New to Skiing - Northern Canada

[farnorth]

I live in Northwest Territories, Canada, about 100km south of the tundra treeline. I have no experience skiing, but I snowshoe for my camping trips with a pulk - about 50km into the wilderness each way usually. It seems skis would be a lot more efficient but I am unsure what type to get. The temperatures are usually -30°C to -50°C from December to March on my hikes. The snow is deep and soft/medium but very dry and crystalline. Sometimes there are dogsled/snowmobile trails. I travel 80% on completely flat snowy lakes, the rest of the time over windpacked snow covered rock that I may need skins to climb.

I am currently looking at either the Åsnes Amundsen BC, the Åsnes Børge Ousland BC, or the Åsnes Combat NATO BC. I was looking at the OAC XCD BC 160 but they seem too short and the tip seems flat. Whatever I buy I will be using the OAC EA 2.0 Universal Bindings because I wear mukluks with multiple beaver fur/wool liners, anything else is too cold or uncomfortable. I want something that floats well on powder with a big curved sleigh tip to slide through the deep snow on completely flat terrain instead of lifting up every time with my snowshoes. Maybe I'm going in the wrong direction but any tips or recommendations would be appreciated, thank you.

[Montana St Alum]

Wow, 50 km on snowshoes is IMPRESSIVE! Well, it is to me, anyway, as my limit is closer to 50 m - without the k!
There's an interesting thread about the difficulty of using waxes below -32C, so that option seems unlikely to work.

Maybe something like Altai skis? They look as though they would be a good progression from snowshoes. But yes, I'd guess skis would be easier.

[GrimSurfer]

Different skiing up there, man. Way past my threshold of experience.

Probably an expedition type ski…. Wide, looong, and something that is suitable for mounting a strap binding for your mukluks. Because nobody wants to be changing boots on the tundra at -50F.

I own a set of mukluks good for -70… heavy and rather unwieldy. So looking for a light ski may be a bit of a fool’s errand (expression, not trying to be rude).

I’d be inclined to go a few sizes higher than your weight range for the glide. Besides, you’d likely be travelling with a bit of a pack on your back…

[lowangle al]

If there is a lot of deep snow there is no substitute for surface area. I'd go with a wide ski like the Kom. It'll be the most like a snowshoe, but faster. I imagine you'll be pulling a sled so you may want to have a set of skins if you need traction to move ahead.

They sound like great trips. Do you hunt and fish? How about a hot tent?

[GrimSurfer]

Have you every been to the high north, Al?

Inuvik, Yellowknife, Resolute, and Iqaluit. (Missed the Yukon)

Fortunately in November, before it got really cold. Different place. Pretty incredible people up there.

[lowangle al]

I spent over thirty years in Anchorage, while it's not the far north, I did do some winter ski in caribou hunts in the Alaska range. That was before I had a hot tent, I'll never do that again.

[GrimSurfer]

That counts to me.

[paulzo]

Looking at the wayyy old school approach to this, if you check out what the folks in the Siberian backwoods still use to get around in the winter, it is wide and long and often with permanently attached skins. Used basically as a snowshoe, since they are on almost entirely flat terrain. Been working for those folks for maybe a couple thousand years, I guess.
The closest modern equivalent might be an altai hok in their biggest size?
Another possibility is the "forest skis" that have been mentioned here on TTips (do a search on this site for those terms).
I've read some cool stuff about canoe trips in that neck of the woods, but never anything about winter excursions up there. We would enjoy reading a trip report from one of your outings - with photos, of course!

[mca80]

Peltonen Metsa Step with the built-in skin in the longest size (270cm?) may be an option. Maybe someone else can weigh in on this. For flat terrain and long distance and a pulk full of gear you want the longest ski possible.

[lowangle al]

I'm with Paulzo on this. In most parts of the ancient ski world wide skis were the norm except for Finland, as far as I know. I think wider skis would be a lot more stable and maneuverable. The thing that my wide modern powder boards have in common with long Finnish forest skis is surface area. I once estimated the surface area of my powder skis and compared it to the surface area of a typical Finnish ski and they were almost identical.