Voilé and Kästle selling XCD in North America

[Capercaillie]

Some of you may have seen this already. Apparently Voilé is going to be distributing Alpina Alaska 75mm boots, and now wants you to try XCD:

https://www.voile.com/blog/xcd-gear-rundown/

I just noticed this on La Cordée's website. Some time over the summer they received a whole line of Kästle brand fishscale XCD skis:

https://www.lacordee.com/fr/sports-d-hi ... ste?page=1

Does anyone know more about these? Are they the same skis as fishscale Sportens (https://telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... tle#p67574), or are they new designs?

[Lhartley]

The Kastles look interesting, Norsemans in Calgary always has good stock of Asnes, Kastle, and Sporten so I'm guessing they'll be stocked with these new Kastles, they Def look similar shape to the Sporten

[Nick BC]

The Kastle XT 84 look suspiciously like the Ingstad, which is made in the same factory. Hmmmm! I’m not entirely clear from the blurb whether the Kastle’s have a patterned base, although they have the mini skin.

[Stephen]

The Kastle XT84 has similar dimensions as the Ingstad — 84-62-72 vs Ingstad’s 84-62-74.
The Kastle skis say ”Crown + X-Skin.”
“Crown” is the term Fischer uses for their traction pattern.
“X-Skin” is the term Äsnes uses for the skin attachment system.

Are these the long awaited “Äsnes” traction pattern skis?


Maybe not, but it is interesting that they seem to use and accept the same skin attachment technology that Äsnes uses on their skis.

[Bavarian Cream]

Judging from this glamor shot of the base of the Kästles, the scales seem to have the same shape as the Fischer crown pattern, no?

[LegendTrek]

It seems that comparing the shape of the Kästle scales to the Fischer pattern might be accurate. It would be worth noting how these skis perform in the field. Perhaps we should organize some tests to see how they handle in various conditions. This could help in making a decision about purchasing them

[LegendTrek]

I don't think so, but it's only my opinion..

[lilcliffy]

Interesting, and great to see more companies and options in the market-

I wonder though whether these aren't simply based on Asnes molds/designs-
or whether Kastle simply is paying Asnes to use their X-Skin inserts?
The sidecut profile(s) certainly suggest that these are based on Asnes skis...

Fischer has had a number of partnerships over the decades where they have shared designs/molds with other manufactueres (eg Rossignol, Atomic, Alpina)- where the geometry of the skis are identical- but, I have never seen Fischer share and/or sell their bases and/or the Easy-Skin insert...
For example, older iterations of the Rossi BC90/125 were almost identical to the Fischer 88/125, but they did not have Fischer's high quality sintered shovel & tail, nor the Offtrack Crown insert.

Based on the past, I doubt these Kastle skis share any Fischer tech- unless Kastle and Fischer are now part of the same company?

A quick internet search suggests that Kastle has been owned by Consil Sport since 2018; Fischer is still an idependant company; Asnes is owned by Active Brands AS...

[lilcliffy]

Just looked at the photos of the bases on line-
they don't look like Fischer bases to me-
they look like a cheap extruded base, with scales ground into them...

[Bavarian Cream]

Yeah, not the same bases, but the same notable scale shape (resembles crowns as opposed to fish scales) that Fischer uses. I doubt this is a terribly exciting development, but it might explain how Kästle can get away with using the “crown” term in their description, and perhaps it does mean a bit of a marriage of some Asnes and some Fischer characteristics all in one ski.