Fischer Excursion 88 Easy Skin (S bound series)
Posted: Fri Dec 08, 2017 10:33 am
I rented a pair of these yesterday to ski on fresh snow and hopefully make trailbreaking easier than with my Alpina Discovery 68's. I don't do much downhill that involves turns, so this review involves the use of these skis for more typical ungroomed xc skiing.
I used the Easy-skins for the first mile or snow which is all uphill, and includes a section of currently ungroomed but broken snowmobile trail, and going around a locked gate (to prevent vehicle entry) a second section which had tracks from a tracked vehicle of some kind. The Easy skins have great grip going uphill, but no glide at all. Very easy to get on.
The best thing about these skis otherwise was the glide, which I think was considerably better than the Alpina's and even better than my Madshus Northcapes. The ease of trailbreaking was marginally better than the Alpina's; it would be hard for me to justify replacing them on this basis, even if this tyoe if skiing was most of the skiing I did. There was 9 inches of snow, once the tracks ended. The skis sank about 4 inches in this. My poles were almost bottomed out.
I did not try any long or steep unhills without the easy skins. The uphill performance, on the limited remaining uphills, was at least passable. I would doubt these climb as well as the Alpina's without the skins.
I noticed one thing at the end of the tour--the holes in the skis which the Easy-skins must pass were plugged with ice. I guess one could unplug these with pole tips.
Other ski length=189, my weight 195 lbs., height 5'7"
Summary--these are a good ski for ungroomed trails. For trailbreaking, I'd like to try something wider next.
I used the Easy-skins for the first mile or snow which is all uphill, and includes a section of currently ungroomed but broken snowmobile trail, and going around a locked gate (to prevent vehicle entry) a second section which had tracks from a tracked vehicle of some kind. The Easy skins have great grip going uphill, but no glide at all. Very easy to get on.
The best thing about these skis otherwise was the glide, which I think was considerably better than the Alpina's and even better than my Madshus Northcapes. The ease of trailbreaking was marginally better than the Alpina's; it would be hard for me to justify replacing them on this basis, even if this tyoe if skiing was most of the skiing I did. There was 9 inches of snow, once the tracks ended. The skis sank about 4 inches in this. My poles were almost bottomed out.
I did not try any long or steep unhills without the easy skins. The uphill performance, on the limited remaining uphills, was at least passable. I would doubt these climb as well as the Alpina's without the skins.
I noticed one thing at the end of the tour--the holes in the skis which the Easy-skins must pass were plugged with ice. I guess one could unplug these with pole tips.
Other ski length=189, my weight 195 lbs., height 5'7"
Summary--these are a good ski for ungroomed trails. For trailbreaking, I'd like to try something wider next.