Åsnes Borge Ousland BC Ski Review

[FrenchFred]

Hello all ! And first, happy Christmas !
I bought this new babies, and I give you m'y first feelings.
My set up is : Alaska NNNBC, Magnum, and Asnes Borg (200cm for the ski, I'm 81kg and 177cm).

Very light ski. Stiff under foot. Medium nordic rocker. Fit perfectly in the groumed traces.

Very good for flat or mellow mountain, on hard to medium snow. 30cm of fresh powder is too much for these skis.

Very easy to adjust the glide or the grip with 30mm or 45mm wide skins, for every snow type.

Very nice for both nordic technic : classic ou skate.

Pretty hard to turn with the télémark technique. I tune the edge sharpness or softness in ordre to get more control during the turn.

Only 2 runs with the skis so it's only first feelings.
As a conclusion, I would say, they are very good ski to get speed and fun on mellow terrain with "hard to medium" snow. Not very fun to turn, but I think I didn't find the good body position (more pressure on the external foot will help).

Thanks all
Fred

[FrenchFred]

Yesterday, I found the tricks to turn with these skis.
Put your knee inside the turn, then, push as hard as you can on your heel... And it turns like a dream on hard snow.
Happy with that !
Have a nice winter.
Fred

[Nick BC]

Just to clarify, are you saying you heel weight the uphill (trailing) ski?

[fisheater]

Amazing Fred! I will try doing the same on my Gamme, when I have enough room to give it honest effort, with confidence I won’t be playing American Football with trees!

[FrenchFred]

Hy

For Nick BC : I heel weight on the outside foot of the turn. And you have to start the turn with a "light" 2 step turn.
The global way to do it is well explain in this vidéo :

The key is to be absolutly commited when you engage the turn. No fear, just keep going forward.
Free your heel, free your mind. Ski skinny skis and you will find the balance or not...
Good Season
Fred

[lilcliffy]

Yes- this is exactly how I make a tight-radius turn with a "double-cambered" ski like the Ousland (especially on consolidated snow)- heavily-aggressively weight the lead/downhill ski and then transfer weight to the uphill/rear ski once the turn is initiated.
Good stuff man- thanks for posting this report.

[Nick BC]

Yes I get what your saying Fred and Gareth. In a way it’s the opposite of the advice I got from Dickie Hall in one of his tele camps at Mount Baker. That advice was, at the start of the turn, to step the uphill ski backwards, rather than drive the downhill ski forwards.

That works well for single cambered skis and stiffer tele boots, whereas F and G’s technique is clearly better for double cambered skis and softer XC boots.

[Nick BC]

Just watched that movie again after many years. One part of the introductory session on body position mirrors telemark.skier’s suggestion on EYT/backcountry talk forum to “drive your hips forward” to achieve an upper body position with weight “evenly” on both skis. The other mantra I like is “sink don’t spread” which achieves the same result.

[lilcliffy]

From Gamme the Elder's review of the Ousland ski in UTE Magazine:
"In summary, Åsnes has managed the feat of combining swinging ability and agility fully."
The Ousland xcored a 9/10 and was the highest rated ski in his comparison test of "Classic Fjellskis" from the 2020-2021 season-
Comparison test of:
- Fischer E99 Xtralite: 8/10
- Asnes Gamme 54 BC: 6/10
- Asnes Amundsen BC: 7/10
- Asnes Borge Ousland BC: 9/10
- Madshus Panorama M55: 7/10
- Fischer OTX 68: 7/10

Interesting stuff! He much prefers the Ousland over the current Gamme 54...

[Woodserson]

From Gamme the Elder's review of the Ousland ski in UTE Magazine:
"In summary, Åsnes has managed the feat of combining swinging ability and agility fully."
The Ousland xcored a 9/10 and was the highest rated ski in his comparison test of "Classic Fjellskis" from the 2020-2021 season-
Comparison test of:
- Fischer E99 Xtralite: 8/10
- Asnes Gamme 54 BC: 6/10
- Asnes Amundsen BC: 7/10
- Asnes Borge Ousland BC: 9/10
- Madshus Panorama M55: 7/10
- Fischer OTX 68: 7/10

Interesting stuff! He much prefers the Ousland over the current Gamme 54...

I never knew what they mean by swinging properties. The translation is weird on that one.

Look how good the E99 did! YESSSS