hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

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RacehorseStu
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:59 pm
Location: Alberta/Nova Scotia
Ski style: Nordic BC, nordic racing
Favorite Skis: Rossi BC110
Occupation: Student

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by RacehorseStu » Thu Dec 21, 2017 11:01 pm

WHOA was I ever confused. No such thing as a BC100 ski! Definitely going for the 110, probably in 179.
Skis: Rossignol BC110
Bindings: Voile 3-pin cable
Boots: Heierling leathers (thrift store specials)

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lilcliffy
Posts: 4112
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Stanley, New Brunswick, Canada
Ski style: backcountry Nordic ski touring
Favorite Skis: Asnes Ingstad, Combat Nato, Amundsen, Rabb 68; Altai Kom
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska BC; Lundhags Expedition; Alfa Skaget XP; Scarpa T4
Occupation: Forestry Professional
Instructor at Maritime College of Forest Technology
Husband, father, farmer and logger

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by lilcliffy » Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:34 pm

Great to hear from you Race Horse!

Good luck in Quebec! Let us know what you end up buying, and tell us the tale of skiing on it!
Happy Holidays and Happy Trails!
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.



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lilcliffy
Posts: 4112
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Stanley, New Brunswick, Canada
Ski style: backcountry Nordic ski touring
Favorite Skis: Asnes Ingstad, Combat Nato, Amundsen, Rabb 68; Altai Kom
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska BC; Lundhags Expedition; Alfa Skaget XP; Scarpa T4
Occupation: Forestry Professional
Instructor at Maritime College of Forest Technology
Husband, father, farmer and logger

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by lilcliffy » Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:23 pm

Wicked conditions here in the hills- VERY cold- -24C over night, highs of -18C during the day, sunny and windy- same weather forecast into late next week.

2 feet of refrozen base- more than a foot of dry soft settled snow on top.

I have decided that grip waxing the entire base of my touring skis is da bomb.

Out all afternoon with a group over rolling to steep terrain- approx. 15kms. 4 different skis- waxed differently- same terrain- same snow- took turns breaking trail through deep soft snow.
1) 210cm Asnes Combat Nato: Swix polar waxed base, tip to tail- Swix green kick waxin the kick zone.
2) 205cm Fischer E-109 Tour: Swix hard glide wax in the glide zones- Swix green kick wax in the kick zone.
3) 205cm Madshus Eon Wax: Swix hard glide wax in the glide zones- Swix green kick wax in the kick zone.
4) 205cm Fischer E-109 Crown: swix hard glide wax in the glide zones.

Observations:
1) E-109 Crown was BRUTAL- no grip- needed both kicker skins for XC and climbing- didn't have any...(duh).
2) Eon Wax was decent- needed more grip on steep climbs- needed to put on skins- didn't have any...(duh).
3) E-109 Tour was decent- needed more grip on steep climbs- the Easy-Skin rocks!
4) Combat Nato was a machine- enough grip to not even need the Skin-Locks when climbing- just as much glide as any of them, even more when XC skiing because of the better grip- AMAZING trail-breaker- unanimous agreement on the best deep snow flex and best trail-breaker.
5) Eon and E-109 the easiest to turn- E-109 the best IMO. Combat Nato still arced wonderful long-radius turns though.
6) E-109 has the weakest trail-breaking tip.
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.



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lilcliffy
Posts: 4112
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Stanley, New Brunswick, Canada
Ski style: backcountry Nordic ski touring
Favorite Skis: Asnes Ingstad, Combat Nato, Amundsen, Rabb 68; Altai Kom
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska BC; Lundhags Expedition; Alfa Skaget XP; Scarpa T4
Occupation: Forestry Professional
Instructor at Maritime College of Forest Technology
Husband, father, farmer and logger

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by lilcliffy » Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:29 pm

Forgot to mention- applied Swix green wax ahead of the scales on the E-109 Crown- HUGE improvement- though not as good as the other three skis.
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.



