The Norpine Thread

[Chisana]

Not sure what norpine is, but maybe me erbacher telemarks with rottefella 3 pin cable fit the bill. Also my black diamond toute neige with rainey superloops). Used to use these with voile snakeskin climbing skins and those purple triangular posts which were strapped behind the boot,and put under the heel while climbing. Forgot who made them, possibly black diamond. Still have them,probably as obsolete as the oil can spouts I stiil have for some reason.

[Johnny]

Until now I wasn't even sure what "norpine" was....so it's the old-school tele skis - skinny and flat camber.

You can norpine on whatever you like with leathers... But hey, double camber XC skis are not fun at all on hard pack. And modern alpine skis are way too heavy for this graceful sport...!

Anyways, a man can only pay respect to so many skis (by taking them out regularly). Cecilie has been going on and on about this lately.

When I was living in the mountains, I had 100 pairs of skis and I was skiing every one of them. A nice mark to reach for a ski freak, but it also required too much maintenance... I'm down to about 60-70 pairs now...

I love the ski collection, but if you don't have the right coat to wear with them then I am very, very disappointed.

Cooooooool...! Trust me, I got what it takes to vestimentarily display the content of my silly mind on the slopes... I can follow any wacky dress code, but SKI NAKED is my favorite one. I just need an invitation to the TTalk Fest...

Chouinard era BD skis were actually really nice. Pretty much every single tele ski model was cool back then... Remember you need good length with skinnies to be stable... Have fuuuuun...!

[lowangle al]

I recently remounted my wifes karhu supremes after almost 30 years. There're like new.

[Rodbelan]

These are the ones I was talking of: 3 pairs...
2 new, 1 barely used...

Norpine, you bet...

[1EyedJack]

I had some Dorados when they first came out - great Norpine skis. I skied them Norpine with my well broken-in Asolo Snowpines. When I was on steeper ground and not deep in powder, I forsake the Norpine by switching to my Crispi T3s.

Same boots, but gave the Dorados to a ski buddy and went to the Fischer S-Bound 98s. Still with the Voille cable 3pins.
I used to use the cables a lot at first, but ditched them for that free heel feel.


I'm not hungup on titles, so I don't feel like a traitor to the Norpine club.

[lilcliffy]

Beautiful skis everyone!
Rod- as an aside- did you mention somewhere getting some mint Karhu skis from Francois?! I am after a 68mm waist 10th Mtn Tour in a 200+cm waxable base...

My current Norpine ski is my Eon Wax- mounted with NNN-BC Manual. I have tried a number of other wider "xcd" skis that have really sucked on piste- both because of width and lack of torsional stability...The Eon is better than my E-109 Xtralite on-piste. I am thinking that my Ingstad BC will be even better than the Eon...My 210cm E-99 Xtralite is too cambered and stiff to make telemark turn on-piste, though I can make remarkable Apline turns on them...

I am planning on taking the Falketind 62 to the "resort"...

[Rodbelan]

Beautiful skis everyone!
Rod- as an aside- did you mention somewhere getting some mint Karhu skis from Francois?! I am after a 68mm waist 10th Mtn Tour in a 200+cm waxable base...

There was not much left... Another pair of used 10th Mtn Tour waxless and a pair of Guide (not in 200cm though). And more telemark skis that I wasn't interested in... The guys not coming back to town in the coming months...

[fisheater]

Time for me to get a little more selective with my norpining. I don't switch up my skis a lot, and it has been fun skiing with FT 62 and ankle high leather boots. It is a great set up for decent snow, and the feel in the leather boot has helped my left foot as my left knee is a bit tentative in engaging the edge. Conditions have been been less than ideal on my recent ski vacation with my son. We had crud over a hard base, that went into rain. Next morning was 20 F so the rained on snow, groomed the previous night was concrete. I still skied it, even skied the gates of a high school race camp. I made every gate, sliding all the way, rear foot riding on the top of the trough. Today it was 6" of tilled granular on top of glacier. Skis got pushed around, so I decide on big honking GS turns. I was skiing fast and the snow was grabby. I guess the inevitable happened hard charging on light touring skis, and I caught an edge in transition, right as I was reaching for my pole touch, right when all my weight is going into the next turn, right when my uphill ski edge is released. My downhill ski catches an edge an bam! I still remember thinking before I hit the ground that in these conditions it was inevitable that I would catch an edge in these light skis. What I didn't think is it would hurt. I don't get hurt falling. Well usually I don't get hurt. I am hurt though. My arm was extended when I hit. My deltoid is unhappy from where it attaches at my shoulder to where it attaches to my lower ribs.
I skied 5 or 6 more easy runs, but nothing loosened up, it just hurt worse. I could not use my pole on my left side to move on the flats at all. I had good grip with blue wax earlier. It didn't last long in the tilled granular.
I am ordering some screws from Tognar and put the new springs in the Hammerheads. When it's "alpine" conditions I am going to start skiing a more alpine ski. I don't bounce as good as I used to.
The biggest disappointment is that I had planned on ending the day taking the Gamme and Alaska for a spin. I hope conditions are better tomorrow, I have one day left to ski with my son. It hurts to open a door, really hurts to put socks on. I hope conditions are better tomorrow or I am going to have a difficult time.

[lilcliffy]

Man Bob OUCH!
I am feeling your pain!!!
(I recently had a potentially very serious wipeout on my Ingstads- allowing them to reach Ludicrous Speed- I did three sideways sumersaults- it could have bad, real bad- I was being foolish.)
I do hope you are okay.
Gareth

[Oldbie]

Doing this with my snowboard-crazed boys in the upper Midwest next week. Fixed some DIY leashes to my Karhus with nnn-bc. Had no problems turning parallel at our little tow rope served ski hill here last year. Really fun and nothing like slogging around on heavy Alpine gear. Feels like I'm wearin' nothin' at all! Nothin' at all! Nothin' at all!