Hi,
I got my Asnes Combat Nato delivered some days ago.
https://www.en.asnes.com/produkt/combat-nato/
I was out on the first tour yesterday on the skis. It was about 20 km tour in about 30 cm snow with about 10-15 cm fresh snow.
First I just want to say these Combat Nato seems to be good quality, same quality as seen from outside as my Asnes Amundsen Fram WL that I have used for 2.5 seasons. Don't get missled by the all white no frills (no colorpattern) on these Combat Nato. They are after all made to be used by military and such where camouflage (all white) is important. The Combat Nato do not have the harder layer on top of the ski as other Asnes skis has, it seem just to be white paint on the wood material, but the white paint work is very nice done. If You happen to hack the ski pole into the Combat Nato surface it will probably be a dent (I got one dent yesterday), on my Asnes Nansen Fram WL the surface is more resistant to dents.
I have Rottefella BC Magnum (the wider bindings, not the less wide Rottefell BC Manual):
https://www.rottefella.com/bindings-acc ... singelpack
I thought I would try my Combat Nato as it is from the factory without any special surface preparation on underside.
I just used some ToKo "Grips and glide classic" (Liquid wax for kick and glide zones on waxless skis) on the outer glide zones, and then waxed under the kick zone with Swix blue wax for grip. I waxed for grip between the front attachmentpoint for skins to the little round hole to the rear.
The Combat Nato is the heaviest skis I have used (since I made military service in 1980 when I used the Swedish military white wood "plank" skis that was rather heavy). One Combat Nato 210 cm ski with Rottefella BC Magnum weight 1530 gram, compared to my Asnes Amundsen Fram WL 205 cm with weight 1312 gram.
The extra weight is no big deal on shorter tours but if You skii a whole day it might be a factor to take into consideration - all weight must be moved forward by the legs etc.
On my first tour on my Combat Nato I tried them briefly on a snowmobile trail where the snow was packed hard and the Combat Nato glided fine on the hard show and I was able to get little faster speed by diagonaling as a classic corss country skier although it felt little clumpsy as expected. I tried them also on some light downhill (no turning) and they really glided fast and felt stable to keep in a straight line. I also tried a small fresh show downhill and the ski float nice on the snow.
But now to more interesting things for me - back country skiing in deeper snow.
It was very good snow condition yesterday with about 30 cm total snow cover and about 10-15 cm fresh snow.
What I can compare with is my Asnes Amundsen Fram WL, width 67-57-62 mm.
https://www.en.asnes.com/produkt/amundsen-fram-bc/
Asnes Combat Nato width is 84 62 74 mm.
I was surprised that I sinked rather deep into the snow with the Combat Nato. But I noticed that the tips tried to rise and that made the skiing little harder (at least for me). My Amundsen Fram WL do not do that in deep snow.
But after some km skiing I was used to the tendency of the Combat Nato tips to try to float up on the snow. On some spots where the snow was very deep and soft the ski really sinked very deep in the snow, almost to a halt. But it was no problem to move forward despite of this.
On little harder packed snow and on thinner snow under some trees where the snow had not reached the ground so much the Combat Nato was pleasant to ski forward on. In some places under the snow it was a thin layer of frozen snow and the Combat Nato smashed that layer with the front half just fine.
My ski tour yesterday with the Combat Nato was about 10 km in one directon and then I skied back in same trails.
Then the tour was very pleasant since the ski did not sink anything in the snow. Much faster forward and it was much less work needed to glide forward. On some minor downhills where it was now trails when skiing back the speed was considerable but it still felt safe. But it is probably wise to take it easy downhill with such skis, if you fall there is no automatic release of the skii (with such bindings I use) so you will have the skis on all the time if you happen to fall, making risk greater to get injury.
I have skins to my Combat Nato but have not tried them yet. I have the Asnes X-Skin 45mm NATO Nylon
https://www.en.asnes.com/produkt/nato-s ... m-spesial/
and the Asnes X-Skin 40mm RACE
https://www.en.asnes.com/produkt/x-skin-40mm-race/
Impregnation I have for the skins:
https://www.asnes.com/produkt/eco-skinp ... regnering/
Personally I would not say that my Combat Nato (210 cm) is extremely better in deep snow then my Asnes Amundsen Fram WL (205 cm). Combat Nato is better in deep snow but it was not as big difference that I expected. If the front part and tip of the Combat Nato would have been softer I can imagine it would have been very hard to skii in the deep snow, but thanks to the stiffness of the Combat Nato this was not a major problem (only a minor, but much me not used to this slight tendency for the front of ski trying to climb out of the deep snow).
Personally I would not mind if Asnes released a waxless (WL) version of the Combat Nato. For my type of skiing WL skis works OK. I do not think Asnes Ingstad WL (that has same width as Combat Nato) is suitable for my type of skiing, at least not is deep snow mostly back country skiing where stiffer front on the skii is desirable (at least for me).
It was one funny thing when I ordered my Combat Nato: same day I got mine delivered the company I bought the skis from announced rebate on alot of skis among them Combat Nato - it is now 25% rebate on the Combat Nato at this dealer (in Sweden). No luck there for me...
I will check weather now and if it is OK I will make a tour today also with my Combat Nato.
Hope someone have use of my brief comments of Combat Nato in above lines.
/Bo
My Combat Nato:
Weight of one Combat Nato with Rottefella BC Magnum binding:
Compare weight of one Asnes Amundsen Fram WL (205 cm) with Rottefella BC Manual binding: