Crusty

[ᚠᚨᚱ ᚾᛟᚱᚦ ᛊᚲᛁᛖᚱ]

For the last week or so we've had breakable crust in my area. Its mostly consolidating now, so its becoming a non-issue. I'm guessing that skiing breakable crust is always going to be a fairly miserable experience, but I'm wondering if anyone has a ski that makes it a little less terrible. My thoughts are that a very stiff ski like the Amundsen might make it more tolerable. I figure going wide is kind of pointless since you're going to break through and sink anyway. I'd think that a stiff ski would break more evenly with less bow in the middle. Anyone care to dispel or confirm my biases?

[Woodserson]

Imo

Whatever keeps the shovel down so the tip can break the ice instead of riding up and over it.

So no rocker and stiff.

Amundsen, old E99s, Sondre, Outtabounds, etc.

[joeatomictoad]

...I'm wondering if anyone has a ski that makes it [breakable crust] a little less terrible.

For resort skiing......

Volant Machete FB [Fatboy]. This ski is amazing... my favorite alpine ski without a doubt. Cuts through anything & everything. Stainless steel cap, super damp, super pop, super stiff... all makes for super thighs.

Damn heavy... scares me to try with a tele rig because the swing weight is like trying to get a super tanker to turn around for a man overboard drill. It is great for carving, but not so good for pivoting. I use it for those alpine days, which are fewer and fewer lately, pretty much nonexistent. Maybe one of these days I will have the courage to mount tele bindings to see how it goes.

Specs: 128-94-116, around 14 to 15-m radius (perceived radius)

Also had a skinnier Machete... ¿maybe the "Sin"?... I had a lot of fun on this ski too for similar reasons.

Nevertheless, the FB was my favorite alpine ski without a doubt. Super fun to ski, but not fun to carry through parking lot or travel with on account of stainless steel's density. (Did I mention that it is heavy?)

The video is just McConkey doing what McConkey used to do, while promoting the Machete line at the same time. (It's age-restricted, but it's not really that bad.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQgueE5GgQs

[Woodserson]

CLASSIC ski
LEGENDARY skier
FANTASTIC vid (try making that nowadays)

A little late for first chair, huh?

Thanks for posting

[joeatomictoad]

LEGENDARY skier

Now I feel embarrassed. You flatter me, but I'm not that good!

[jyw5]

Try this setup. This guy I met a few wks ago has a good setup.... dynafit tech toe with voile riser for heel and Phantom splitboard boots (based on the Atomic backland), 50mm skins with tip only. He skis all the variable conditions just fine.

[ᚠᚨᚱ ᚾᛟᚱᚦ ᛊᚲᛁᛖᚱ]

Kind of going off on a different tangent here, but I'm now having a fit of nostalgia. I remember my uncle gifting me some old, but pristine Fischer skis after I had complained about how blown out the rental skis were at the local resort. Those Fischers were clean, silver, with very little side cut, but they sure did carve nicely (as perceived by a high school student skiing on rental skis that were rockered from use). That was before the dark times. . . Before snowboarding.

[Woodserson]

Try this setup. This guy I met a few wks ago has a good setup.... dynafit tech toe with voile riser for heel and Phantom splitboard boots (based on the Atomic backland), 50mm skins with tip only. He skis all the variable conditions just fine.

Super intriguing set-up! Thanks for the post, I love the non-conventional mix&match products from across the spectrum.

[lilcliffy]

For the last week or so we've had breakable crust in my area. Its mostly consolidating now, so its becoming a non-issue. I'm guessing that skiing breakable crust is always going to be a fairly miserable experience, but I'm wondering if anyone has a ski that makes it a little less terrible. My thoughts are that a very stiff ski like the Amundsen might make it more tolerable. I figure going wide is kind of pointless since you're going to break through and sink anyway. I'd think that a stiff ski would break more evenly with less bow in the middle. Anyone care to dispel or confirm my biases?

Before I dig into this-
What ski(s) are you using in breakable crust at the moment- and what about them is/isn't working?

We always get periods of breakable crust here in the Central Hills and we had more than is typical this past winter.
With Climate Change expected to bring more and more erratic winter temperatures- as well as more and more precipitation- I simply have to accept and even embrace breakable crust for periods of time.

BTW- we had a total flip in our typical winter storm patterns-
Most winters our storm fronts start out here with warming temperatures- and end with cold temperatures and a very cold clear flow that comes in behind the storm. So- typically/historically- no matter what mess we might get to start it usually finishes with a decent amount of cold soft snow. (It also snows here a little every day when it is very cold).

Last winter we had the opposite of this pattern ↑ for most of the season-
most of our storms started out cold- with beautiful snow- and then finished with a warm-up and dose of ice- leaving a crust on top of beautiful snow! In fact if it weren't for the daily snow on very cold temps- I might have been in crust most of the winter!

[ᚠᚨᚱ ᚾᛟᚱᚦ ᛊᚲᛁᛖᚱ]

Before I dig into this-
What ski(s) are you using in breakable crust at the moment- and what about them is/isn't working?

We had a very good winter from late January and on. The January thaw has been a typical occurrence as long as I've lived here. Crust hasn't been an issue till the last couple of weeks. It is still getting close to 0°F here every night (though that is supposed to change after today). I've primarily been skiing on my Fischer Excursion 88s. They do not have the splayed tips that Woods had on his skis, but I think they may have rocker on the higher end of normal. As one would expect they break through under foot and back, with the wider, rockered tips consistently trying to ride on top of the crust.