[JohnF]

I ordered the 132mm x 200cm skins and they arrived in about 5 days from ordering. I got the twin tip attachments for my Jak Team 100's.

The packaging was minimal which I like. No stuff sacks or extra crap. The directions are straightforward and a trimming tool is included. There is a strip down the mddle of each skin, about 1-2" wide with no glue. Setting up the skins for the ski was easy. The attachments are fool proof and will not slip off. I have no on-snow use of them yet but they look like a quality product.

[Whitehonky]

I just ordered a set for the HellBents. Noah e-mailed me directly saying they didn't have 130mm in stock, but he could make some for me and have 'em out by Thursday so I have them in time for Roger's Pass/Revy trip in two weeks. From a service end, gotta' give high five's. I'll review 'em post Roger's Pass.
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"It's a strange world made up of extreme horizontal and vertical planes. Where you find diagonal, you find skiing."
~Chad Sayers

[Whitehonky]

Ok... didn't get to try the skins out on my Revy trip, as they did not arrive for over 2 weeks. This is the problem with shipping to Canada these days, as there is so much cross-border shopping right now due to the parity of the dollar, that the hold-up is huge... no fault of climbingskinsdirect.com. They sent a notification of delivery on the thursday as promised, after custom making a set (out of stock) on receipt of order on Tuesday.

I just cut and trimmed them. I've done a couple sets of BD skins prior to this, so I'm familiar with the process. Just reviewed the instructions and was done in about 30minutes. I thought the cutting tool was just fine. The twin tip and tail adjustment is simple and lovely. The shape of the tip and tail hook has a lot of "bite" and despite seeming shallow out of the bag, really grabs the very very blunt shovel and tail of the HellBent... not worried about clipping them off if I cross tips while skinning.

I like tip stretchers on all accounts, and these seem just fine.

The feel of the skin is nice and supple and they pack down surprisingly small for such a big skin.... definitely not a problem inside my jacket and I wear a fairly fitted jacket. Quality seems a fine compromise between bulk and performance from the "touch" perspective. Given the weight weenie in me (Hellbents and R8's), I don't know or care what they weigh, but it's less than my dog and sometimes I carry him around.... so we're good there.

All in all, I'm stoked to try these out this week and give'em an onsnow test. About 40cm expected up Whistler way by Friday.... so lots of goods to take the big boys out in the snow. I'll report back then.
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"It's a strange world made up of extreme horizontal and vertical planes. Where you find diagonal, you find skiing."
~Chad Sayers

[jw]

3 days using the set i have.
I was skeptical about the width of the tip and tail attachments as they just barely fit on the Icelantic Nomads (fat rounded tip/tail) i bought them for. However in use they proved to work just fine in that I never accidently knocked them off. The angled cam lock wires are a huge improvement over the old straight 'hard' loop attachments that used to be standard skin attachments on these type of rubber tip stretcher attachments.
I still do not like the tip tail attachments but they do work.
Hooking the tail up I have to be careful to get it on there just so and not let it slip off while I start pulling the skin apart to hook up the tip.
I was hoping the rubber on the tip attachment would seem more bomber to me than what I remember using but they are the same which is a bummer because I know that sooner or later that rubber will rip or wear out of the steel loop. I always carried a spare one for just that reason and I guess i'll have to start doing that again.
I can take the skins off easily without removing the ski but that is because of the short length of the Icelantics. Removing skins with skis on with longer length skis would definitely take some adjustment and I know it wouldn't be as easy as it is removing them with the Clipfix or other tail attachments.
Short of the long is that i don't like their attachments but I will live with them until they fail and then replace them with the Clipfix type attachments that i prefer.
The skins themselves are light and work just fine. I like them alot in fact!!!! I've always been an Ascension skin person and these feel lighter than similar sized skins in my quiver. They definitely fold up nicely.
Had them out on a good day for skin ice up and the skins did well. I like the fact that they included a bar of skin 'wax' with the skins. I also don't mind that there is no sack as i have a few laying around to use.
However I recommend you get some sort of sack for the skins for storage and transport to and from or even in the pack. I have a lot of skins from over the years and they are all in great shape and I think that is due to the fact that i'm quite anal about keeping them clean and protected which a bag goes a long way towards.
I think they should give you a bag option for additional $ but no biggie.

Overall i would say these are good skins for a good price but they could use better attachments. Of course for the price one could buy the skins and buy a different tip tail attachment kit from another company and still be a head in the price game.

[Whitehonky]

Just got back from a couple days in the slack country at Whistler/Blackcomb as I just got the skins for my hellbents. Quick access to the slackcountry is via a groom-set bootpack that is largely booted to shat.... the Hellbents skinned just fine with the climbing skin direct skins and mashed down the bootpack so I got good purchase throughout (note that this is a bootpack that is much steeper than a traditional skin track). As for fresh, I put in the skintrack up Lesser Flute today, and the rockered tip made it easier than any fresh skintrack I've ever done and I don't have a free-pivot binding on these, but it felt like less work. Kick turns were a bit clumsy but smoothed out over the day. Went a did a couple laps on cowboy and the skin track was pretty set by end of day, but the footprint underfoot makes purchase on any skin track pretty bomber. I only did minimal severe side-hill skinning in two days, but the shorter edge contact seemed OK... I was never too sketched feeling. Overall, despite weight, I think generally easier skinning on fresh skintracks, and average on set-up one's and better than average over bootpack.

