Asnes Amundsen Fram WL Waxless Skis

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bem
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:02 am
Location: Sweden

Asnes Amundsen Fram WL Waxless Skis

Post by bem » Wed Jan 09, 2019 5:21 pm

Johnny wrote: ...
In the last few years, the only Asnes waxless ski available on the market was the Amundsen. And it was not available anywhere in North America or Europe, it was sold only for the Swedish market. A few years ago, while traveling around Norway, some forum users (Hi Ben!) reported that the Asnes fishscale pattern was very rudimentary, and mostly used for rental shops. Well, this is definitely not the case with the new WL models.
Hi,
I'm from Sweden and I have used Asnes Amundsen Fram Waxless (WL) for two seasons (on my third season now).
My skis has 205 cm length (I'm 80 kg and 187 cm in height). I use Rotefella NN BC (Manual) with Alpina Alaska BC boots, and Asnes Spitsbergen Expedition ski poles.
https://www.en.asnes.com/produkt/amundsen-fram-bc/

I have used these skis rather much since early Feb 2017.
The longest tours I have made is two 50 km cross country tours. These two longer tours was following an old classic ski competition rail, first competition in 1966 and last was in 1987, but the trail still exist. It start on a lake, and then the trail go over various terrains like trails in the woods, over bogs, some open fields, some wider trails, some rather steep trails up and then gradually downhill. My father competed 6 times in this ski competition (in 1968, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1979). Nobody use this old trail for classic cross country skiing anymore, but some use part of the trail for driving snowmobiles on today. It is basically a cross country trail, and it is for cross country (not really Back Country, BC) I use my Amundsen Fram.
Anyway here is my experience with Asnes Amundsen Fram Waxless (WL).

First, they are stiff, but I wanted to try waxless so I had to get the Amundsen Fram WL then. But I think I would have prefered an Amundsen BC waxless but they do not exist (not back in 2017 and not today), since the Amundsen BC are not so stiff. I wanted reasonable width, Amundsen width is from tip to end 67-57-62 mm. I wanted to be able to use them in moderate soft snow and also in some groomed tracks. I really do not need the steel edge on the Amundsens but it was there.

In groomed tracks (at least over here) they barely make it and is alomst to wide, at least in fresh tracks that almost nobody has used yet for the day.

In moderate snow depth the skis works fine, but as the snow gets deeper the ski sink under the snow and it start to go slow, and is of course more work to move forward. On snow with moderate ice crust it works fine. On harder snow, often in end of season, they work excellent. The glide varies, on fresh snow regardless of temperature they tend to be slow, on more icy condition they can be rather fast. I have never needed to use any wax on them regardless of temeperature or snow conditions. I use various glider in the ends. In rather steep uphill they can have a tendecy to slip. But in general the fish scales pattern under the middle of the skii give You OK grip.

I ski also on competition classic cross country skis and compared to such skis these Amundsen Fram feels like lead skis and slow as a snail. But for their intended use the Amundsen Fram WL work nice in most conditions I would say, except deep snow, then You will strugle and it gets slow. In late Feb 2017 when I made the first 50 km run in the old competition trail it was not so deep snow and all was rather pleasant and not too painful cross country tour. But same 50 km trail in Feb 2018 was much harder with deep fresh snow and I really struggled but managaed to reach the goal. But I was really tired since I got not one meter for free. I think with a ski like Asnes Combat Nato it would have been much more pleasant trip in the deep snow in 2018. I plan to ski same 50 km again in Feb 2019, maybe I will try some other skis if it is deep fresh snow then.

So far I have used the Amundsen Fram skis in about total 600 km I would estimate. The waxless fish scales pattern is little worn and is not as sharp as it was when new, but it still do it's job reasonably good. But I think after this season the fish scales pattern will be almost too much worn.
For me the waxless (WL) has worked OK, it will be little slower with such skis but I have never got any ice under the skis so far and I have used them in many various temp and snow conditions (icy, fresh snow, wet snow). The biggest frustration is that in some snow conditions (deep fresh snow and in very wet snow) they have been slow as a snail and that can be frustrating, at least for me.
The quality is good in my opinion, except the fish scales pattern that is showing signs of be worn out in their edges.

Hope somone have use of this mini review of the Amundsen Fram Waxless.

regards,
Bo
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Last edited by bem on Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
bgregoire
Posts: 1511
Joined: Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:31 am
Ski style: Nordic backcountry touring with lots of turns
Favorite Skis: Fisher E99 & Boundless (98), Åsnes Ingstad, K2 Wayback 88
Favorite boots: Crispi Sydpolen, Alico Teletour & Alfa Polar

Re: New Asnes WL Waxless Skis 2018-2019 Ingstad WL & Nansen WL

Post by bgregoire » Wed Jan 09, 2019 7:20 pm

Hej Bem!

Valkommen till Telemarkprat och tack for din Amundsen Fram review!

Would it be ok if we place your review in its own thread? I think it will get more visibility there and I know some people here are interested in the Amundsen (I own a pair myself).

If your skis are 205cm, isn't that longer than the recommend length for the Amundsen Fram? Does this ski ever loose grip on dense snow or uphill due to the heavy camber?

Ha det bra!

Benjamin
I live for the Telemark arc....The feeeeeeel.....I ski miles to get to a place where there is guaranteed snow to do the deal....TM



User avatar
bem
Posts: 12
Joined: Sun Jan 06, 2019 4:02 am
Location: Sweden

Re: New Asnes WL Waxless Skis 2018-2019 Ingstad WL & Nansen WL

Post by bem » Thu Jan 10, 2019 12:42 am

bgregoire,
Sure, no problem to place my Amundsen Fram WL mini review in another or own thread. The main reason I placed it here was to show some experince about Asnes waxless skis.
About the ski length: I selected on purpuse some centimeters longer then the Asnes recommmend in their table, but their table is just a recommendation. To get sligtly more surface area that perhaps help some in deeper fresh snow (but I'm not sure it helped in my own experience).
I have not noticed that these skis really loose grip uphill (unless rather steep uphill but then You go like a V up or if very steep one may need track sideways up, I do not have or use any skins) or in dense (hard packed) snow but slighly less good grip on harder surface it is with WL skis. On icy condition the grip is for obvious resons not so good since the WL pattern can not get any real good grip on ice. The Amundsen Fram WL is stiffer then the Amundsen BC and I suppose the BC version should have little better contact with the snow for even better grip (if waxed properly). My main purpose was to see how good the waxless feature is on these 2017 versions of Amundsen Fram skis I have, and for me I think it works OK the way I use them. But maybe I would have choosen Amundsen BC if they had WL version of them but WL version of them does not exist. My best guess is that Asnes Combat Nato maybe should be the best choice (compromise) for my type of sking but they are not avaliable in waxless. It will be compromises in most cases whatever skis one select, unless one have money to buy several specialized skis.
/Bo



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