Vector BC eludes my thinking

[Woodserson]

I don't get the Vector BC. It's advertised as a ski for "long distance adventures." With those scales, I would be screaming on long, low angle descents. By that, I mean screaming in agony. And in super cold and dry snow, I would likewise be frustrated. So many scales over such a large ski...

Now, I do get the normal Vector. I would be ALL OVER a Vector with a skin system like Asnes and Fischer. That, makes sense. Maybe even a little grip wax if I anticipated some flats.

I get the Kom... Wider than the Vector, but not pushed on the populace as a long distance ski, a matter of fact Altai is all about "backyard backcountry" and what you find close to home, short sweet runs in your local woods-- up down home. If the Vector BC was sold for this, I'd give it a pass. But for long distance adventures? I just don't know...

Who can convince me otherwise. I know there have been mentions about this in another thread but I can't find it anymore. Who has a BC? BGregoire?

Not starting a flame, I just smell disadvantages over the advantages offered by other grip methods, it seems too much to me.

[MikeK]

Connyro and Al have them.

Lot's of guys that ski the dacks have switched to them.

Before I joined this forum I couldn't get a recommendation for any other ski for what I thought I wanted to do. The only guy I remember saying 'no' was Dave Mann aka Pinnah. He was also against the Epoch too (I bought them anyway ), so you can sense his position.

Deep Pow - this is where a ski like this makes sense to me. Same as the Kom. Do the calcs on the areas, no XCD ski will touch them. Even a 195cm Annum falls short, and it will obviously not be as good due to it's old school rocker. And it's longer, and for turning, that's a disadvantage.

The only skis that come close are the new '125' XCD skis. And well, we all know the limitation they have... a lot of sidecut. Which maybe isn't a disadvantage, but it doesn't make sense for powder skis, which have gone away from traditional shapes that work on hard snow.

Scales don't drag much in deep powder. Keeping yourself afloat over top will be the snow is far move advantageous in keeping you moving than scale drag. Also huge scale areas climb like goats, particularly if the scales are well designed. The scales on Voile aren't anything special. Traditional design. Everyone I talk to that owns them says it works.

That's just my second hand knowledge and learnings from the tech. There are a million reviews out there. There is a guy at Tele East who is skiing them (in certain condition) with Svartisens.

I've heard them called big mountain skis, I've heard them called trail skis, I've heard them called AT skis, I've heard them called XCD skis. They are a lot of different things to different people.

[Woodserson]

To be clear, this isn't a XCD or NotXCD question. XCD isn't in my thinking, this is more a telemark question about a tele ski for long distance touring.

[MikeK]

Didn't mean to come off that way. Meant to say it seems to be a versatile ski. Still stand by the deep pow thing.

[Woodserson]

I can get deep pow but then have a three mile road with a slight angle to ski back down... i think the ski up could be accomplished with a skin system, and then I'd glide all the way back down instead of K&G my way back down. Just what's in my mind...

[MikeK]

Ahhh...

Well I think the scale comes into play into two situations, when you have a long tour with ups and downs (people call this XCD I guess) or if you just want to hit low angle stuff where you don't need skins. It's the same as with any XCD ski.

In general they should be faster than skins for those two things. Especially for the low angle stuff, low vert stuff where you don't have to switch back and forth.

If you are just climbing and descending only, and it's not quick laps, it's probably better to use a skin.

[connyro]

I use the Vector BCs for touring in deep unsettled cold snow in very rugged terrain (not necessarily mountainous) where the ups and downs are steep. Long flat tours that do not include any steepness up or down are NOT where the Vectors shine. The scales, IMO, are second to none for climbing but still not nearly as good as skins. They glide about as good as the Guides, maybe a little less when K+Ging. They are a little slower on the downs than a smooth base ski but not so much that it's a real distraction.

I just toured on my Vector BCs yesterday in around 40 inches of snow with a base somewhere down there...poles sank to oblivion. I ended up going 6-8 miles total, looking for a hill I had waypointed on my GPS, so the entire tour was bushwhacking/trailbreaking. Very little of the tour was flat and I doubt a skinner ski would have gotten much better glide due to the depth of the unsettled snow. I ended up using skins for the big climb to the top of the hill I was looking for, but otherwise, the scales worked just fine. This ski is not intended for pure XC-type adventures. It's intended more towards turning and rugged, steep terrain.

[bgregoire]

To be clear, this isn't a XCD or NotXCD question. XCD isn't in my thinking, this is more a telemark question about a tele ski for long distance touring.

FIrst off: I don't own them. Now about long distance/telemark...say your an alpine freak and you had to ski 12km of flats (mines madeleines in the chic chocs for instance) to get to some dope mountain for a day or 3 of up and downs. Now then, I can understand the usefulness of a long distance touring telemark ski. Other than that, I met a guy using them for pure touring in the Mont Groulx. He loved them. You can get 2 feet of snow overnight there. I ploughed through that place with 68mm underfoot skis and some of the group had E99s/E109s. It was no fun until we hit true alpine (scandinavian style tundra snowfields).

[lowangle al]

I have the vector and the bc vector and the bc aren't that much slower than the kick wax ski. I never would have thought I would use the BCs for anything but spring corn but they work so well in all conditions it's been my go to ski.

I skied the same trails yesterday and today and the vectors w xtra bluue wax were faster than my xcd gts with xtra blue. Both skis were preped the same. There was 2 inches of fresh snow that slowed the xcds down today.They were groomed xc trails and when you get the vectors on edge with the plastic boots the ski width doesn't matter because the bases aren't in contact with the snow. Deep snow is different but then the rocker tip helps out. These skis are very efficient tourers.

As far as a long distance touring, the ski is light enough and the glide good enough that I think your boot choice would have a greater influence on how far you want to go. 15 miles is about when my feet start to hurt but thats not the skis fault.

[lowangle al]

It's a great ski for steep terrain but I think you can use them anytime the snow isn't good, especially if your doing low angle trees.