Skins in spring snow... what can go wrong?

[karnel]

So I'm planning to do some XCD tomorrow (Nansens/AlsakaNNNBC/45mm mohair x-skins)

The temperatures are quite high (~10-20 deg C) and I don't have much experience with skins in such conditions.

In my mind the big problems with glopping / icing up are around freezing / 0 deg C right?

What kind of stuff can go wrong with skins at warmer temps? getting too wet?
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Trying to make sure nothing robs me of those precious (possibly??) final turns of the season

Edit: decided to randomly stop by my friendly neighbourhood Asnes retailer over lunch (La Cordée Boutique) and they had some new old stock (old model) 35mm nylon skins on sale for 35 bucks How could I say no?!?

The guy at the store also said nylon will get less wet than mohair in slushy conditions. I guess I can do a lil head to head tomorrow...
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Have fun and share your feedback.

[montrealer]

Have fun and share your feedback.

See the post just before yours. In summary, it was "interesting"

[jyw5]

I specialize in skiing springtime snow.

What I know about skins in wet snow? The glue can fail utterly if you try to stick them to the skis when they are still wet, so dry them first how ever you have to. This can be wiping them with a cloth, or letting the sun work on the bases for a few minutes.

Oh man... This is what happened. On my second ascent everything was soaking and one came off after an emergency herringbone/wedge to avoid backsliding. I was close to the top so just took my skis off and walked and then laid them out in the sun while having lunch. It's a good thing I had my second pair, I ended up using them on the third ascent.

I also had to really concentrate on technique going up the steeper sections which I never had to do with full length skins. Basically being very careful to only weight one ski at a time, and to *not* use my poles unless I slipped, as a sort of emergency brake. Also, keeping the weight on my heel to get the maximum grip with the skin, and keeping my muscles loose. Eventually I developed this kind of slow motion hop from ski to ski.

As for the skiing, well it was mostly a shitshow...

On the first run I had forgotten my gloves in the car and stupidly also left my jacket in the car on purpose. Needless to say I got a nice number of hand and elbow scrapes on that harsh corn snow. Won't make that mistake again...

Even worse, by the second run (on what was a crowded trail) everything kind of turned into wet slushy moguls on an occasionally icy base. At least I had my gloves and jacket, so the falls were comparatively pleasant

I ended up paralleling on the steeper and bumpier sections and it was ok. On the telemarkable parts I actually made some progress when I realized I needed to tighten my stance to keep as much of my back foot as possible in contact with the NNNBC binding plate to have any sort of stability.

After my "easy" experience last week I was reminded that XCD can be a cruel mistress if the conditions aren't exactly in your favour. On a mostly flat surface with occasional crud patches I can kind of arc/ride the ski through the bad stuff and plan my turns on the good parts. But when it's mostly crud I'd rather have a setup that I can drive and not just ride....

Also, after wondering about it and now having done it twice, "touring" at a resort: thumbs down. I'd rather ride the lifts and get in 4-5x the skiing and save the skinning for backcountry where/when it's actually worth it.

I must be the only one here who recommends this... once you cut your skins to a desired length, try leaving them on the entire day. up and down. You will find yourself plowing down steep corn/mash and gracefully gliding over refrozen crap. I ski tens of thousands of vertical in the summer...more vertical in the summer than in the winter because the skiing here is dangerous and difficult in the winter.

I'm not sure why no one else recommends leaving the skins on going downhill... while making teleturns can be hard with skins on, you aren't making teleturns on difficult snow anyway!! if you find it too grippy, get the 30mm and make shallower switchbacks up the hill and so you can go faster coming down... so leave the skins on and carve that corn like champ!