Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

CwmRaider wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 08, 2025 10:43 am

@lilcliffy the shop mounted them so embarrassingly I cannot be sure. Usually here it is pin line on balance point.

Thank you!
The response from Asnes was firmly- balance point.

I am certainly very happy with the Rabb and the Falketind at balance point.

I am almost positive that my Rabb 68 had a boot center mark on them...Can't remember.

@stenu
Thank you for the update!
Beautiful photos!
While I am very fortnuate to have the snow and terrain to tour locally-

It would be nice to have completely open terrain to tour on sometimes!

@tkarhu yes Svartisen 75 mm + Rotte ST cable it was. It is a balanced combination with Nosi. Stiff enough but not overgeared.

The difference to AT skis/gear is big. Our AT skis are on the bigger side (Extrem Fusion Carbon 106). You can (and also need to) ski with a lot of higher speeds with those. To keep downhill skiing interesting >25 degree slopes are needed in good snow conditions so it is quite difficult to keep skiing both interesting and avalanche safe with those. Therefore we are very much converted to lighter gear when the snow is good and the gradients more typical to Lappland. In bad snow where xcD skiing is more like surviving, AT is more fun also on lower angles.

Now when we had good luck with the snow in Pallas, we skied only with xcd skis and basically all the same faces we used to ski with AT gear earlier. Anyway we were the only ones on xcd gear there, all other downhillers where either with AT or split boards. One attraction of xcd is that the downhills feel much longer with them. Skiing upphill is ofcourse less exhausting with them too. We used mostly 60 mm wide and 140 mm long Pomoca Race skins in Pallas. X-skins would have required more zig-zagging upphill. But compared to the full width and full length AT skins Pomoca Races glide a lot better and are lighter too.

The transitions are slower and more complicated with AT gear. Therefore I feel they are more suitable for a terrain where you can climb half day, then transit and ski down half an hour. With Nosi you just need to peel the skins off (with Pomocas you do that with skis on) and to attach the heel throw. Svartisens were so comfortable and upphill skiable even with the buckles tightened that we did not touch the boots for those climbs of 200-300 vertical meters.

It would be fun to meet at some point. With some friends of mine, we had a plan to arrange a xcd meet in ”Janakkala Alps” (Janakkala’s Ridge) but it did not happen this winter due to the bad winter.

@lilcliffy you are welcome and thank you.