New skis for Finnish Defence Forces

[Theme]

Following the news of Finland joining NATO, the troops of northern and north-eastern Finland are receiving new skis. These skis have been developed since 2017, and are meant to improve combatants' abilities on deep snow. The skis will be available for other NATO member countries as well.

In the past, skis the FDF has used have been mostly 210 or 225 long, 70mm wide straight skis. Some longer ones in the mix, border guard has had way longer ones as well. These old skis will still be used for the parts of the country where less snow is present during winter.

What I was able to dig up, is that the skis will have sidecut, being significantly wider at tip and tail. There was no exact list of features yet, but the skis assumingly will be longer as well. Some articles compared the current skis as 200-250cm long, where new ones would just be wider than that with a sidecut. Cannot confirm this yet. Skis are said to have very strict weight standards among other factors.

Really excited to see an 8000 pair military ski order for the Kitee ski factory. This means they will need to upgrade their equipment that has partly been on life support, and hire more staff. The owner Harri Kirvesniemi has already stated that now there are better opportunities to also make developments in other skis as well. KSF Sport is responsible for Järvinen, Karhu and Yoko forest skis, and a wide range of track skis. Forest skis have seen very little development in the past decades.

They did also revamp the military ski binding, which supposedly has less balling of snow under the heel, and fits all military footwear with increased stability. But this is probably not of much interest to us. Poles and accessories will be supplied by Peltonen.

https://maavoimat.fi/en/-/1948673/new-s ... ern-troops

[riel]

That sounds like it could be a significant change from traditional forest skis.

I wonder if those skis will be available for sale to the general public. Could be a good thing for times where we need a little extra flotation, but still want efficient glide.

[dvärgbjörk]

The skis can be seen in this video (english subs available): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXHgX8Qe ... aW5pw7Y%3D

230 cm long, 95 mm wide, 75 mm under foot.

[Manney]

Likes: length, width, width under foot, robustness of binding and plates, riveted tail protector
Dislikes: urethane core (probably foam), scales and scale pattern (looks like a fine scale pattern, maybe not good on a climb)
Neutral: binding system makes sense for military, novel for civilian use. Could be quite nice with a very high quality boot with a very robust and flexible sole.
Assessment: probably exceptional tracking, float, k&g on flats, deep snow. beast on climb? might tramline on moderate or steep descents. need to know more about camber, stiffness. terrain limited to to extreme length.

[mca80]

Thanks @dvärgbjörk for the video. That guy has some other nice videos up.

[Manney]

Back story shouts on this guy. Look at him… not a pro. Better than that. A natural. Probably skied in short pants. Instructed by people who started out the same way. Simple gear, used like an extension of his body. Comfortable and easy. Nothing forced. Anyhow… back to topic.

I’ve never been to the lakes region of Finland, Karelia, west. A lot of fairly flat land it seems. Lakes, bogs that ice over all winter. Lots of trails and unfinished roads that snow in. Hundred day winters, abundant snow. Distances to cover patrolling the border. A new frontier barricade being built by Finns. They’ll want to patrol that. Big, long distance ski for their army makes sense.

[Theme]

The skis can be seen in this video (english subs available): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXHgX8Qe ... aW5pw7Y%3D

230 cm long, 95 mm wide, 75 mm under foot.

Wow, how did thay not come up on my feed?! Thanks! Been hiking the past month so maybe that's why

I only wish they come up with a steel edge version of this ski. It would be the best compromise ski ever made. No idea about the stiffness of the ski, but probably fairly well cambered. Only the foam core possibly limits that.

Wax or skin version could also work well. The scales seem too small.

Will need to see if they also have longer versions coming up.

I'll definitely get a pair when these become available.

[randoskier]

Welcome to NATO! I arrived in Finland on the first day of their membership and wished the cab driver who drove us 1hr to the trailhead a "Happy NATO".

There are some interesting dynamics with Finland joining NATO; both tactical- like the ski choice, and how the forces maneuver, plus the general strategy towards Russia which borders both countries.

Finnish forest skis would not work for the Norwegian forces except perhaps in Finnmark which has a similar topography (fairly flat). Norway is a very mountainous country.

The countries have two totally different policies towards Russian containment- Finland is strict deterrence/defense while Norway is engagement, cooperation coupled with defense. In my opinion Norway has it wrong as they get continuously poked in the eye by Russia (repeated random GPS jamming for example). Norway is still servicing Russian trawlers in Kirkenes! That is outrageous in my opinion. I will attach a pic of flipping a trawler off two days ago in Kirkenes. Finland has it right- Russia understands nothing but brute strength.

Right now Norway is NATO's subject-matter expert for winter warfare and skiing. It will be interesting how Finland fits into the alliance. Sweden, well is Sweden, (already pretty much integrated with NATO as was Finland before joining).

[mca80]

I searched for NATO on this forum seeking info about the Asnes skis and literally half the posts are @randoskier pontificating about geopolitics.

[fgd135]

Looks like those new bindings are simply the older NATO military bindings with the leather straps replaced by the Voile-style side springs, with similar but more rugged heel clamps. That's good, as the old leather, or sometimes nylon, side straps would stretch and/or freeze up in certain conditions. Actually, I wonder if Voile had a hand in the re-design of the bindings as the side springs are exactly the same as theirs.
An acquaintance of mine several years ago was writing a book on the history of skiing, and ended up spending a few weeks in Finland's winter, somehow as a tag along (member of the press) on Finnish Army training. He was in excellent physical condition but still got his a** kicked, skiing sometimes 20-30km a day, for several days at a time, with full military gear, in mostly dark Arctic winter conditions.