A more detailed note on the skins... my first mileage on the www.climbingskinsdirect.com skins and they were very nice. Fantastic traction everywhere I went in pretty variable temp's ranging from -10C to -1C with no glopping. Didn't need to use the supplied wax and no glue issues keeping the skins in the jacket between laps. They are NOT bulky, which is lovely and I found their glide at least as good as the BD Ascension, if not a bit better. Overall, two thumbs up so far! I'll add this post to my review in the review section. HOpe to do more serious skinning next week.

The attachments for tip and tail worked well and NEVER slipped off on multiple yo-yo laps. I was nervous and they passed the test. By the third time, removal without taking the skis off was easy breazy.

I also agree that an option $5 or $10 stuff sack would be a nice option to the skin purchase. I just spent $7 on a decent one.
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"It's a strange world made up of extreme horizontal and vertical planes. Where you find diagonal, you find skiing."
~Chad Sayers

[gwest]

Ordered the 130mm 'simple skins'. The beefiness of the skins seems to fall between the BD ascension and the glidelite. Traction is as good as the ascensions, glide might be a bit better. Tough to judge. Glue's plenty sticky, probably not quite as much as BD (which are probably too sticky in my book). For a tail attachment i went with the Lou Dawson 'Rat Tail' method (you can google it and find it on his wildsnow site). That worked well too.

HOWEVER: although others have noted snow glop is not a problem, i had snow glop build up today, where others using BD and G3 skins did not. Another person using Voile skins had glop build up too. Just one incident so far, we'll see if this happens more. anyway, after a scrape-down session, i used the skin wax bar they provide (thankfully brought it with) and didnt have any problems the rest of the day.

Even if the skin wax application is necessary on days when the glop build up may be a problem, still worth it in my opinion for the big $$ savings.

[avypoodle]

I just got a pair of these skins recently. So far I have found them far superior to black diamond and BCA skins. They climb great, are easy to get on and off and leave no glue on the skis. I was surprised how quickly the skins arrived (5 days). One of the guys running the business is an old college friend of mine, and told me they have caught up on orders for the season and have a bunch more skins ready to ship. Tobey is a classy guy and a great skier who grew up in Jackson,WY. His operation kind of reminds me of the old ascension factory out in Ridgeway, CO. The quality and the price of these skins can't be beat, and as a bonus you can feel good about sticking it to the man and supporting the little guys in the ski industry.

[fajimr]

bump this up for updated reviews....

skins are on sale now but these are still less expensive (in the 130mm range at least). interested to hear about the performance and especially tip/tail attachments.

jim
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Just trying to stay out of the backseat.

[stinkymonday]

I recently added a pair of the twin tip skins for my Sickbirds. Not rubber-backed anymore, but the glue seems to work better without the rubber. The tip/tail attachments are very solid on the twin tips. A lot of people don't like those stretchy rubber tip attachments, but they've never really bothered me.

[Co-opski]

Fast service, nice skins.
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Ptarmigan Hardcore

[tOMfLOUNDER]

My three year old CSD skins for my voile insanes,(now in the possession of a friend), are still going strong.

The first CSD skins I got for my vectors early this winter had bad glue that would come off on the freshly waxed & scraped bases no matter what. CSD sent me a replacement set that has been fine until recently. The glue is "migrating" off of patches of the skin back & "stacking" or piling up in other spots. It's not sticking to the bases, but with the bald spots it's just a matter of time until they fail. I've tried spot repairing the bald spots with BD gold label but when they get folded & peeled open the glue seems to be pulling the gold label off the skin fabric leaving the same bald spots. First time I've ever had problems with glue & twice now in one season. More hassle than I want to deal with. I'll be shopping with those I've had a better experience with; voile,(BD), G3 or BCA for my skins from now on; or maybe go with clip skins.

Just the facts, tOM

[ayaws]

Update on my experience this year. I bought them earlier this season when I bought HoarHey's Wailer95s. Thought I'd give them a chance. They certainly have plenty of purchase on the uphill although after about 25 days on them, the edges are fraying and the glue is significantly balled up. I'll need to take a heat gun to them before next season to smooth that out and take a pair of scissors to the frayed edges. They seem to saturate faster than my G3s or BDs (ascensions) and take longer to dry. That's not really been much of a problem in our dry climate here in CO but if you're in a wetter spot, you might notice it.

Overall they're a fine pair of skins that could be better. I too would like the option of purchasing a stuff sack for them. I'm unsure if I'll buy them again, I really like BD's skins better.
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Just got another tuition bill from the school of hard knocks.

[Co-opski]

This November I ordered my 2nd pair, 130mm for my Bibby Pros. The tip loops work on the Moments well. They do require a good waxing to waterproof them (skiing in a rainforest here); I have not noticed any balling of glue with the pair on my Comis after 3 seasons. I did see some fraying on the edges but this may be a result of my trimming. $130 shipped to my PO Box in AK is not bad. Well worth using my own "skin bag" and waxing my own waterproofing.
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Ptarmigan Hardcore