Equipment upgrade from skinny skis

[lowangle al]

i've done a decent amount of skiing in colorado on trails that are for hiking in the summertime (narrow, moderately steep up and down, blind corners). something to pay attention to is camber. i started with the madshus glittertind / bc55 / PANORAMA M55. the camber is too stiff to engage the fishscales on even lightly steep terrain (and forget about it if you encounter a small concave part of the trail). then like you, i found the trails were too narrow to herringbone or sidestep effectively. i ended up having to don kicker skins a lot and those are just a hassle.

this season i switched to the madshus epoch. it is a fairly wide ski, but that allowed me to go shorter (for maneuverability) and still have some flotation for powder. also the camber is much less stiff leading to much better grip. i do find myself wishing they had the glide of narrower skis on flatter terrain, but you can't have everything. one thing i do to help the glide is use a liquid glide wax on the entire ski (including the fishscales), and i found it hasn't affected grip much if at all. i think they are a great beginner ski for a wide variety of ungroomed terrain.

eventually as my skills improve, i may look around for a waxable ski with the dimensions of the glittertind but the camber of the epoch.

That's an interesting consideration. I have noticed that when there are dips in the trail and it's just tip and tail contacting the grip is gone. I hadn't thought to put it in words or that camber was the term for it.
One more useful point to ponder

When you don't feel your wax pocket getting enough contact with the snow you need to either move the ski or stomp down to conform the snow and to bend your ski to make that contact. This is second nature to a long time bc xc skier but may not feel that obvious to a noob.

[Mtlsam]

So thanks once again all who chimed in with advice. In the end I went for a mellow upgrade and found items that fit at good end of season pricing. Ended up with 200cm Fisher E99 waxable easy skin skis, Rotefella NNN-BC manual bindings and Rossignol X-10 boots. I genuinely believe the only boots my size left in the province!

After buffing on 3 thin layers of polar wax tip to tail and corking it like my life depended on it (I have no iron), I put on the days wax, red/silver. The skis float better than my last pair in the deep wet snow at the park nearby. I didn't put enough of the days wax or didn't put it far enough so I had some slippage, but that's learning for you.

Looking forward to putting in some miles on these guys and continuing to learn from the forum.

All the best,
Sam

[lowangle al]

I'd gladly take a little slipping than put too much on and get drag.

[bgregoire]

So thanks once again all who chimed in with advice. In the end I went for a mellow upgrade and found items that fit at good end of season pricing. Ended up with 200cm Fisher E99 waxable easy skin skis, Rotefella NNN-BC manual bindings and Rossignol X-10 boots. I genuinely believe the only boots my size left in the province!

After buffing on 3 thin layers of arctic wax tip to tail and corking it like my life depended on it (I have no iron), I put on the days wax, red/silver. The skis float better than my last pair in the deep wet snow at the park nearby. I didn't put enough of the days wax or didn't put it far enough so I had some slippage, but that's learning for you.

Looking forward to putting in some miles on these guys and continuing to learn from the forum.

All the best,
Sam

Well that was fast! Good on ya. I suggest you pursue your Ttalk reading with this thread about BC waxing:
https://telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2172
Happy times ahead!

[Mtlsam]

Well that was fast! Good on ya. I suggest you pursue your Ttalk reading with this thread about BC waxing:
https://telemarktalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=2172
Happy times ahead!

I will dig into that!

[Eärendil]

So thanks once again all who chimed in with advice. In the end I went for a mellow upgrade and found items that fit at good end of season pricing. Ended up with 200cm Fisher E99 waxable easy skin skis, Rotefella NNN-BC manual bindings and Rossignol X-10 boots. I genuinely believe the only boots my size left in the province!

After buffing on 3 thin layers of polar wax tip to tail and corking it like my life depended on it (I have no iron), I put on the days wax, red/silver. The skis float better than my last pair in the deep wet snow at the park nearby. I didn't put enough of the days wax or didn't put it far enough so I had some slippage, but that's learning for you.

Looking forward to putting in some miles on these guys and continuing to learn from the forum.

All the best,
Sam

The E99 is a good choice. Congrats and enjoy your skiing!

//Rickard//

[Mtlsam]

The E99 is a good choice. Congrats and enjoy your skiing!

//Rickard//

Thanks! Been out floating and mostly breaking through some fresh snow on a thin crust. A fun time was had!