.

I, with much deliberation, got the 200cm and the jury is still out if this was the way to go or not for my 6'2" 155/160 lbs self. So far though, I can see the excellent qualities in the ski. I have the 45mm mohairs but have not used them on my Gammes yet. May go to Sport Albert for the 30mm once spring rolls around.

BTW- trimming the kicker skin to just behind the boot heel makes a massive difference in glide when XC skiing.

This is a good tip, worth repeating. I think Ben mentioned this also.

[Cannatonic]

BTW- trimming the kicker skin to just behind the boot heel makes a massive difference in glide when XC skiing.

yup, same here, you shorten to about 1-2 inches behind the heel and it starts to feel like a fishscale ski. 200's Gamme's would be cool, I really enjoyed having a set of old E99's in 200, 205, and 210cm from an ebay package deal. Each one excelled at certain things. The shorter ones climb & turn better & the longer ones float & glide better. If I had to pick one I'd take 205 but the others have been really useful. As you go shorter your weight squashes the camber down more making it like a tele ski.

I'd love to see 200cm Gamme with fishscales for spring corn laps, I must have skied about 50+ days on my 200cm E99's before I gave them to a friend. I replaced them with 199cm Sbound 78's but I miss the E99's, they were much lighter and the old fishscale pattern was quieter & glided better. On spring corn you don't need any more width than the E99/Gamme ski.

[Smitty]

So glad to see everyone's additional comments on these skis. Looks like the Gamme's really would be my ideal every day touring ski!

Unfortunately Norseman in Calgary doesn't carry the Gamme's, nor do they plan to add to stock next year. They offered to put in a special order for me for next season, but I couldn't bring myself to wait. A pair of 210's Gamme's with a selection of kicker skins are en route from Sport Albert! Can't wait to get some miles on the Green Men in February and March!

I'm in Calgary for work and popping into Norseman this week. Since they don't have an online store I will start a new thread listing what Asnes models they are stocking these days for anyone that is interested!



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[Cannatonic]

I have mostly used kick wax on this ski, but the 35mm mohair has been the best so far in terms of grip and glide on icy, refrozen snow- allowing me to avoid klister in mid-winter!

Thanks, good to know! From what I'm reading it sounds like the mohair skins are better than nylon in every way except durability. I'll have to get brave & start cutting mine down It seems to make sense to have a set of nylon skins in the widest possible size for climbs - leaving them the full length - in every other situation, a shortened mohair skin is best because you want gliding.

on warm spring snow the nylon kicker skins grip really well for climbing

[lilcliffy]

Very exciting news Smitty! Looking forward to reading your Gamme 54-fueled posts!!!

And- yes- I would be very interested to hear what the Norseman has in stock- they are very pricey- but, I got a very good price on the Storetind as it was left-over stock.

I would be particularly interested in the Mountain Race Jr.
Also interested in whether they brought in the Rabb 68...

[lilcliffy]

yup, same here, you shorten to about 1-2 inches behind the heel

I started at 2cm- as per Asnes' recommendation- much-improved glide- then I went off the deep end and trimmed a set right to my heel- even better- so, I have trimmed all of my mohair kicker skins to my heel.

I have left my 45mm nylon Skin-Locks full-length for climbing.

[Buda]

I like the idea of trimming the skins to the heels for the Nansens although the kick and glide is pretty good with wax so that's what I'll do most of the time. I haven't examined it but I'm wondering how much of the drag is caused by the bracket on the front of the skin.

[bgregoire]

I like the idea of trimming the skins to the heels for the Nansens although the kick and glide is pretty good with wax so that's what I'll do most of the time. I haven't examined it but I'm wondering how much of the drag is caused by the bracket on the front of the skin.

B, if you've got the skins with the plastic bracket, surely, most of the drag is from the skin hairs themselves.

[Buda]

They are the new x-skins w/ plastic brackets. Visually it does seem like they'd catch but I only tried them a few times so I'll take your word for it

[Cannatonic]

the metal clips don't drag much either, it's the skin behind your heel that drags, you can feel it right away.

I'd like to do some torture-testing on warm spring snow, like 45 degrees and sunny granular stuff, with the shorter skins & see what happens. That is the most difficult snow in terms of wearing on kicker skins IMO. It makes short work of the strap-on BD kicker skins, getting underneath the clip and the skin itself.

The fishscales do really well in that setting but are loud and annoying. But I'll always need some waxless skis for my habit of lapping 50-100-foot sledding hills. 200cm waxless Gamme would be awesome.

PS here is that link I posted to order your own material for re-doing these kicker skins:

https://skimo.co/skin-parts