The Finest Leathers: Nordic Norm 75mm Backcountry/Telemark Boots

[bgregoire]

These are my fine NN leathers:

- Alfa Quest Advance (Greenland) 42 (940g)
- Crispi Sydpolen 42
- Alico Ski March 42 (1155g)
- Arkos (Andrew) Greenland 8UK/8.5 US (1260g)

I'm sorry, my beloved Alico Teletour (single instep buckle) could not make it for the photo op, they are on a trans-continental journey to meet Dave the cobbler. Mr. Ski March has still not seen the snow and is not in any hurry given I only have two feet. He's a prized member of the family nonetheless.

[Chisana]

Where are the trails in the knwr? I've been wanting to do an overnighter on the canoe trails and icefish for some rainbows.

The seven lakes trail often offers good skiing,and has cabins to rent on engineer and kelly lakes. One could fish for lakers on hidden, kokanees on engineer,and rainbows in kelly, peterson,egumen and watson. Most of the lakes off swanson river and swan lake road (the canoe trails) are easily accessed on skis. A great trip on skis,while not on knwr,is cooper landing end of ressurection pass trail. Caught nice lakers and burbot through the ice on trout lake. I have never icefished for grayling, and don't know how successful it would be fishing through the ice for them, but I crescent lake is a nice ski and bench lake on the johnson pass trail would be a cool ski as well.

[lowangle al]

Where are the trails in the knwr? I've been wanting to do an overnighter on the canoe trails and icefish for some rainbows.

The seven lakes trail often offers good skiing,and has cabins to rent on engineer and kelly lakes. One could fish for lakers on hidden, kokanees on engineer,and rainbows in kelly, peterson,egumen and watson. Most of the lakes off swanson river and swan lake road (the canoe trails) are easily accessed on skis. A great trip on skis,while not on knwr,is cooper landing end of ressurection pass trail. Caught nice lakers and burbot through the ice on trout lake. I have never icefished for grayling, and don't know how successful it would be fishing through the ice for them, but I crescent lake is a nice ski and bench lake on the johnson pass trail would be a cool ski as well.

Some of my favorite places are on that list but haven't been down there in winter, yet.

[Chisana]

Have tried Al's lacing method the last few times out with noticable improvement on some flexible whitewood boots. Looking forward to trying with the snowfields and ultras.

[bgregoire]

Not too long ago (somettime around like 2000-2010, to be confirmed), Varg (Wolf) leathers were a commonly found animal in the Norwegian fjallen. They came in three variants; the Morgedal, the Skavl and the Polar. Word on the street has it that these were Andrew telemark boots in disguise, just like in the story of the red riding hood, or was that the other way around? Anyways, they were (are) classy and priceless. They are frequently being offered for sale used and cheap in Norway nowadays. I am wondering why? What is happening to the wild extravagant teleing-in-leathers custom in Norway?

Anyhow. The Varg Morgedal is a full on replica of the Asolo Morgedal (sounds like the euro version of the Snowfield II), which was also was quite popular in Norway before the demise of well, Asolo. The Varg Skalv appears to be the predecessor of the Andrew Zenith (could it also be the replica of the Asolo Snowpine???), in full laces, but without the buckle. It looks like it has a thicker wedged nylon midsole though. The Varg Polar is the standard double boot with a removable synthetic innersko (inner boot) (so just to go on with it, an equivalent to the venerable Asolo Summit), it appears identical to today's Andrew Expedition Laces. Have a look for yourself (with the original descriptions from Skandinavisk Høyfjellsutstyr:

MORGEDAL
Varenr. 6-872
Forseggjort skistøvel, en klassiker for fjellskiløpere og vinterjegere. Egner seg godt for telemarksvinger. Meget god passform. Beksømsydd med trippelsøm foran i svart anfibio 3 mm fullær som er DIN-norm testet for vanntetthet i 8 timer. Overdel i ett stykke lær, uten sømmer og helsydd polstret pløse. Varmeisolerende og fukttransporterende fòr. Lengdemyk og vridningsstiv sålekonstruksjon. Vibram NN 75mm yttersåle.
PRIS: 2399,-

SKAVL
Varenr. 6-873
En kraftig støvel for bratt høyfjellskiløping. Skavl er fin for dem som skal bruke samme støvel til telemarkskjøring og fjellskiturer. Laget på samme måte som Morgedal bortsett fra høyere skaft, forsterkninger i sideveggene, samt kraftigere og mer vridningsstiv såle. Bred lest.
PRIS: 2999,-

POLAR
Varenr. 6-874
Ekstra varm dobbeltstøvel for fjellski og telemark. Meget godt egnet for telt- og snøhuleliggere og andre som trenger varme støvler. Løs innerstøvel er lett å ta med i soveposen. (Kan kjøpes løs.) Passer også bra som hyttetøffel og til bilkjøring. Ytterstøvelen er laget på samme måte som Skavl
PRIS: 3499,-

Of course, in the name of science, I had to get my hands on a pair of Skavls. They shall forever wrestle with my Crispi Sydpolens and Alico Teletours for some fun in the snow. Will this be the first Varg sighting in Canada???

[Cannatonic]

no doubt that Skval looks just like the Zenith - are you saying that you found a pair? very cool. Do they say "made in Italy"? I wonder about who made all the 90's leathers - most of them had to be contracted out to the various Italian guys right? Garmont, Merrell, others. I've got a pair of Garmont Tours that are really nice.

[bgregoire]

no doubt that Skval looks just like the Zenith - are you saying that you found a pair? very cool. Do they say "made in Italy"? I wonder about who made all the 90's leathers - most of them had to be contracted out to the various Italian guys right? Garmont, Merrell, others. I've got a pair of Garmont Tours that are really nice.

Yes Canna, I very fine Norwegian Amundsen Expdition racer has sent me a nice pair of Skavls. I should get them next week and I truly hope that will terminate my newly acquired painfully obsessive leather hoarding habit.

I'm pretty sure Garmont and Asolo are Italian companies. I'm assuming they each produced their own leathers as they boots I have seen are distinctively different. Merrell is American I believe, so yeah, maybe they did get theirs made abroad?

As you know, I had the Garmont Tours at home for a few weeks. Nice boot sure, unfortunately, they were too small so I managed to coax my friend here into leather mania and he uses them now.

I got my Alico Teletours back from dave the Cobbler. Fine job. Great boot!

[Cannatonic]

Merrells were all made in Italy. There's also the Meindl family in Germany still making welted leathers for hiking. The Limmers here in New Hampshire contracted w/ the Meindls to make regular-stock Limmer boots (the family will make a custom version for you in NH).

I've lobbied the Limmers to make 3-pin boots (again), they currently repair & resole 75mm boots, but they declined to make custom 75mm boots. There is hope though, the younger generation is taking over from Peter Limmer, maybe they can be convinced to try it. How hard can it be? Just a different midsole underneath right? I'm not sure there's any more difference w/ hiking boots.

Got another ski on the Refugios - super nice. They're slightly beefier than Garmont Tour. In terms of stiffness & support I would rank them Zenith>Rifugio>Garmont Tour>Antarctic. With the Rifugio being similar to old Merrell Ultras.

[Tele kid]

Wish I could buy another pair of Andrew’s North Rim boots. Can’t remember, too much herb, but roughly ten + yrs old. There still my go to aggressive boot but this summer they need a cobble shop bad. Years back sent some Merrill boots to Rocky Mt Resoal. Like hearing there may be a place in NH.

[Cannatonic]

The Alico Ski March can be bought and mailed to your house for around $75-80, it's a stiff boot with a lot of support....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-British-Ar ... M3O49jBkSA