Åsnes NOSI 76 Ski Review

[lilcliffy]

@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.

[lilcliffy]

@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!

[stenu]

@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.

[stenu]

@lilcliffy you are welcome and thank you.

[lilcliffy]

BTW-
I now have the current Nosi 76 "Xplore" ski- it matches @CwmRaider 's description and photos- not the descriptions of the outgoing Nosi 76 in this review thread. The Nosi 76X has the same camber-rocker geometry as the curent FTX and Rabb 68, though it has a more tapered shovel. I won't post more on it here as it is clearly a completely different ski than the outgoing Nosi 76.

[stenu]

Congrats on your new skis!

I am curious where you ended up mounting the bindings?

Greetings from Abisko-Riksgränsen area Lots of snow here but mostly all possible kinds of hard surfaces from icy concrete to breakable crust at the moment. Anyway we have managed to find some soft snow too and there should be coming more on Wed and Thu

I have been mostly on the 180 cm Nosi and my wife has been skiing with the 172 cm Nosi instead of her Falketinds. For now our AT gear has stayed in the car. Nosi has been basically the only ski I have been using this winter.

Anyway, especially when descending in difficult snow I have started to re-think if I should still try more forward position for the bindings on the longer Nosi.

One note from here: on hard snow tip attached Pomoca Race Pro skins (62 mm x 140 cm) glide better than Åsnes X-skins (58 m).

[lilcliffy]

@stenu
Again- beautiful photos!!!

We still have lots of base here in the hills and late winter-early spring has been cool and very wet (lots of snow, rain and ice)- below freezing at night, above in the afternoon. Been on the Fischer 98 and 88 mostly.

Nosi 76X mounted at balance point- haven't even used them yet- may have to wait until next winter!

[stenu]

Thanks @lilcliffy.

I asked Åsnes about Nosi vs. Nosi Xplr. About same stiffness but Xplr has slightly more camber and a different binding plate optimized for Xplor they kindly answered.

I would be interested in the thickness of 180 cm Nosi Xplr at the point where the ski is thickiest. @lilcliffy if you have a thrust cauge, could you measure that? It would be interesting to compare it to the older ones.

How about 180 cm Nosi Xplr vs 180 cm Rabb stiffness?

The perfect ”all conditions quiver killer xcD ski” - in my opinion and to be used with leathers and Rotte ST cable - would be a 180 cm old Nosi with the shorter turn radius and softness of 172 cm Nosi.

With the older Nosi I don’t see much use with X-skins because the plastic attachment causes more drag than longer tip attached skins do. Basicallly that broadens the ski options a lot because if I will use only Pomoca skins I don’t need a ski with X-skin attachments. I could propably use any narrow light touring ski with Rotte ST bindings. But they might be even stiffer than the 180 cm Nosi.

It was a perfect day yesterday. We skied from Låktatjokka train station to the top of Loktačohkka mountain and back. 20 km and 1150 vertical meters. There was T-shirt weather from 800 to 1200 meters. Still bad snow everywhere though. Mostly windblown concrete and hard but breakable crust. Not that many cool telemark turns, more survival skiing with parallel turns. Anyway we made our way down from 1400 meters. We stayed mostly under 25 degree slopes but there are some slightly steeper sections. Today it has been raining. We did only a short climb with some slushy turns down. Hoping to get some new snow during the night.

[stenu]

To continue..

We had a snow strom with 20 m/sec wind and +20 cm new snow yesterday. E10 road was closed to both directions for a day. We were stuck at our accommodation at Katterjokk. We made a shortish skiing day only on the lower slopes from here but finally on softer snow and even with some visibility for a short time at the afternoon.

I have been exclusively skiing with the longer Nosi this week. My wife has used the shorter Nosi. Anyway yesterday we changed the skis for one lap, While the shorter one is a lot easier to ski when the snow is breakable crud or heavy/wet soft snow, yesterday when the snow was windpacked pow, it felt a bit too flexy with my weight.

Basically I may need both lengths for my use and I need to get one pair more skis for my wife. There are really good offers at Sport Albert both for Nosi Xplr and Rabb. The older Nosi seems not to be available anymore. My wife is as tall as I am but 10 kg lighter. With the added camber of the Nosi Xplr I believe 180 cm Nosi is too chargy so the question is Rabb in 180 cm or Nosi Xplr in 172 cm for her? I have never skied Rabb.

I also tried to check if there would be a comparable AT ski but actually the there aren’t many if the specs are <80ish mm wide, decent rocker on both ends, <20 m radius in about 180 cm length and a cut-out for Pomoca skins on the tip.

I would be very interested in testing Voile Endeavour (without scales) but they are not available in EU.

One more note: when I was opening the skin track yesterday the back end of the ski dived deeper that front. I believe that they would have a better balance in deep snow too if I would move the binding still a couple of cm more forward.

My wife and 172 cm Nosi from yesterday:

[lilcliffy]

I asked Åsnes about Nosi vs. Nosi Xplr. About same stiffness but Xplr has slightly more camber and a different binding plate optimized for Xplor they kindly answered.

From your photos and descriptions- the Nosi X has significantly less rocker in the shovel than the outgoing Nosi.

I would be interested in the thickness of 180 cm Nosi Xplr at the point where the ski is thickiest. @lilcliffy if you have a thrust cauge, could you measure that? It would be interesting to compare it to the older ones.

I will measure it and get back to you.

How about 180 cm Nosi Xplr vs 180 cm Rabb stiffness?

Stiffness and flex profile feels very similar between Nosi X and Rabb- if the Nosi is stiffer it is likely just because it is wider (the FTX vs Rabb is similar in this respect).

The perfect ”all conditions quiver killer xcD ski” - in my opinion and to be used with leathers and Rotte ST cable - would be a 180 cm old Nosi with the shorter turn radius and softness of 172 cm Nosi.

I would have very much prefered to have tested the 172 vs 180 Nosi X before I chose the 180.

With the older Nosi I don’t see much use with X-skins because the plastic attachment causes more drag than longer tip attached skins do. Basicallly that broadens the ski options a lot because if I will use only Pomoca skins I don’t need a ski with X-skin attachments.

I agree with you here- mostly- the kicker skin is most effective with a ski with siginficant camber underfoot- to fully release the skin from the snow when striding forwards-
I have though found some effective use for the X-skin with the Rabb in warm, wet, soft snow (ie challenging to wax for)-
regardless, if I was going to have just one skin for these downhill-focused skis- it would be the racing-climbing skin.