Åsnes Nansen Waxless

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CwmRaider
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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by CwmRaider » Wed Feb 19, 2020 4:39 am

lilcliffy wrote:
Tue Feb 18, 2020 12:52 pm
Excellent review on this ski Roelant- very much appreciated!
It sounds like a highly versatile BC-XC ski- much more versatile than the Ingstad for example.
My sense is that both the Nansen and the Gamme 54 are intended to be versatile- the Nansen sounds a bit more tuned towards turning than the Gamme- and I would hazard a guess that the Gamme is a bit more tuned towards XC efficiency...
I suppose they are versatile in different ways. Ingstad more versatile in deep powder conditions, Nansen more versatile on harder snow. If that makes sense. The one ski to do it all has not been invented. I am pretty sure I would have managed with either.
Really, your posts almost made me get the Ingstad, however looking back at my average BC tour with my girlfriend was more in deep powder. 70%-80% of my skiing is on harder snow, probably.

Last Easter in Trollheimen we met a group of North American XCD skiers, who had mixed gear between E99s + NNNBC and Madshus Annum + 75mm + Scarpa T4. They all seemed pretty happy, although they acknowledged that T4 were pretty heavy on the longer distances.
I will try to measure the rocker on the Nansen this evening.

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Cannatonic
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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by Cannatonic » Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:32 pm

thanks for the Nansen review - good to know these are popular skis in Norway. BTW I am watching the "FIS Ski Tour 2020" race event on TV that runs from Sweden to Trondheim.

These Asnes waxless patterns are different from what we've seen over the years - shorter length of pattern and less grip than even my vintage E99's with Ficher's old negative base pattern. I imagine it works well for XC skiing in dry or new colder snow.

But I"d like to see a more aggressive pattern - longer scale section - especially on something like the Nansen or NATO skis, for telemark skiing laps in the spring. I like visiting sledding hills or local parks for up and down runs with turns on spring snow. Asnes does not yet make a waxless ski with enough grip for this activity. And the kicker skins are not good because the laps are too small - 100-200 feet vertical drop.
"All wisdom is to be gained through suffering"
-Will Lange (quoting Inuit chieftan)



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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by CwmRaider » Thu Feb 20, 2020 2:23 am

Cannatonic wrote:
Wed Feb 19, 2020 1:32 pm
thanks for the Nansen review - good to know these are popular skis in Norway. BTW I am watching the "FIS Ski Tour 2020" race event on TV that runs from Sweden to Trondheim.

These Asnes waxless patterns are different from what we've seen over the years - shorter length of pattern and less grip than even my vintage E99's with Ficher's old negative base pattern. I imagine it works well for XC skiing in dry or new colder snow.

But I"d like to see a more aggressive pattern - longer scale section - especially on something like the Nansen or NATO skis, for telemark skiing laps in the spring. I like visiting sledding hills or local parks for up and down runs with turns on spring snow. Asnes does not yet make a waxless ski with enough grip for this activity. And the kicker skins are not good because the laps are too small - 100-200 feet vertical drop.
Regarding the FIS ski tour - the Åre sprint (straight up the alpine slope) was insane.


I am looking forward to testing the waxless more over longer distances. I saw your comments on the MT51.
In a french forum (skirandonneenordique.com) a user of the Ingstad Waxless wrote:
"L'accroche m'a l'air normale comparé à mes Madshus Eon mais moindre que des Fisher. Sur neige gelée, il faut bien s'appliquer et ça passe."
Translation - "Grip is normal compared to Madshus Eon, but less than on Fischer. On frozen snow, you have to apply proper kick and it works".
We shall see.

By the way, I do not find the Nansen to have much, if any Nordic Rocker.
I also squeezed a bunch of skis in the shop yesterday.
The Åsnes Børge Ousland BC has similar camber and nordic rocker to the Gamme but is a bit skinnier and lighter.
I could not detect difference between different pairs of Ingstad or Nansen of the same length, but this is just from hand squeezing. The ingstad seemed a bit stiffer than the Nansen.



