X-Skins Knackered after less 70km!!!

[Crayefish]

Happy to report that my excellent expedition outfitter will be sending a replacement set. He says that's its very strange this happened and likely a defect with the skins.

Stuff from him isn't cheap, but its really reassuring when your supplier supports you like this with great service (he's also sorting out a liner glove that split a seam on the first day).

[Woodserson]

Can you post a photo of the worn skin with them on the ski base- with your boot in the binding- showing the skin in relation to the heel of your boot?

I'm now in the middle east for a month so unfortunately can't. Attached is the only helpful pic I have where you can just make out the back of the binding on the right ski. I have size 48 boots (14 US?) so big feet.

I've just ordered a set of mix hair X-skins to go with these. Guess I'll use them for the first part of the trip (where there's more uphill) and then have the trimmer mohair in reserve for the end where its slightly more down and with a lighter pulk.

Are these the worn skins? They look just like mine. I'd call this normal wear and tear for mohair kicker skins, but that's only from this picture, maybe all the little hairs are worn off to the nub and that's not showing, but I'd expect wear on the aft end. Good on you for getting a second pair.

Are you committed to not going with a full-length nylon or nylon/mohair mix skin for pulling a pulk? Depending on the terrain and weight of the pulk, I would go full length, personally. The issue with kicker skins is when you start sliding backwards heading up a hill towing your pulk, at some point they will unglue and unpeel from the rear and the glue will ice up and they will become useless. The full length allows you to attach to the rear of the ski to prevent this from happening.

[Crayefish]

I'm now in the middle east for a month so unfortunately can't. Attached is the only helpful pic I have where you can just make out the back of the binding on the right ski. I have size 48 boots (14 US?) so big feet.

I've just ordered a set of mix hair X-skins to go with these. Guess I'll use them for the first part of the trip (where there's more uphill) and then have the trimmer mohair in reserve for the end where its slightly more down and with a lighter pulk.

Are these the worn skins? They look just like mine. I'd call this normal wear and tear for mohair kicker skins, but that's only from this picture, maybe all the little hairs are worn off to the nub and that's not showing, but I'd expect wear on the aft end. Good on you for getting a second pair.

Are you committed to not going with a full-length nylon or nylon/mohair mix skin for pulling a pulk? Depending on the terrain and weight of the pulk, I would go full length, personally. The issue with kicker skins is when you start sliding backwards heading up a hill towing your pulk, at some point they will unglue and unpeel from the rear and the glue will ice up and they will become useless. The full length allows you to attach to the rear of the ski to prevent this from happening.

The loss of grip wasn't really noticeable, but having to stop every km (or less) to removed a big chunk of draggy frozen snow from them was... lol. I didn't have any issues with the glue peeling though if I slipped back. The glue was 100% perfect.

Definitely don't want to use full length the entire time. Sucks way too much energy. I'll have a pair of full length incase I need, but for the flats it would be a real drag (pun intended). Last time I only needed full length skins for uphill in deep powder. Otherwise the kickers were fine (some care and arm power needed in places). Even testing these in powder on mild slops showed them to work very well. Only had to herringbone in a few places where it was steep.

I'll report back in 1 month on how they were.

[Woodserson]

The loss of grip wasn't really noticeable, but having to stop every km (or less) to removed a big chunk of draggy frozen snow from them was... lol. I didn't have any issues with the glue peeling though if I slipped back. The glue was 100% perfect.

Look, I know you say you are new to nordic skiing, and I see you have downhill experience, but I don't know how much randonée experience you have, so excuse me if I come across as lecturing. If you are very experienced with skinning you can stop reading now.
To anyone else with less experience: The skin peeling back is not necessarily a function of how good the glue is, it just can happen. If you do this enough over your life one day it's going to peel back and the glue will pick up all the snow, and it won't re-adhere to your ski at all until you warm the skin, clear the snow, and dry it off. It happened to me two weeks ago in the Alps with brand new Pomoca skins with excellent glue and I've been skinning around the mountains for 25yrs. The tail clip came off my tail without me noticing and slowly the skin slowly rolled back and then that was that, zero adhesion. I reattached the skin using tension by tightening up the tail clip, but could not do any traversing of slopes (the glue picks up all the snow, so the ski is effectively sliding on snow and the skin will slide out to the side on traverses). I was in a hole, it was very cold, I could not get the skin clean again easily.
Good preventative techniques can reduce this from happening-- make sure the skin is well pressed on to the ski before use, don't drop the skin in the snow, keep the skins warm if you are yo-yo-ing.
Anyway, it's good to have more than one option if you're going on a long trip, and a skin with a tail-clip is a lifesaver. It's not a question of good glue, it's a question of when. Someday a skin will roll back and become useless.

[Crayefish]

You're totally right that it can happen at any point... just because its going for X kms doesn't mean it won't happen at X+1 kms. Its a matter of probability based on conditions/terrain/luck etc. However, I don't plan on using full skins the whole time just in case this does happen. The time and effort saved with kickers should more than cover an occasion or two of having to stop, warm and restick (with fresh skins if needed). I had it happen on my last expedition (caught it after a couple of inches of peel) and it wasn't a big deal for me to address... time is on my side. The front of the kickers peeling was WAY more irritating (these were just strap type fronts with a metal plate, not the nice X skin attachment). However, even with the fronts peeling a bit, it was still 10x better than swimming through treacle with the full lengths (albeit these were 100% nylon).

For more mountainous tours (I.e. like the alps) with a lot of climbing I would take a different approach, but I won't be doing much climbing in Sarek... my route is mostly flattish/mild slopes as it follows valleys. Biggest 'climb' is the first day. Having spoken to a few folk who've done Greenland or Antarctic expeditions, they've largely taken the same approach in having kickers which are only fixed at the front (via lock systems or csk screws).

For Alpine touring... 100% agree that full length with tail clips are the only way to go! But then when I'm skinning up a 30 deg slope I'm not worrying about the glide or efficiency. I'm only worrying about grip.

You won't like this, but actually my full length Asnes skins don't have tail clips I'm guessing it wasn't a major issue for many Asnes folk either?