Gamme vs Amundsen vs Ousland

[riel]

Some good info has been already said on this but seeking a little more detail if anyone cares to chime in... comparing the Gamme to Amundsen, how much more easily can the Gamme turn compared to the Amundsen? And where else would would that rockered shovel in the Gamme come in handy?

I don't have a modern Amundsen, but I do have some 20 year old Sondre skis, which are the exact same geometry as Amundsen, just with a softer flex. They should be easier to turn than the Amundsen, and for all I know they are.

However, there is no comparison with the Gamme. Turn initiation on the Gamme is just so much easier, they are a pleasure to use on trails where I would not even consider using the Sondres.

From what I have heard, the Ousland has similarly good turning. Slightly better in some snow conditions, slightly worse in others, but overall quite similar.

[JohnSKepler]

I don't have a modern Amundsen, but I do have some 20 year old Sondre skis, which are the exact same geometry as Amundsen, just with a softer flex. They should be easier to turn than the Amundsen, and for all I know they are.

However, there is no comparison with the Gamme. Turn initiation on the Gamme is just so much easier, they are a pleasure to use on trails where I would not even consider using the Sondres.

From what I have heard, the Ousland has similarly good turning. Slightly better in some snow conditions, slightly worse in others, but overall quite similar.

I’m hoping they’ll be better than my Rossignol BC65 which I was never able to get to turn at all. Step and wedge turns was all I could ever do on those though, I got pretty good a falling down while trying to turn them.

[dave52]

Appreciate the insight @riel, having that extra maneuverability from the Gamme sounds useful.

One last thing, I dredged this up from another topic discussing Gamme and Amundsen...

Another note-

"The Gamme is better in steep terrain"

The Amundsen is just as stable and as light as the Gamme.

If one is making step/striding jump turns- there is no difference between either of these skis when you point them downhill.

@lilcliffy would you mind expanding on what you mean by step, striding and jump turns, I wanna make sure I'm on the same page, there's some ambiguity with cross country and alpine lingo with these terms.

Took at stab at trying to get an idea of what was meant, LMK how off I am here...

A - Step turns

A1. Alpine style steep step turn
Like a uphill stem christie


A2. Traditional cross country groomed step turn


A3. Write in your own



B - Striding turns

B1. Cross country striding turn


B2. Stride into tele
A hard push off stride into a telemark turn to aggressively start the turn. Couldn't find example.

B3. None of these




C - Jump turns

C1. Tele jump turns


C2. Parallel jump turns


C3. FIll in the ____


I've been trying to widen my toolkit of techniques for control on narrower trails and for BC context in general. Teles and parallel turns can be tricky in tight spaces, don't really have the space to hold a turn long or to pivot with the skis a full 90 degrees. Wedge turns and snowplow stops are usually useful but have had trouble getting those edges to grip and slow down on hardpack snow, it gets sketchy on steeper ungroomed singletrack.

If anyone has techniques to suggest for this type of skiing would love to hear your input!

[riel]

I’m hoping they’ll be better than my Rossignol BC65 which I was never able to get to turn at all. Step and wedge turns was all I could ever do on those though, I got pretty good a falling down while trying to turn them.

There is a trick to making stiff cross country skis turn.

Not only do you want most of your weight on the outside ski, you want most of your weight on your heel on that outside ski.

That way the tail of the outside ski will skid toward the new direction you want to glide in. Once your outside ski is pointing where you want to go, move your inside ski alongside it, and weigh both skis evenly again.

This trick applies both to softer skis like the BC65, and stiffer skis like the Gamme or the Ousland.

[JohnSKepler]

These technique videos are helpful @dave52 . Thanks for posting. I'm looking forward to trying these techniques. Generally, when on piste, we would just get on the lift and head to the top!

@riel , thanks for that suggestion on turning. Coming from Alpine skiing, which I wasn't great at as I rarely got to do it much more than a few days every few years, I had learned to almost never weight the heel.

I have found, practicing on my FT62 that the Telemark stance and turn seems much more natural to me than the Alpine turn ever did. I was always fighting my outside leg. Especially my left leg when it was on the outside. For whatever reason it feels much more natural leading with the outside leg and weighting the inside leg, or at least weighting them equally. Of course, the fact that I'm weight training all year is probably helping, too. I've been a weightlifter forever (have to get out of the office at lunch!) but was bad to skip leg-day because I'd play soccer on some days. Soccer is great for conditioning but doesn't help power. However, I will say that tele skiing is more leg work so, yet again, a tradeoff!