Beware Canadian MilSur Skis!

[feo007]

Hi everyone! Long-time reader but first-time poster.

I have been looking around the forums for a while and kept coming back to the USGI Asnes ski sold by Coleman's as a fun, inexpensive way to get into waxed backcountry skis, especially given Lilcliffy's glowing review of them. The unfortunate thing is that this ski does not ship to the Truth North Strong and Free. In came Hero Outdoors, a milsur outfitter in Ottawa which has the same ski, with same photos and description, listed on their site for a clean $30cad:

https://www.herooutdoors.com/u-s-armed- ... hill-skis/

So of course I ordered those bad boys. Fast forward to today, when I was very sorely disappointed to receive a completely different ski in the mail. This one does not have the pre-bored binding holes, has a different shape to it, and says "made in Canada' on it. To add insult to injury, one of the skis was rusted to high hell. Best that I can tell, these are Karhu combat skis and, given the discussions on this site, not worth their weight in foamcore. Would anyone care to confirm that this is what I've got my hands on?

I guess the purpose of this post is to let any fellow Canadian skiers know that Hero Outdoors is not actually selling the ski they have listed on their site. I'm out $75 with the shipping and these guys don't accept returns, but what can you do. If you're reading Lilcliffy, I'm interested to know how you acquired your pair up here - would love to actually give the real Asnes USGI ski a shot. And, well, if anyone in the Ottawa/Gatineau corridor is interested in purchasing a cheap pair of Karhus, I'm your man

[エイダン.シダル]

I've got the exact same story. What a bunch of @$$#&+$ they are to misrepresent their product like that.

The only good that's come of it, not to their credit, is the Kahrus and some Alico NATO Snow March boots last winter were the gateway drug: now I have Gammes and Fischer S Bound Outabound 88s to mount NNN BCs on quickly, before decent snow pack.

IME, surplus stores are all $#++ in Canada. The good stuff is stateside, and ours deal in trash. Likely fronting for some other line of (illegal) business.

Anybody have a good idea for these trash skis? Maybe build a komatik if they weren't too short.

[marco]

I got them too..so disappointing! I’ll still give them a try as soon as we get some snow

[feo007]

I've got the exact same story. What a bunch of @$$#&+$ they are to misrepresent their product like that.

I got them too..so disappointing! I’ll still give them a try as soon as we get some snow

I'm sorry to hear that you've both been burned! I tried to put a review on their website but it's not letting me do that for whatever reason. If you have the time, I would recommend doing so just so people don't keep making this mistake.

Anybody have a good idea for these trash skis? Maybe build a komatik if they weren't too short.

I second this - I'm not one to make furniture out of skis but if someone has ideas for more pragmatic uses, I'm all ears. In any case, let us know how you feel about them Marco. I just can't quite justify buying a binding and mounting it to these at the moment, so maybe your experience will change my mind! Almost as if I had been served a dose of same-day ski-karma, I was at Sail last night to buy some winter boots and they just had a lone pair of Traverse 78s that had been unlisted online. Quite the windfall, so I don't have a big reason to keep investing in these Karhus unless someone can convince me

[fgd135]

That's really a shame. The Karhu skis are heavy and lack a nice camber for XC skiing. They turn OK, like the early 90's Karhus would do.
Maybe some of you Canadians should pool your dollars and drive to Pennsylvania, buy a couple cases of skis from Colemans. Or...find a friend just on the US side of the border, ship the skis to him/her, and drive 'em into the Great White North. The skis come in 5-pair boxes, if Coleman still has em packed, so 3-4 boxes would easily fit in the back of an SUV. Don't know how the customs thing works, but?
Several years back when I was selling this ski on CL, I was buying 3 cases at a time from Colemans. Easy enough.

[エイダン.シダル]

That's really a shame. The Karhu skis are heavy and lack a nice camber for XC skiing. They turn OK, like the early 90's Karhus would do.
Maybe some of you Canadians should pool your dollars and drive to Pennsylvania, buy a couple cases of skis from Colemans. Or...find a friend just on the US side of the border, ship the skis to him/her, and drive 'em into the Great White North. The skis come in 5-pair boxes, if Coleman still has em packed, so 3-4 boxes would easily fit in the back of an SUV. Don't know how the customs thing works, but?
Several years back when I was selling this ski on CL, I was buying 3 cases at a time from Colemans. Easy enough.