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fisheater
Posts: 2509
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Location: Oakland County, MI
Ski style: All my own, and age doesn't help
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Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska, Alico Ski March
Occupation: Construction Manager

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by fisheater » Wed Dec 27, 2017 8:15 pm

Interesting report Gareth. I managed to get in 10 miles yesterday. We were at 0 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday morning when I prepped my skis for hopefully about 7" of fresh. I was not sure if my local trails had much traffic on Christmas Day. My last time out I had waxed with Swix blue V-40, and it had 4 or 5 layers from the back of the heel to the tip to maximize grip at the warm end of blue and thin packed snow.
This time about 7" of powder? Well it was 0 degrees F, the coldest wax I have is Swix green V-20. I figured go full ski. Well I certainly had grip. I have never been able to go straight up the short, steep, and numerous hills. I have never experienced any like that. Glide was severely lacking, but I had the place to myself. Conditions were about 3.5" on top of about 3.5" of chopped up from Christmas hikers on top of 2" of packed glacial refrozen. I had first tracks about half of the 10 miles with three different skiers looping in. I mysteriously found glide at about six miles, and lost it for the last mile. I guess I could have tried more green, or scraped and tried again, but it wasn't terrible. It was a beautiful day, with nobody crossing my trail. I had the place to myself, I was on skis, maybe not as fast as I like, but it was great to be out.
I guess it is not much like New Brunswick, but it was a fun ski. I reaffirmed that the USGI is a fun trail ski for this area. I also realized that I need to add klister to my wax kit as many times I am trying to make wax work when I should be using klister. I also need to buy some polar green for the wax kit. We get periods of zero, the snow is great at zero, I should be prepared. I hope to go north soon, there is a real Nordic shop in that area. Time for klister and polar green kick wax. If I put my head to it, and work on klister I may not need to have waxless skinnies. I will just have a klister and a wax pair of USGI's ;)



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Cannatonic
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Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by Cannatonic » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:33 pm

great report LC! "Pinnah" advocates for using full-length grip wax also.

http://web.archive.org/web/201510021509 ... r/wax.html

after experimenting with wax & scales I only like the fischscale skis on spring corn snow conditions. It's a shame to use them when it's below freezing.
"All wisdom is to be gained through suffering"
-Will Lange (quoting Inuit chieftan)



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lowangle al
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Location: Pocono Mts / Chugach Mts
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Occupation: Retired cement mason. Current job is to take my recreation as serious as I did my past employment.

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by lowangle al » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:42 pm

Full length grip wax is especially helpful in fresh deep powder where even with full weight on a ski it doesn't hit anything solid.



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greatgt
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Joined: Wed Dec 13, 2017 7:37 am

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by greatgt » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:47 pm

Thinking go with the wax pocket....In these conditions below zero skiing the snow will be slow to begin with...Have had no problems with polar and green for breaking and the skis have been ok as far as cruising...But the crust is the biggest factor...If you don't have serious tips and length or way wide skis it's going to get you....TM



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lilcliffy
Posts: 4112
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Stanley, New Brunswick, Canada
Ski style: backcountry Nordic ski touring
Favorite Skis: Asnes Ingstad, Combat Nato, Amundsen, Rabb 68; Altai Kom
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska BC; Lundhags Expedition; Alfa Skaget XP; Scarpa T4
Occupation: Forestry Professional
Instructor at Maritime College of Forest Technology
Husband, father, farmer and logger

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by lilcliffy » Thu Dec 28, 2017 2:50 pm

lowangle al wrote:Full length grip wax is especially helpful in fresh deep powder where even with full weight on a ski it doesn't hit anything solid.
Very, very true.
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.



User avatar
lilcliffy
Posts: 4112
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 2015 6:20 pm
Location: Stanley, New Brunswick, Canada
Ski style: backcountry Nordic ski touring
Favorite Skis: Asnes Ingstad, Combat Nato, Amundsen, Rabb 68; Altai Kom
Favorite boots: Alpina Alaska BC; Lundhags Expedition; Alfa Skaget XP; Scarpa T4
Occupation: Forestry Professional
Instructor at Maritime College of Forest Technology
Husband, father, farmer and logger

Re: hemiboreal forest skiing in New Brunswick Canada

Post by lilcliffy » Sun Dec 31, 2017 7:22 am

greatgt wrote:...But the crust is the biggest factor...If you don't have serious tips and length or way wide skis it's going to get you....TM
We didn't end up with the death crust- we ended up with 2 feet of solid frozen white concrete.

BUT- thankfully we ended up getting a big cold snow storm on XMas day, giving us about a foot of now settled, cold soft, snow over a solid base.
Cross-country AND down-hill skiing in the backcountry.
Unashamed to be a "cross-country type" and love skiing down-hill.



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