Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

With the warming temps and much more time spent skiing in harder to kick wax conditions, I'm finding myself grabbing my fishscaled skis more often. I never really liked them for touring before because they are so slow on cold snow. However on warm fast snow they are quite good. No messing around with klister, no wondering if you will have kick. Having reliable kick can lead to relaxed form and increased endurance. I have the Transnordic 66 (54 under foot) and the Snowbound 98 (68 under foot). I'm happy with those, but I'm looking at getting a fishscaled ski in the 62 under foot class for when it is too warm to ski my waxable M62.

Åsnes has a reputation of having a less grippy pattern. Fischer has what's considered the most grip and maybe the best overall pattern. Does anyone have experience skiing more than one of the Madshus M62, the Fischer Transnordic 82, the Rossignol Positrack 80, Åsnes skis in this class or any others I'm not aware of? My wife would think this distinction is ridiculous, lol.

I'm looking for something for when it's not steep and vertically oriented enough for the SB 98, but enough of that that a wider ski might be more fun than the TN66. The trail I ripped yesterday on my SB 98's had some downhill sections that would be a blast to do laps on, but it was a bit of a chore to ski the 2.5 miles in to get to those slopes. There is enough trail width to get in some tight teles, plus some powder runs through the mature forest in this park. Whaddya think?

It looks like the Transnordic 82 only comes in the wax base with the easy skin. The Traverse 78 Crown/Skin would be the one then. It has a 78-61-69 sidecut and fits the class. So the Fischer 78, the M62 and the Positrack 80. I'd probably just grab the M62 since I could get it cheaper, but it for whatever reason does have the track grove in the base. I would want a ski in this class to track straight and I know my waxable M62 can be squirrelly on hardpack.

I would consider the Nansen WL. The pattern works, I don’t have enough miles to rate the WL pattern. The ski kicks and glides and it turns. It is not like the Gamme, I haven’t had much time on it yet, but I had it in some steep terrain in 6”-8” of fresh and I felt quite comfortable. It would be a different ski from the E-99. (I know, but changing the name was stupid)
I’ve seen the T-78 turn in BC terrain that would be on the blue/black border line. I would imagine it would fit your needs. It also takes a skin. Skins aren’t expensive compared to my collection of warm weather waxes and klisters.
Let’s hope @lilcliffy pipes in. He has skied all these skis.
Oh, if you ski short skis, good price from Varuste on Nansen WL
https://varuste.net/en/p131788/%C3%A5sn ... bc-waxless

The 78 cm of scale on the 280 Metsa makes for some bad-assed traction in all kinds of conditions 😁

Seriously though- this year has been kind of annoying in regards to waxing. I’ve been using the X-skins on my different Asnes skis quite a bit. I’m still eyeing up the Kastle XT84- scales look just like Åsnes and it takes the xskin for the places scales are lacking.They’re 84 | 62 | 72 profile.