Climbing Skins Direct
- Woodserson
- Posts: 2995
- Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2015 10:25 am
- Location: New Hampshire
- Ski style: Bumps, trees, steeps and long woodsy XC tours
- Occupation: Confused Turn Farmer
Climbing Skins Direct
So I needed some skins for my Vectors and I decided to give these guys a try. They are certainly affordable, they have a generic BCA-type clip for the skis, and you can choose if you want tip only, or tip and tail. I went with tip and tail attachments, 100mm. They come quickly (free ship), no extras, which I appreciate because I have about 835 stuff sacks around the house as it is and I'm not paying for another stuff sack baked into the price.
The cutting tool is kind of cheap, and good for this one time. You get stickers, always fun.
The glue is unreal. It is the stickiest glue I have ever seen on skins, and I have owned a lot of skins. Phenomenal glue. I got the skins stuck together while cutting (OF COURSE) and it ended up being a giant gorilla vs python wrestling fest. I almost died in a tangle of skins. True story. I survived to ski another day.
I've only used them once on a 2.25 mile skin up a jeep road in very loose packed powder conditions and they worked very well. They are way grippy, which is good, but so grippy there is less forward glide-- but lately I've been using kicker skins and skinny skins on Outtabounds, I may be unreliable-- but, some skins glide better than others, these grip great and glide so-so, I thought (YMMV). I have not used them in wet snow so I don't know how sodden they get but I can't imagine it's anymore than the other synthetic skins.
Cool graphics.
End: Work good, last long time, cheap.
http://climbingskinsdirect.com/
The cutting tool is kind of cheap, and good for this one time. You get stickers, always fun.
The glue is unreal. It is the stickiest glue I have ever seen on skins, and I have owned a lot of skins. Phenomenal glue. I got the skins stuck together while cutting (OF COURSE) and it ended up being a giant gorilla vs python wrestling fest. I almost died in a tangle of skins. True story. I survived to ski another day.
I've only used them once on a 2.25 mile skin up a jeep road in very loose packed powder conditions and they worked very well. They are way grippy, which is good, but so grippy there is less forward glide-- but lately I've been using kicker skins and skinny skins on Outtabounds, I may be unreliable-- but, some skins glide better than others, these grip great and glide so-so, I thought (YMMV). I have not used them in wet snow so I don't know how sodden they get but I can't imagine it's anymore than the other synthetic skins.
Cool graphics.
End: Work good, last long time, cheap.
http://climbingskinsdirect.com/
- fisheater
- Posts: 2617
- Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2016 8:06 pm
- Location: Oakland County, MI
- Ski style: All my own, and age doesn't help
- Favorite Skis: Gamme 54, Falketind 62, I hope to add a third soon
- Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska, Alico Ski March
- Occupation: Construction Manager
Re: Climbing Skins Direct
Did you get the Nordic Knit or the Chipmunk skins? I am confident the chipmunk skins would have better glide I wish I had terrain that required skins, maybe some kickers, but I don't need full skins.