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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by Cannatonic » Fri Feb 21, 2020 12:45 pm

I must be on tape delay, I won't see the sprint race until tonight - I just watched the Norwegian men wipe out everyone else on a distance race in Sweden - 15k maybe??? 7 of the top 8 finishers from Norge, edging out a Russian guy at the finish line.

I tried adding kick wax to my waxless 205 MT51 for skiing icy snow, it wasn't enough, but the 30mm mohair skin was fantastic in those conditions.
"All wisdom is to be gained through suffering"
-Will Lange (quoting Inuit chieftan)



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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by CwmRaider » Wed Feb 26, 2020 9:20 am

We finally have some fresh powder in cold conditions (-8 degrees) without too much wind, and I was able to abandon all responsibilities for a few hours and go up and down the local hill near Trondheim (Gråkallen).
It is a short-ish hill with a pretty nasty radar infrastructure built on top, but it was the furthest I could afford to go today, as I am XC track skiing again this evening.

The climb up followed snow covered, zig zagging walking path which Strava tells me has a slope of 15-16 %. I was again compelled to mount short skins (45mm mohair), as the waxless did not offer sufficient grip. The mohair was fine.

From the top there are some nice views, here a view to the north - north-west over the Fjord. Note the Å of my ski which I tried to sneak into the picture :)
IMG_20200226_131726.jpg
The way down was a bit choppy snow, I was not the only one to have had this idea in the last few days and we are only 6 km from the center of Norways 3rd largest city. However in the top part (slope of ca. 20 %, according to Strava) I was able to make some nice telemark turns on the Nansen.
Here is a view of the upper section, looking to the E over Trondheim. My home is just behind the hill in the left foreground, and the Sylan massif (popular for BC tours) are the snowy mountains in the right hand side.
IMG_20200226_132313.jpg
the Nansens were not challenging for me to turn here in spite of the choppy snow, I was able to make a few (non chained) telemark turns.

The second section was ca. 30 %(according to Strava), I managed again relatively OK telemark turns here. Consciously pushing the forward knee inward caused the skis to respond almost immediately. Here my turns were spaced with about 5 vertical meters between each according to my GPS track.
IMG_20200226_133240.jpg
Then the lower section which is at 40 to 45 %(Strava), the part behind the slope break downhill in this image:
IMG_20200226_133449.jpg
Unfortunately the snow was too dissected for me to manage nice telemark turns and they became some kind of stem christie / telemark hybrid. Perhaps you guys do this too? I'm sure it was not pretty and I fell almost half of the turns. However I think that with more pristine snow I might have managed without falling, it was mostly that I lost my balance with changing resistance underfoot.

My technique is not pretty and I am trying to improve my pressure distribution to keep the ball of my rear foot flat, and steering the skis with the front knee.

That said, I do not think that I could have managed this hill significantly better with different BC skis of any kind, not with the irregular snow like this. From memory the E109s were a bit less stable in skiing down in deeper snow, and I thus have the impression, that my Nansens are better at downhills.
So, although I had some faint idea that I wanted Falketinds or Rabbs, todays trip made me realize that I do not need them (yet).
Arriving at the bottom of the hill I had a bit of flat groomed XC trail to ski back to the car. The Nansens seem to glide much better than the E109 Crowns that I had, however I still was not impressed by the grip of the waxless base.

Anyways, I am very happy with the Nansens overall, but the Waxless pattern still has not proven itself very useful, in contrast to the excellent Fischer Offtrack Crown on my old E109s. More testing is required.
Last edited by CwmRaider on Thu Feb 27, 2020 4:40 am, edited 1 time in total.



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Transplantskier
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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by Transplantskier » Wed Feb 26, 2020 11:14 am

Hi all. I’ve been reading this forum for a year or so, but the many coincidences in this thread made me finally register so that I could post a reply.

