Get a Grip; Asnes Waxless Ski Test Fail

[SnickBreck]

I've posted before on not having great grip and lots of slippage (on flats and mellow ascents) on my Fischer T78 169s and my thoughts of buying the Asnes Cecile WL (170). Just looking for a WL ski for warmer temp days. I prefer my wax skis the majority of the time. Well I bought the Asnes WL skis and they were even worse than the T78s with hardly any grip at all! Thankfully I bought them from REI and returned them. Whew! Any recommendations on a good WL ski with decent grip and glide? My weight varies from 108-115. Some lightweight friends are fond of the Rossi BC80s and I'll be borrowing a pair to try soon but though I'd ask for other thoughts as well. Thanks

[riel]

I've posted before on not having great grip and lots of slippage (on flats and mellow ascents) on my Fischer T78 169s and my thoughts of buying the Asnes Cecile WL (170). Just looking for a WL ski for warmer temp days. I prefer my wax skis the majority of the time. Well I bought the Asnes WL skis and they were even worse than the T78s with hardly any grip at all! Thankfully I bought them from REI and returned them. Whew! Any recommendations on a good WL ski with decent grip and glide? My weight varies from 108-115. Some lightweight friends are fond of the Rossi BC80s and I'll be borrowing a pair to try soon but though I'd ask for other thoughts as well. Thanks

With your low body weight, any ski with a stiff camber underfoot is liable to just lift the fishscales off the snow. When the fishscales aren't touching the snow, it doesn't matter how good they are. Both Offtrack Crown and the Asnes pattern are pretty good, but only while they're touching the snow!

I think with your weight you need some sort of beginner flex ski that always has the fishscales touching the snow in order to get good enough grip. Maybe something like the Fischer Outback 68, which is terrible for heavy people (always drag), but might do the trick for you

Another alternative might be to just use mohair kicker skins, trimmed to stop an inch or two before your heel, on warmer days.

[SnickBreck]

Thanks, I agree as that's what I was doing before w/the T78s w/kicker skins which was pretty good albeit a little slowish downhill. If I don't find anything else I'll just remount the binding on the T78s and keep using them w/the skins which does work instead of buying a new ski with the same issue. I'll check out the O68s and see if I can find a pair to try out.

[SnickBreck]

Thanks, I agree as that's what I was doing before w/the T78s w/kicker skins which was pretty good albeit a little slowish downhill. If I don't find anything else I'll just remount the binding on the T78s and keep using them w/the skins which does work instead of buying a new ski with the same issue. I'll check out the O68s and see if I can find a pair to try out.

[Tom M]

Try adding a little grip wax just before and after the grip pattern. It might take a little bit of experimentation. If that doesn't do the trick, extend the grip wax just into the traction pattern. I'm sure you would rather just use the traction pattern, but that may not be possible given your weight.

[Ira]

I wanted to share that I found the S-bound 98 in 159 to have very good grip, but, at my 130 lb weight (or 140 with breakfast and boots), not enough glide. However, when I tried them again on icy days (we've had a week of dry temps below freezing at night and above during the day), they do have decent glide on the downhills, and good grip on the uphills (but I only do very low slopes). Due to my weight crushing the camber, I'm not happy with the glide of the too-short 98's on most days, but I'm still considering getting them in my actual weight range if I can find them, and if the Asnes Ingstad (not yet mounted) doesn't work.

I think I would love the S-bound 98's in 159 if I was just 10 or 20 pounds lighter!

I noticed that whenever the 98's appear on REI (which has happened about four times in the last couple months, always for a brief time), they're always a 159, which is in your weight range (but not mine).

I think I read that those have less camber than the 88's and 78's, so wondering perhaps if getting them short would address the grip issue you might be having? The scales are awesome! But because I'm heavy (for 159) the scales push into the snow at all times.

I used Rossi BC-90 for 5 years, and found they never had the grip that the Fischer S-bound 98 has (though, I admit, some of the great-grip could be due to the ski being too short for my weight, but I also think it's the quality of the scales).

[Cannatonic]

It's not you, it's the skis, the Asnes waxless pattern is too short to provide grip in anything but bone-dry cold powder IME

[fgd135]

The trick is too always carry more weight in your pack and on your person than you can possibly ever need, just like a ski patroller...alternatively like my good Russian skiing friends, a couple of extra quarts of Vodka will add wt to your pack and help the fishscale pattern grab.
I've always liked Fischer 99's waxless pattern, several different versions of that ski have always worked well for me.

[SnickBreck]

Thanks for the additional feedback. I have the Sbound 98s in 169 and I have plenty of grip on them; they are just heavy and I reserve them for deeper snow. They were the first XC skis waxless skis I bought. The Asnes Cecile 170 should have worked. I am leaning towards thinking the Asnes scale pattern is just not as grippy as Fischers. I might try the Fischer O68s which would be lighter than the Rossi80 (they don't sell the 90s anymore). If I don't find anything better I'll just keep using the T78 169s w/EZSkins. They glide pretty well w/a little black diamond skin wax applied.

Anyone here just use wax skis once temps get above 32F?

[jyw5]

Thanks for the additional feedback. I have the Sbound 98s in 169 and I have plenty of grip on them; they are just heavy and I reserve them for deeper snow. They were the first XC skis waxless skis I bought. The Asnes Cecile 170 should have worked. I am leaning towards thinking the Asnes scale pattern is just not as grippy as Fischers. I might try the Fischer O68s which would be lighter than the Rossi80 (they don't sell the 90s anymore). If I don't find anything better I'll just keep using the T78 169s w/EZSkins. They glide pretty well w/a little black diamond skin wax applied.

Anyone here just use wax skis once temps get above 32F?

I tried that last season in the late spring on my Asnes Skog 185cm... 30mm and 45mm nylon Xskins (wasnt bad on refrozen/wet late season warm snow). I would polar wax the entire ski tip to tail x2. I also hot waxed the nylon skins as they still got saturated with water.


it would heat up from 32F to 40F+ ... skiing the corn ---> mash was great.

on steeper slopes, I kept the skins on going downhill. come to think of it, I mostly kept the skins on the whole day. Fast descents with parallel turns.

This was more fun than my S112 with scales (which I also put mixed skins on and leave on the whole day)

P.S. I dont believe in klister.... life's too short for a globby mess. skins so much easier even if they are slower and less efficient.