Telemark Talk / Telemark Tips Forum

What woud you recommend for a full length climbing skin (pre x-skin) for a 180cm ski thats low to high 60s tip, 52 to 57 waist, high 50s or low 60s tail? Am contemplating an old pair of Asnes Sondre Nordheims for this purpose/rock skis (I don't know exact dimensions of the ski but from research, within above parameters). Skins used for climbing up midwestern resort early/end of season when snow depth is minimal or questionable. Going up the easiest runs I imagine, unless they worked well on steeper sections but not totally necessary. Nylon will be more durable yes? And grippier?

Neptune carries colltex in mohair and nylon. (58 which will be too wide, 45 in both materials, 30 in mohair which probably isn't enough and 35 in nylon which I don't know about). Will the clips included on these skins work on such a ski? Can they be easily adjusted down from 200cm to a 180 ski? What if I wanted to use them on a Nansen 190 once theres more snow? Thanks.

How about these? Half length skins are a lot nicer to put on.
https://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/e ... icker-50mm

I have 38 mm Colltex mixes. Technically they would work well for the climbing, and also mixes are super durable. How big altitude drops do your hills / mountains have?

For climbing deep snow long skins are nicer because there it is difficult to know, where your ground contact points are under snow.

Thanks, I am somewhat new to skins and have only used x-skins in mohair. 45mm mohair x skin cut to my heel didn't offer the greatest grip for uphill, 35 definitely not enough. How do these BD attach to the ski?

Small hills, about 6 to 700 ft (200 to 230m) climbing up, removing skins, skiing down. Some smaller hills as well.

Ok since I won't be using them deep snow, primarily early and late season, the half skins sound preferable--lighter, cheaper, easier.

Skinny skis have less surface area so you need to upgrade from kicker skins to full lengths earlier than wider skis. If you are in the United States, I bought these full lengths for my Nansens: https://skimo.co/contour-cross-country-skins Based on my research last season, these appeared to be the only skinny full lengths available online in the United States.

The way the tips of the skins attach is by folding them over the tip bracket and back onto themselves. You can technically just fold them over and make them as short as you want, but have 20mm of skin not attached to the ski wouldn't be great. 10mm, maybe that would work.

Any idea who makes those? Are they similar to any other brands that are well known?

Skimo.com has narrow ski skins, lots of options both skins and attachments.

fisheater wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:42 pm

Skimo.com has narrow ski skins, lots of options both skins and attachments.

Skimo also has all the parts to make your own. I made a half-dozen sets last year and had never done it before. Buy the skin material, tips, and put them together. And cheaper than buying them pre-made. i used both Colltex and Pomoca material last year. Can't tell a difference in performance. I wound up using mostly Colltex parts.

https://skimo.co/skin-parts

JohnSKepler wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 08, 2023 9:51 pm

fisheater wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:42 pm

Skimo.com has narrow ski skins, lots of options both skins and attachments.

Skimo also has all the parts to make your own. I made a half-dozen sets last year and had never done it before. Buy the skin material, tips, and put them together. And cheaper than buying them pre-made. i used both Colltex and Pomoca material last year. Can't tell a difference in performance. I wound up using mostly Colltex parts.

https://skimo.co/skin-parts

I’ve done this also.
It does take a bit of digging to figure out all the right parts.
I tend to think you don’t need a tail clip.
That way, you can make them up for your shortest ski and use them on your longest ski, as long as the width works.
I wasn’t looking for max climb, so went with straight skins to fit my narrowest skis and then used them on several other pairs.

Not absolutely perfect, but usually good enough to get the job done.
For example, I have used these on Voile Objectives, which are 22mm wider than these Ingstads.
What I did on these was buy 120mm skin material and slit it in half.
I think that was cheaper than buying twice as much 60mm material, but that was a while ago, so not sure. For another tip attachment option, see:
https://www.telemarktalk.com/viewtopic. ... ins#p38699

mca80 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 08, 2023 11:15 am

Thanks, I am somewhat new to skins and have only used x-skins in mohair. 45mm mohair x skin cut to my heel didn't offer the greatest grip for uphill, 35 definitely not enough. How do these BD attach to the ski?

Small hills, about 6 to 700 ft (200 to 230m) climbing up, removing skins, skiing down. Some smaller hills as well.

Ok since I won't be using them deep snow, primarily early and late season, the half skins sound preferable--lighter, cheaper, easier.

I am somewhat new to everything, too

Where I ski, most stuff is 200 m altitude drops or less. Also, I have climbed mainly greens because I have been on Gammes. Maybe tinkering with long skins gives you nice breaks at transitions. But for 50-100 m altitude drops I would find long skins annoying.

I have not had the BD half skins, but they should have a strap that you wrap around your ski in front of your binding. Like the ones on the following video.



When I skied vintage Karhu XCD GT's (62-54-59), I used Madshus Intelligrip half skins. They had a XC oriented tip attachment. However, due to durability issues I cannot recommend that product.

The BD attachment is not that nice for XC, I think bgregoire had used them on expeditions, but the BD's should be OK for climbing greens at least. Yet you might need to use some upper body muscles, like when skiing XC uphill.

Based on my limited experience with Colltex skins, mohair mix skins are more like nylon, quite a lot stickier than mohairs. BD recommends their half skins for flats, but I guess that recommendation is given from an alpine perspective.

There are BD Ascension military surplus 60mm x 200cm nylon available for 30 bucks. Are these any good?