New Asnes skis for the 2017-2018 season!

[Johnny]

It's always very exciting to discover what will be the next coolest thing for the upcoming season. Especially when it comes from your favorite ski companies. Here's some exciting, super-secret, insider news from Asnes...!

First, (your already heard the rumor here last winter), the Ingstad model will receive a major update. The wonderful guys who have been making skis for more than 90 years were able to reduce the weight by about 350 grams a pair. This new version will weight 2050g a pair for the 195cm, compared to 2400g for the previous version.

While being significantly lighter, it will now have rockered and tapered tips. According to Asnes, this will make the skis "Even easier to turn but also more stable when walking." Add to this some updated graphics, and a very nice colored "Signature" sintered base just like on the Skog and Nansen models. They will be available in 175,185,195 and 205cm. It seems like yet another must-buy ski to add to our shopping list isn't it?

Like if it wasn't enough, they will also introduce a third model of ski especially made for girls. Ladies and gentlemen, meet the Tonje Blomseth*. A brand new model "Similar to the Ingstad but for girls." That's some pretty exciting news.

Well, the bad news is that we will have to wait. Both skis won't be available until the middle of October. But that gives us almost three months to raise some money...

* Tonje Blomseth is definitely not your average girl next door. At the age of 17 she decided to take on the elongated landscape of Norway by foot. Nearly 3000 km later she was certain: her heart was in the outdoors and her spirit of an adventurer’s. "I knew at a very early age that I would not thrive following the normal path of today’s society. At 18 I decided that I would pursue my dreams of becoming a full-time adventurer even though I had to start from scratch." The now 23-year-old from Trondheim, Norway quit school to do expeditions for a living, often accompanied by her four dogs. She has her home base in Karasjok where she lives with her four legged friends and her two legged man

[lilcliffy]

Hey man

Any idea what the sidecut profile is?

Flex and camber?

[Johnny]

I asked them about the sidecut when they sent me the pictures, but they didn't answer... I suppose it must be the same as the previous one...? (84 62 74)

I'm looking forward to see the flex on these babies... I'm very curious about the Asnes version of a rockered ski... As far as I know, this is the first time they release a XC ski with rocker... (Except for the fat Eggi, which I've never seen around...) It should be interesting, considering the fact that they say it helps tracking... (Hey, I trust these guys... They know what they're doing... We, are just speculating about something we haven't tried on snow yet... )

Maybe something like Fischer's Nordic Rocker... Or maybe something more advanced? October should be exciting...! It makes me wonder that this could be the first real rockered XC ski...? Fischer and Rossi advertised some of their XC skis respectively as nordic and moderate rocker, but that's not really "rocker" as we know it...

[HBS]

My Nansens actually have some rocker:

[STG]

I am really impressed with Asnes skis. I purchased a pair of Kongsvold Jakt (96-66-85/no metal edge/soft tip/stiff mid-section) this last season and experienced some great powder days on them. These new models are probably dream skis too. Will you be able to purchase them in the U.S. (e.g., Neptune Mountaineering) or in Canada? Looking forward to winter-this summer has been too hot.

[lowangle al]

Waxable I presume?

[Johnny]

Yep, but the Nansen is not advertised as a rocker ski... HBS, it should be interesting to see the difference between your Nansens and the brand new rocker.

La Cordee and Norseman in Canada should have them later this season. And according to Cannatonic, Neptune should carry a lot of Asnes skis this year too, despite the recent corporate changes.

The only waxless model they have is the Amundsen, but the waxless version is not sold here in North America. They tried to sell the waxless concept to us Americans, but we didn't want it...

I can't wait to try this. When the Objective came out last year, I begged the guys at Voile to make some skinnier skis with the same construction, skinny, waxless and rockered. They were not closed to the idea, but hey, they are fat planks makers, not a XC ski company. The cool thing about Asnes is that the Skin-Lock half skins are very convenient, so a physical waxless version is not needed that much...

[Cannatonic]

yes, the new manager of Neptune said they'd be re-stocking the Asnes cupboard this fall. The new Ingstad looks cool. I'm guessing the tip rocker will be fairly small like Fischer. This is a massive weight reduction! The jury's out on that for me, I prefer Fischer's older heavier skis to the current ultra-light ones. When they get too light you lose some damping and stability over rough terrain or at high speed. I wonder if the NATO combat will be updated as well?

I discovered last season that I love this profile - 84-62-74 - probably because it's very close to the slalom/GS race skis I skied for 20 years. I've got NATO combat and Breidablick in 200's. They do everything pretty well, from XC to steep downhills.

You can see Asnes is clever with the lengths - the last cycle was 190, 200, 210cm. Now it's 195 or 205cm. It helps prevent market saturation - now people with 200's or 210's can add that pair of 205's they wanted! The 205's are as light as the old 200's.

[lilcliffy]

My Nansens actually have some rocker

That is what Fischer describes as "Nordic rocker"- meaning that the tips only open up once the camber underfoot is compressed. Your Nansen clearly has Nordic rocker- it is funny that Asnes is not describing this in the specs of this ski- there is zero Nordic rocker on my Asnes Combat Nato.

To date- to my knowledge- the only Asnes BC-XC ski ("fjellski") that is promoted as having rockered tips is the Gamme 54. I don't know whether the Gamme 54 has Nordic rocker- or whether it has a truly rockered tip....Perhaps those that have the Gamme 54 can chime in on that? It is hard to tell from the photo of the tips- on the Asnes website- whether the camber is compressed...https://www.en.asnes.com/produkt/gamme-54/
To me it looks like the camber is compressed- suggesting Nordic rocker. Asnes claims that the Gamme 54 is "longitudinally" rigid to support effective XC skiing- this is critically important with a rockered-tipped XC ski. If the rockered-tip tip is too soft, the ski will be completely unstable when XC skiing in deep snow- this is precisely the problem with my E-109.

Pretty sure that all of Asnes' "Alpine touring" skis ("toppturski") have truly rockered tips...

[lilcliffy]

The cool thing about Asnes is that the Skin-Lock half skins are very convenient, so a physical waxless version is not needed that much...

Yeah- I must say that the skin-lock/easy-skin is making my waxless backcountry XCD skis almost obsolete...