Touring speed comparison of skinny dbl camber vs. fat fishscaled ski

[lowangle al]

I did a ski yesterday starting at my local trail head on T4s and vector bc with HWs w/o the heel throws. I used to time myself on the uphill portion of this trail, it's 1.5 mi. with about 500' elevation gain. Twenty years ago 37 minutes was a good time and 33 minutes was the fastest time I remember. That was skiing on leather Merril Ultras with waxable Karhu XCD-GTs. I was surprised that I made it to the top in 36 minutes, but it confirmed my belief that it's not the ski that determines your speed as much as the boots. I consider the T4 to be in the same weight class as my Ultras as far as touring.

My conclusions were that the T4s although a little heavier toured as well as the leather boots and handled the downhill way better. It also confirmed that the vector bc is not a slow ski and it has decent glide.

[anemic]

That is pretty cool Al! I am pleasantly surprised.

[greatgt]

May be true for you but that doesn't compute with what this old boy has seen on the up down or all around...And they do wonders for some and that's real good but they are not particularly fast and certainly not when compared to cc skis of which many still ski...TM

[lowangle al]

May be true for you but that doesn't compute with what this old boy has seen on the up down or all around...And they do wonders for some and that's real good but they are not particularly fast and certainly not when compared to cc skis of which many still ski...TM

I probably would have gotten different results on more rolling terrain. I would think the more climbing the less difference there will be.

[connyro]

Same experience here LAA. Touring with steeper ups and downs, and the VectorBCs/lite plastic boots are somewhat faster. (and a HELL of a lot more fun!) On more rolling tours with mellow ups and downs, skinny double-cambers, wax, and light boots/nnnbc is way faster than Vectors/Excursions EXCEPT when breaking trail in deep snow: I would still rather have Vectors/Excursions for this.

[fisheater]

Al, are you still in PA, or are you in AK now? Either place 500 feet of vertical sounds like fun to me

[lowangle al]

I'm back in Ak. where my local trails just got good. That 500' of vert is spread over 1.5 miles. I do laps on the best of it which is a run of less than 100'. I'm sure you have equally big hills in Mi.

[Cannatonic]

sounds like a great tour to me. Leather boot advantage isn't necessarily weight, the flexibility of them can be more comfortable for touring. My aching foot bones need any help they can get. There have been different version of the Ultra, the ones I had were light, like beefy XC boots almost. The stiffer heavier ones are definitely like lead anchors, the current Alico Double is a brick.

[greatgt]

For lace up, thinking the Ultra was..well...the ultimate....Feels like part of your anatomy....Been skiing different skis because the conditions change about every day....But the boots...er...truth be known been skiing my new "used" Snowfield 2....Merrill lace ups....and totally beat Andrews also....Guess the only thing I'm using all the time is the 20 year old ski poles....TM

[lowangle al]

[quote="greatgt.Guess the only thing I'm using all the time is the 20 year old ski poles....TM[/quote]

Are they the double wrapped fiberglass Excells that came with big yellow baskets? I used mine for ten years too long because I couldn't give up on a pole that never let me down for all those years.