Voilé and Kästle selling XCD in North America

[phoenix]

I'm a little surprised that Voile suggests the Endeavor/Alaska combination is pretty decent downhill. Having skied Alaska 75's on the narrower Objectives (for a good few years), I wouldn't say that, at least without a clear addition of "in easy conditions". Once more I'll also note that the snow in the Wasatch (Voile's home turf) is a lot different than, say, anywhere in the northeast. Get into something other than smooth consistent snow on low angle slopes, and you're likely to be spanked with that rig.

This isn't dissing anything or anyone, I'm a long time fan and as I've said own Alaska's and a few Voile's... just an opinion, and a heads up in case someone may be tempted thinking the Alaska's will be a solid XCD choice. I'm sure there will be other opinions, such as Fisheater having excellent feedback with Alaska's paired with Rotte Super Tele w/cables, which I could see working better than 3pins for turning.

[riel]

I just noticed this on La Cordée's website. Some time over the summer they received a whole line of Kästle brand fishscale XCD skis:

https://www.lacordee.com/fr/sports-d-hi ... ste?page=1

Does anyone know more about these? Are they the same skis as fishscale Sportens (https://telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php? ... tle#p67574), or are they new designs?

The geometry and weight of the Kastle XT63 Crown suggests "Børge Ousland with fishscales"

The XT84 has the same sidecut as Ingstad, and the XT69 looks suspiciously like the Amundsen (and old Sondre) sidecut.

The only mystery one is the XT77, which looks like it might be either Nansen or Sverdrup derived.

If the camber of the XT77 is like the Sverdrup, that could be a must-have ski for me, for the simple reason that that kind of ski here in New England is really best for spring skiing, when fishscales will be more convenient than wax.

[riel]

The geometry and weight of the Kastle XT63 Crown suggests "Børge Ousland with fishscales"

The XT84 has the same sidecut as Ingstad, and the XT69 looks suspiciously like the Amundsen (and old Sondre) sidecut.

The only mystery one is the XT77, which looks like it might be either Nansen or Sverdrup derived.

If the camber of the XT77 is like the Sverdrup, that could be a must-have ski for me, for the simple reason that that kind of ski here in New England is really best for spring skiing, when fishscales will be more convenient than wax.

There is more information on the Kästle website, which shows where my earlier guesses were wrong. Looking at the photos, none of these Kästle skis appear to have rocker, and the lengths are all 160/170/180/190/200:

https://kaestle.com/en-us/collections/backcountry

Assuming this means the skis correspond to ca 2015 Asnes models, before Asnes started using rocker in many skis and switched to xx5 lengths, we get this correspondence:
- XT63: Asnes Sondre
- XT69: Asnes Amundsen? Or maybe Sporten Ranger 68 based?
- XT77: Asnes Nansen (possibly - I'm really not sure about this one)
- XT84: Asnes Ingstad/NATO BC (pre-rocker)

Of course, that is just the length and sidecut from these ski molds.

They have likely been made with a different base, with whatever fishscale pattern Kästle prefers, and may have been produced with a different flex pattern, too.

The XT63 could be especially interesting to people who want something like the MT51/MR48 but with fishscales, and the XT84 could be very nice for people who want something like the Ingstad that's better at breaking through crust, but maybe not always turning as easily as the modern rockered Ingstads.

[Inspiredcapers]

I’ve already got a shit-ton of skis to mess with but that XT77 looks like something that would come in useful for those crappy days where waxing is a major P.I.T.A. for goofing around on single track type of trails…I’ll be curious to see reviews on these.

[JohnSKepler]

Along with a brand new boot from Scarpa. And I thought tele was dead.

Like John Wayne in "Big Jake." Not hardly.