That's a good idea, but I've got my Outabound 88s now.

Thing is, even the real Åsnes surplus skis from Coleman are significantly heavier than Combat Nato, much less Ingstads. It's several hundred grams between each. Sure at Coleman's price IDGAF about the weight, but with the added expense and trouble of getting them to Toronto...

[エイダン.シダル]

Same here, 'feo007'. Couldn't post a review. They didn't return my emails either. Jerks.

[lilcliffy]

Coleman's will not ship to Canada- you need to have them shipped to a USA address.
I picked up my Coleman Asnes USGI (MT65) at the ME-NB border.
The shipping fee from Coleman's is painful...
I went in on a big order with sevral other people- split the shipping amongst all of us.

I personally don't think those Karhu- made in QC- Combat skis are crap- (I have a pair of them- and just sent my second pair to mon ami au QC)-
They are the same dimensions and flex as the Karhu Catamount/10th Mtn Tour/Orion (and a number of Trak models)-
They are heavy, but they are cool.
I don't use them much, but I keep them in my office so that I can look at them and flex them throughout the day.
They make me happy.

Those Karhu Combats would please many a skier.

The Asnes MT65 is just as heavy- they are more cambered and XC-focused than those Karhus.

[エイダン.シダル]

Coleman's will not ship to Canada- you need to have them shipped to a USA address.
I picked up my Coleman Asnes USGI (MT65) at the ME-NB border.
The shipping fee from Coleman's is painful...
I went in on a big order with sevral other people- split the shipping amongst all of us.

I personally don't think those Karhu- made in QC- Combat skis are crap- (I have a pair of them- and just sent my second pair to mon ami au QC)-
They are the same dimensions and flex as the Karhu Catamount/10th Mtn Tour/Orion (and a number of Trak models)-
They are heavy, but they are cool.
I don't use them much, but I keep them in my office so that I can look at them and flex them throughout the day.
They make me happy.

Those Karhu Combats would please many a skier.

The Asnes MT65 is just as heavy- they are more cambered and XC-focused than those Karhus.

Fair enough, and appreciate your experience.

That said, 'Hero Outdoors' are liars. These aren't Åsnes, and they've been told they're not.

https://www.herooutdoors.com/u-s-armed- ... hill-skis/

[fgd135]

So, I've skiied on those Karhus as we had a couple of pair when I worked at Alpine Research; I thought they turned nicely with leather teleboots on lift served terrain, although I used some Asolo Extreme Pluses, much stiffer than the Alico Ski March boots, fwiw. Even used them on a couple of overnight tours. If I wanted a good very inexpensive tele/bc ski I would not be unhappy with these, with caveats; uphill with skins and a pack, they're just fine. However, at this point in time, 25-plus year-old foam cores may or may not sustain them very well. Having seen many a foam-core Karhu ski lose all it's camber and many even break in half in moderate use, I'd be somewhat leery of them for anything technical or demanding.
Otoh, the MT 65 construction is bomber; the skis should last forever, but with the stiff wax pockets and little sidecut, they're more suitable for trail skiing on rolling terrain and less for steep climbing and descents than those old Karhus.
However, since we're talking about $30 skis, it's all good. Get a pair, go skiing, save some dough.

Alpine Research sent in a bid on the same contract that resulted in the Karhu skis for the Army--we had K2 in Seattle make up what we thought was a really nice wood core wide XC/Combi ski for the bid--a couple dozen pair in various sizes--the skis had a nice wide shovel, a soft but well defined wax pocket, hole in the tip, etc. All white, of course. They skiied great! I used a pair for a full season to try em out. Softer flex overall than the stiff MT65s or the Karhu monsters, and lighter, too. But the Army went for low bid, bought the Karhu skis, and K2 had no interest in producing the military prototypes as a commercial product. Oh well. The USMC already had the MT65s and were quite pleased with them.

Say, that reminds me, if anyone locally is interested, by locally I mean Denver metro area, I still have a new old-stock pair of unmounted 210CM Karhu military skis that can be yours for $20. Big ass skis for a big skier, or might be great runners for some kind of a towed sled. Or a lawn chair. These would be hugely expensive to ship, so no shipping available. Contact me via PM.