Asnes Waxless Skis?

[Johnny]

I have always thought it would be great to see some Asnes skis in waxless versions. I briefly mentioned it to the very nice guys at Asnes in my last communication and I got this reply:

"We make the Amundsen as waxless for the Swedish market. We have tried to sell it to US with no success."

Wow, this is pretty cool. I'm curious to see what kind of pattern they used. Hey, but that also means that we have to blame ourselves for not buying this when it came out... But I never heard of that... Well, since Neptune is the only distributor in the US, maybe they are the ones to blame? Which makes we wonder, would you be interested in seeing new Asnes skis with fish scales? What model?

I feel like they could sell a lot of these... Well, ok, a few... To us freaks...

[MikeK]

Asnes could sell these skis, but they need more than one distributor, and they need some advertising.

If I owned a sports equipment shop, I would love to carry their skis, and I'm sure I could sell them.

As for waxless versions, anything from the Gamme on up would be ideal.

Something like the Falketind would set them apart a bit, but I'm not sure how popular it might be in the states. I'd really like to see what Fischer and Madshus are selling in terms of volume for their models to understand the market a bit better.

Also, considering the competition, I think you really need to put some development into the waxless pattern in order to compete. Just throwing some scales on skis can be pretty disastrous if they don't work well... it will give the whole ski a bad name.

[anrothar]

I think I remember seeing a production Amundsen with a permanent short skin section somewhere. It might not be a scale pattern.

[bgregoire]

Johnny, the Asnes fishscale pattern is a VERY rudimentary negative scale pattern that appears to be shaped with blades after extrusion. I had a good look during my travels there. Nothing to rave about. From what I have understood, they mostly make them for rental outfits.

The scandi crowd mostly either goes top touring or hut-to-hut-ing in spring, rarely in between (i.e. XCD). The snow is so nice there for wax touring. When one needs more traction, its usually because they are hauling a pulk or a heavy backpack, the Asnes half skins are much better for that than scales.

Instead of convincing Asnes to etch their beautiful bases with ugly scars, we should all get with the program and learn how to properly wax slick nordic skis (XCD or not) for overALL fun.

Then perhaps Fisher and co. would have reason good reason to bring back those sweet WAXABLE XCDs (Sbounds, etc.)!

[MikeK]

I'm not a salesman but it seems like there are a couple ways to go about this...

a) make a product that your intended market wants. In the US, that predominantly seems to be waxless skis.

b) convince your market through promotion and brainwashing that your product is superior and is the coolest thing to do.

c) have the government mandate what must be sold - no one is much of a fan of this.


(a) works for the masses, because they just want something that is the easiest and cheapest. (b) works for people like us because we become obsessed with every little detail and are constantly looking for what is the next coolest thing. (c) works on the masses as well, but doesn't really make everyone happy.

[satsuma]

There is some technology involved in making wasless skis as opposed to waxable. Asnes clearly has not made a large effort to develop this technology internally. Madshus previously also emphasized waxable skis, but from writing here, appears to have made significant progress with its MGV+ pattern and then merged with Karhu, which had long emphasized waxless skis, having obtained the Omnitrak scales from Trak.

[lilcliffy]

There is some technology involved in making wasless skis as opposed to waxable. Asnes clearly has not made a large effort to develop this technology internally. Madshus previously also emphasized waxable skis, but from writing here, appears to have made significant progress with its MGV+ pattern and then merged with Karhu, which had long emphasized waxless skis, having obtained the Omnitrak scales from Trak.

Cool- didn't know that the "Omnitrack" design didn't originate from Karhu.

In my neck of the woods- serious XC skiers are all using grip wax/klister. Serious backcountry skiers tend to have a mixed quiver of waxable and waxless skis. Traditionally- waxless skis being used in the backcountry when the snow is warm and wet.

There are certainly markets- due to either skier preferences and/or climate- where waxless Nordic skis rule. If Asnes wants to expand into those markets- it will have to develop waxless tech.

Traditionally, skiers have not used kicker skins instead of a waxless base. I have no experience with doing so myself.

This winter, I plan on testing the "skin-lock" and the "easy-skin" against a waxless base.

My limited experience is that a kciker skin offers much greater grip than a waxless base.

But can an integrated kicker skin offer as good a glide as a waxless base?

If an integrated kicker skin can offer better grip- and as good a glide- as a waxless base, then maybe Asnes just needs to work on promoting and educating skiers about how to customize the use of the "skin-lock"- instead of trying to develop waxless base tech....

I am still eyeing those 35mm mohair skin-locks for my Combat Nato/Ingstad....

[Rodbelan]

Johnny, the Asnes fishscale pattern is a VERY rudimentary negative scale pattern that appears to be shaped with blades after extrusion. I had a good look during my travels there. Nothing to rave about. From what I have understood, they mostly make them for rental outfits.

The scandi crowd mostly either goes top touring or hut-to-hut-ing in spring, rarely in between (i.e. XCD). The snow is so nice there for wax touring. When one needs more traction, its usually because they are hauling a pulk or a heavy backpack, the Asnes half skins are much better for that than scales.

Instead of convincing Asnes to etch their beautiful bases with ugly scars, we should all get with the program and learn how to properly wax slick nordic skis (XCD or not) for overALL fun.

Then perhaps Fisher and co. would have reason good reason to bring back those sweet WAXABLE XCDs (Sbounds, etc.)!

I am with you on this bgreg... I love waxing skis. And using skins. It is not that I hate waxless though... I understand that for people skiing in the Sierra for example (where conditions change all the time) it makes perfect sense...

[athabascae]

Me too. I can't fathom not waxing, and I like it - its part of the ritual of going skiing for me. They go together like peanut butter and jam. For changing conditions I bring different waxes. Not so much a problem for where I live now, except in spring, but it was when I lived down south....

Tom

[MikeK]

I like PB&J, but sometimes only fluff will do the trick...