One ski to rule them all! A one ski quiver for all disciplines

[mikael.oh]

Minimalism and purity of vision. I don't wamt to be bogged down with lots of stuff. Focusing more on spiritual matters these days. Ideally I'd like to be like a himalayan yogi, but with skis
I have too many distractions already. When it works this well, one setup is all I need, and then I can focus on the essential, being in the moment, and not thinking "if I only had this ski with me instead today"

I prefer really getting to know the one setup I use and finding ways of making it work optimally for me in any given situation..Finding solutions internally instead of just adding more and more external stuff you don't really need.

Sincr it was almost summer when I bought this setup and we've had no real snow so far this season I haven't gotten to use them much yet.
On my second day on them we got about 15cm of powder overnight and I did a tour and had a blast skiing it. Since I hadn't figured out I could do alpine turns yet, I telemarked the powder even though I didn't know how to telemark, but it worked well anyway.

No breakable crust yet. My first day/tour was wind affected hard snow. Then some rotten snow later in early summer which was hard but doable. Salted hard conditions at a summer ski resort and that's where I discovered that I could ski this setup hard like it was an alpine setup and had a permagrin all day
This year only manmade snow so far, so hard and icy. Still have a lot of fun on the hard stuff. Not so much the icy.

[lowangle al]

I skied double camber Karhu XCD-GTs almost exclusively for almost 20 years. I would have been better off on a pair of similar single camber skis for what I was doing, touring for turns.

It's OK to ski one pair of skis for a long time as long as they are the right pair for what you are doing.

[mikael.oh]

We're finally getting some snow so now I'll be able to start testing more of what this setup can do.

I actually live just a few km from the black slope I've been skiing and I have cross country tracks that start right from where I live and link to it, so now I can start from home, skate or use the 30mm skins to climb the 200 or so vertical meters to the top of the black slope, ski up and down that a couple times, and then ski all the way home.

I use the 45mm short skins to get up the black slope but because a narrow path on one side is fenced off for us people skinning up, and the steepest section is 40 degrees as well as some 35 degeee sections, skinning straight up is impossible with my gear. So the steepest sections I have to walk with my skis in a V(not sure whet you call that in English) or side step up where it's too narrow. If there's fresh snow, these movements cause my skins to fall of so that's another challenge. Think I'm gonna try ski straps around the ski at the back end of the skin and see if that helps.

For reference, most of the other people skinning up are on fatskis with full length, full width skins and some of them have started uaing ski crampons in order to make it up...

Looking forward to trying some longer kick and glide sessions as well.
I have access to a network of literally thousands of km of groomed and semi groomed tracks staring 100m from my building and since I've only been using my skate skis before, there's a big big portion of the tracks that I haven't been able to access because they're much too narrow to skate. Fun times ahead!

[Woodserson]

I have to walk with my skis in a V(not sure whet you call that in English)

I have access to a network of literally thousands of km of groomed and semi groomed tracks staring 100m from my building and since I've only been using my skate skis before, there's a big big portion of the tracks that I haven't been able to access because they're much too narrow to skate. Fun times ahead!

Herringbone. Like the fabric or tiling pattern
V
V
V


Where are you exactly, with this paradise out your door? If you don't mind sharing.

[mikael.oh]

I have to walk with my skis in a V(not sure whet you call that in English)

I have access to a network of literally thousands of km of groomed and semi groomed tracks staring 100m from my building and since I've only been using my skate skis before, there's a big big portion of the tracks that I haven't been able to access because they're much too narrow to skate. Fun times ahead!

Herringbone. Like the fabric or tiling pattern
V
V
V


Where are you exactly, with this paradise out your door? If you don't mind sharing.

Aah, it's the same in Norwegian. They call it fiskebein = fish bone.

I'm in Oslo, capital of Norway.
Only a small portion of the area of Oslo is the actual city. A much bigger part of it is directly north of the center and is kind of a national park. Just endless dirt roads, lakes, and trails. And in the winter, thousands of km of interconnected cross country tracks.

Once we get more snow, there should even be some possibilities for some powder skiing in the trees, but in general you have to go outside of Oslo to find proper mountains and downhill skiing.

[mikael.oh]

Hahaaa, I cannot BELIEVE how well this setup works!

Just tried them as classic skis on groomed trails for the first proper time, and then finished by skiing down the black run at the resort.
The temperature was just above freezing today so I did it in Baywatch Mode, which is red shorts, a hat, gloves, and nothing else. There were so many people asking questions as I was setting off that I forgot to turn on the tracking which is a shame. I would¨ve really liked to see the data from this trip.

I estimate that the cross country part was about 9km with about 200m of climbing. Using the Gammes as classic skis worked MUCH better than I expected. I was actually faster than most people even though they were on proper classic skis.
My glide was worse than them but otherwise I mostly passed people and few passed me. The tracks were really slippery today so I was only in them on the downhills and flats. I was really happy with the speed I kept. I think it was probably around 10 km/h and I managed to do a pretty active style.
This was in proper workout mode with a pretty high heartrate throughout. Worth noting is that I haven¨t done any classic since I was like 10 years old so I¨m learning the technique now and am only gonna get smoother and faster, which is exciting because today was pretty damn fun already!

This setup just continues to exceed my expectations in every way. Can¨t wait to do more!

[Charlynor]

Almost the same set up, except I have Alaska boots.
Curious to know where you re going skiing around Oslo!

[mikael.oh]

Almost the same set up, except I have Alaska boots.
Curious to know where you re going skiing around Oslo!

I haven't been skiing them that much so far, because of how liittle snow we've had, and because I also skate ski.
I live in Voksen Skog so am really close to Frognerseteren and Tryvann. I've been skiing Wyller a bit but since they don't seem to prepare the slope at all now, it's not as fun as it could be. Loose stuff on ice, so not very BC friendly, but doable.
I want to do more classic with the Gammes so I can learn that technique properly. Probably gonna start from Frognerseteren today after work and do classic to Tryvannstua and then on to the top of Wyller and then ski up and down that a bit. Wanna see if I can find a good path through the forest on the way up, as the rando track going straight up Wyller is a bit too steep with BC equipment.

Where do you ski?

[mikael.oh]

Got myself a 360 camera and hands free mount and recorded one of my classic then downhill trips. Haven't learned how to edit it yet. Or rather, the possibilities are endless and I have too much footage, so I haven't started.
Here are a couple snapshots plucked from the video The system works really well. Gonna be ace once I develop a good editing workflow.

[mikael.oh]

Now in video!