The narrowest class of XCD Skis

[Cannatonic]

nice! gotta love the unboxing pictures. Nice graphics on those, Asnes does a great job. Do you know how much the shipping cost to AK?

I'd love to have a pair of those, they weigh 25% less than the E99-type skis I use most. that's a huge difference. Asnes makes durable skis too. IMO the big problem with the BD kickers is the "scoop" effect that happens when snow goes under the tab. They glide OK until the scooping starts. hopefully the prongs keep the Asnes tab flat to the ski and eliminate the problem.

[anrothar]

Shipping was $45. Cheaper than Coleman's ski shipping to AK. Orders from Europe are often more reasonable for shipping to AK than orders from the lower 48, since Anchorage is a major air freight hub and a lot of European orders go over the Arctic Sea instead of through the lower 48.

The skis say "Light core" on them, so I'm guessing they're built differently than Asnes' other skis. I know of one person who skied most of this short season on a set, including a 300 mile snowmachine trail race over the Alaska Range, so I'm sure they're plenty durable.

[anrothar]

I included the unboxing photos so that people would know what they were in for when ordering from SportAlbert, since the temptation to do so has come up here before. There was no risk of the skis exiting the box on their own, since they were taped together, then taped to the bubble wrap around them, then the bubble wrapped skis were taped to one side of the inside of the box.

[athabascae]

Yeah. I really want these skis. If I didn't find a pair of old Bonna Conquest (a reunion with my first love ) I would have also purchased these from SportAlbert. Next season for sure....

Looks like you got the 35 mm skins, not the 45 mm. That would be my choice for those skis.

In my limited experience with the Asnes integrated skin on my Ingstads there is no issue with snow building up under the metal flange on the skin.

Thanks for photos and impressions - very helpful.

Tom

[anrothar]

Got out for the first time on the MR48's this morning for a few hours of valley crust skiing. Not ideal conditions for a ski review, but it was a blast. I could definitely feel the decreased weight from the Pellestovas, and even though it was mostly skidding stem turns, on the few that I was able to carve they seemed to turn better than the Pellestovas. Likely due to the 3/4 edge making the tip flex more softly. I didn't bother waxing them for grip or glide. Grip wax would have been gone in twenty minutes on abrasive crust, and I was planning on skating anyway. They skate great, and I like that having less metal edge at the tail will make for less cuts on the top sheet from skating and step turning.

I know skins are always slow the first few kms, but the 35mm Asnes nylon skins had zero glide and a ton of grip when I found myself too far down the valley on the wrong side of the creek. I'll have to invest in some mohair ones to see if they glide any faster. If there's any condition that kicker skins will struggle to glide on it's probably abrasive, dry crust, so I'm not holding it against them just yet.

[MikeK]

Been meaning to reply to this but I was waiting to see if anyone else would chime in first.

Sounds like those skis are great for fast and light XCD.

The thing I was actually interested to hear about was the skins. I think I definitely made the wrong choice with the nylon, most likely I'll want a set of those mohair skinnies. I was concerned about durability, but I can't stand shuffling/ski walking.

[Cannatonic]

Mohair's going to glide better. I think if you want more glide you have to start cutting the skins shorter. Or break out the dreaded klister!

[athabascae]

What about cutting the 35 mm skins down to 17-20 mm?

[anrothar]

I think the width is good. Just that the skins need to be broken in and flattened out a bit, and maybe cut shorter as recommended above. Not going to cut them till I've had enough time on them to consider them broken in though. As they are new, they have the grip of BD kickers, which are a nylon/mohair mix, but less glide than them, at least on abrasive crust. The lack of glide is all coming from the fur, not the metal clip, which is why I think they'll speed up with break in.

[Bohemian]

Does anyone have length recommendations for the Aasnes Vikafjell ?