Anyway, I already wrote a bit about this setup in the "Some of you said Gammes don¨t turn" thread but advances in vision happened and changes were made and this crystallized into a whole new, bigger thing that deserves its own thread.
Something like this:
- I¨m going skiing.
- Cool! Classic? Or skating? Or downhill? Or telemark? Or ski touring? Or crossing Greenland?
- Yes.
All with the same setup.
I¨m 187cm tall/6ft2 and weigh probably around 72kg/158 pounds.
Åsnes Gamme in 190 with BC Magnum bindings
Big burly Fischer BCX Transnordic boots that feel like alpine ski boots when laced up tight.
Swix Mountain Explorer adjustable carbon poles.(most recent addition) These adjust from 130 to 165cm in length and take me all the way from bootpacking up a steep slope, to downhill skiing, to kick and glide, to classic, to skating.
With this base setup I can do it all. All ski disciplines. No more specifying, or having to think about what to bring. Just "I¨m going skiing." I¨m going to move across snow.
"Strap a couple 2x4s to your feet and slide down a mountain. How much fun is that!" Hoping someone will get the reference
For classic and kick and glide I use 30mm mohair short skins that are shortened a bit. I fit in the tracks and with good technique(better than I have now) I can use them as classic skis with an active style. The glide is pretty decent as long as I keep my weight on the heels when going downhill.
For steeper stuff I have the older version of the 45mm nylon short skins. These are 70cm long, so 5cm longer than the x-skin version.
With the poles at 165cm I can also skate the Gammes really well and this will be valuable on long, reasonably firm approaches, as skating is so much faster. Skating I¨m good at. Haven¨t done classic since I was 10 years old so that needs more practice.
The Gammes are also my resort skis now. I took this setup to Norefjell yesterday which is a resort pretty close to Oslo that has roughly 3300 feet of elevation drop. I had to find my way around and used quite a bit of time in queues and on transport paths between sections but still skied 22 runs and 16000 feet of elevation in 4 and a half hours.
This was on man made snow with quite a lot of icy bits as well so far from perfect but I never felt out of control. Did alpine turns only as I don¨t know how to telemark yet but this setup works superbly well as an alpine ski setup.
I bought this setup, which was my first foray into NNN BC in very late spring, early summer, so have less than 10 ski days on it. As mentioned I don¨t know how to telemark yet but I did manage to make some enjoyable telemark turns when I found fresh powder on one of my first ski tours with them last spring. That felt really good so when we finally get some proper snow this winter I¨m going to explore that further. In the meanwhile, alpine turns work perfectly and I have SO much control thanks to the Fischer boots.
Thoughts?
Of course this isn¨t as good as specialized gear in any of the single disciplines but I still find it absolutely astonishing that I now have one setup that can do it all. Looking forward to some pretty special trips this winter that will test all the capabilities.