I also 1) live in Trondheim (American transplant), 2) ski waxless Nansen, and 3) use Crispi Stetinds. I’m out in Bymarka (where Grakallen is) pretty much every single day. Here’s the view from Herbernheia (one hill over) this morning And yesterday. Much less tracked in on this side of Bymarka.
154E2B56-A13B-4310-91B2-D82D72E6E359.jpeg
E55BB395-A586-4138-AE4F-CB90263BBA6F.jpeg



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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by CwmRaider » Wed Feb 26, 2020 1:31 pm

Transplantskier wrote:
Wed Feb 26, 2020 11:14 am
Hi all. I’ve been reading this forum for a year or so, but the many coincidences in this thread made me finally register so that I could post a reply.

I also 1) live in Trondheim (American transplant), 2) ski waxless Nansen, and 3) use Crispi Stetinds. I’m out in Bymarka (where Grakallen is) pretty much every single day. Here’s the view from Herbernheia (one hill over) this morning And yesterday. Much less tracked in on this side of Bymarka.
Awesome! It is such a small world! Next time, say hi!
With my other half we are usually either running or skiing in Bymarka 4-5 times a week. We live right on the edge.
I love northern Bymarka (and Herbernheia) for hikes because of its more quiet nature! When prepared the Tømmerdals løype is one of our favorite. Our house is close to the access road. There are lots of cloudberries near the top of Herbernheia in the early Autumn. I have also skied on it a few times, great as a "hiking-skiing" option but the only nice (but short) turning slope seems to be on the northern flank and seems to end in some pretty dense forest - do you have any tips? On XC skis I also like Åaengløypa which goes from Baklidammen (or the golf course) to Geitfjellet. A bit short but a very nice way to get an amazing view in a short time.

What is your experience with the Nansen Waxless?



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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by Transplantskier » Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:09 am

We live right by the Asveien Skole and don’t own a car, so I start all my tours by running up to the Butikksenter and building loops out from there. The horrible weather this winter has kept me more on-trail than usual, but I spend most of my time on Bosbergeia, Stadheia, and Herbernheia when conditions are good.

The Nansen waxless:
I love this ski. I bought it last year and have used it as my one-ski quiver since then. It does surprisingly well for me on the groomed trails, and really well as soon as I get it into more interesting places. With a boot as stiff as the Stetind, I feel like I can turn this ski well in most types of snow. The waxless pattern is totally adequate for me in most circumstances but I’m a fairly small person. It’s worth noting that I’m a real outlier in ski/pole taste here. I like my skis short-ish (I ski the Nansen in 185 & my measurements are 175cm and 66kg) and my poles long (150cm). Since my ski outings usually feature several miles of groomed trails and the Nansens skate well with my Stetinds, I like having long enough poles to skate fairly efficiently when not kicking and gliding. Maybe the waxless pattern would be less effective if on a longer ski, but on the 185 I find them grippy enough and much better gliding than past skis I’ve owned. Add in the 45mm short skins and I can pretty much go anywhere.

We’re living in Norway for 4 years while my wife does a PhD at NTNU, and we left all our skis in the US figuring that we were overdue to upgrade a bit anyway. My wife uses the Madshus Voss waxless as her main ski and the Ingstad waxless as her more adventurous ski. I’ve been using the Nansen for everything, but the horribly icy/rainy winter we’ve had so far has finally convinced me to also own a lighter ski and I have some waxless MT51s incoming. If it seems like we’re big fans of waxless skis, that would be accurate. I grew up skiing and waxing a motley collection of wooden skis and heavy mystery skis and had more than my fill of kick waxing. Long live the scales.



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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by Johnny » Thu Feb 27, 2020 8:24 am

Transplantskier wrote:
Thu Feb 27, 2020 3:09 am
We don’t own a car, so I start all my tours by running up to the Butikksenter and building loops out from there.
My very first criteria to define what a "real" skier is... 8-)
Kudos to you!
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Re: Åsnes Nansen Waxless

Post by Transplantskier » Thu Feb 27, 2020 9:32 am

Large outdoor adventures without a car have proven far more feasible in Norway than they ever would have been when I lived in Wyoming or New Hampshire. Between my feet, skis, bike, and the train I manage to get around Norway pretty darn well.



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