Beware Canadian MilSur Skis!

[Saul]

They are heavy, but they are cool.
I don't use them much, but I keep them in my office so that I can look at them and flex them throughout the day.
They make me happy.

Those Karhu Combats would please many a skier.

Good to hear! Mine just arrived yesterday and I'm pretty pumped about them. I bought these on ebay because I liked the aesthetics, price, and specs. Although as a total beginner, I'm still trying to understand what I just bought haha.

They were advertised as having a "camber-and-a-half". Did yours perform like a 1.5-cambered ski or were they effectively single-camber? I ask because the flex on mine feels softer than I expected when I squeeze them together with my hand, and I'm wondering if they've lost camber stiffness from sitting around for years.

I still have a lot of reading to do on mounting bindings, waxing, and skins, but I figured understanding my ski's camber is a good starting point.

[DPO777]

Hi everyone! Long-time reader but first-time poster.

I have been looking around the forums for a while and kept coming back to the USGI Asnes ski sold by Coleman's as a fun, inexpensive way to get into waxed backcountry skis, especially given Lilcliffy's glowing review of them. The unfortunate thing is that this ski does not ship to the Truth North Strong and Free. In came Hero Outdoors, a milsur outfitter in Ottawa which has the same ski, with same photos and description, listed on their site for a clean $30cad:

https://www.herooutdoors.com/u-s-armed- ... hill-skis/

So of course I ordered those bad boys. Fast forward to today, when I was very sorely disappointed to receive a completely different ski in the mail. This one does not have the pre-bored binding holes, has a different shape to it, and says "made in Canada' on it. To add insult to injury, one of the skis was rusted to high hell. Best that I can tell, these are Karhu combat skis and, given the discussions on this site, not worth their weight in foamcore. Would anyone care to confirm that this is what I've got my hands on?

IMG_1381.JPG IMG_1379.JPG IMG_1376.JPG 20211125_120215.jpeg

I guess the purpose of this post is to let any fellow Canadian skiers know that Hero Outdoors is not actually selling the ski they have listed on their site. I'm out $75 with the shipping and these guys don't accept returns, but what can you do. If you're reading Lilcliffy, I'm interested to know how you acquired your pair up here - would love to actually give the real Asnes USGI ski a shot. And, well, if anyone in the Ottawa/Gatineau corridor is interested in purchasing a cheap pair of Karhus, I'm your man

A Facebook seller is selling those Karhu Combat Skis for a $100 a pair, claims they are new and states he has a 100 pairs. Must have got old stock that came out of the Quebec Karhu plant.

Search "Ski de back country ( back in stock )" and they should show up under Montreal area.

I agree with lilcliffy they are not necessarily a garbage ski once you know what they are and what there capabilities are. I do agree 100% the reseller you got them from should not have misrepresented them as Asnes and equally the facebook seller should not be comparing them the the Asnes Nato ski as the closest comparison because obviously they are two different skis in a lot of respects.

I think the biggest difference is that Asnes and K2 respected the fact that the army should have a pretty decent ski considering their intended use. Nevertheless the army went for the low bid and the army got bought solid Karhu skis that were less the optimal in specs for the purpose.

I don't completely agree that the foam core are crap skis as my old and well used Karhu XCD GTs still are solid and have retained their camber. I do block them up over the off season. And as lilcliffy mentioned they are not much different than the Karhu Orion XCD,save the Omnitrak base, which is a foam core as well. A friend who owns those skis mentioned you have to work your turn on them but they will get you there and back in the rolling backcountry.

I haven't seen the Karhu combats placed base to base and compressed the camber but would be interesting to see how they compare with the Orions.

In the end 30 bucks isn't a bad price but yes not what you expected but maybe the low price might have been a clue as compared to what the true Asnes would sell for.

Oh well if you don't use them make coat racks out of them or as lilcliffy mentioned just keep in shop or office as a stress reliever muscle flex exerciser.

Karhu Orion