Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

Seems like I always gravitate to 80's peak technology, whether its bikes, boats, tools , camping gear, and apparently XC skis.

Casting around the last couple of weeks since I got the bug again, I've acquired a number of skis that might have potential: a set of 215 Fischer wax-able Europa 99's, 215 Fischer wax-less Country Crown's, 215 Trak Tremblant Nowax, which are Classic XC skis and probably aren't stiff enough, and my buddy has a set of USGI skis for me.

I've searched this forum a bit and some of these skies get honorable mentions as what people used to ski before they knew better.

I'm wondering if there are any web resources that focus on the multitude of older skies one might find at garage sales and how to identify the good ones? Are any of the old ski catalogs on line?

I'm also starting to figure out this waxing business, so when I read about having to protect the base of a ski from drying out over the summer, I'm not sure where to start with "new" 40 year old skies that may have never been waxed. If I'm really lucky I might get one weekend of skiing/flailing in this year, but I want to have all my gear ready for next year and might as well focus on skis before I start building a bike for spring....

Thanks, that's a good one that I lost track of.

I found this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=rkVOr ... de&f=false

and this:
https://books.google.com/books?id=7t8DA ... ss&f=false

Scroll down for ski specifications.

bark-eater wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:29 pm

Seems like I always gravitate to 80's peak technology, whether its bikes, boats, tools , camping gear, and apparently XC skis.

Curious if you ride any Bridgestone bikes.

I've got about 6 pairs of vintage skis in my quiver. All I bought used. All are waxless save for the wood Birkebeiners. Some I've had for 20 years and a pair I got at a garage sale this year for $20. Wax'em and Run'em is what I do. Part of the fun for me is discovering how they ski or not and adjusting my technique to best ski them.

mca80 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 28, 2022 9:38 pm

bark-eater wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 28, 2022 6:29 pm

Seems like I always gravitate to 80's peak technology, whether its bikes, boats, tools , camping gear, and apparently XC skis.

Curious if you ride any Bridgestone bikes.

Couple few....

"Spring" bike is actually a Bridgestone 450 converted to 650b.

The '80's had the best porn. Other than that, I really prefer modern gear.

I bought my first Mountain bike around 1985. a Cyclepro. it was heavy as hell, and the stem was welded to the bars in 1 piece. there were not a lot of choices back then. I lusted after a Specialized Rockhopper or better yet a Stumpjumper but man were they $$$. the best part was riding the ski resorts and having tourist who took the chairlift up ask "how did you get up here". back then riding resorts was so underground it basically didn't exist, which was awesome. I never had to buy a day pass.

You're on the right track by perusing older magazines. Backpacker, Ski, Cross Country Skier, Powder, and so on are probably the best sources for manufacturer's published info and user reviews, just like the interwebs are for modern ski info.

Winters coming and a set of Rossignol Randonnee's popped up on my radar. I see they made "DAVE'S NORDIC BACKCOUNTRY SKIING PAGE" as "Traditional Touring Ski's". Anyone here remember these? I ended up with a bunch of edged skis to play with but I don't have any wax-less yet. Are they worth picking up?