If you’re anything like us, you’re a little bit irritated and maybe a little bit confused by the binding situation in the ski market these days. This morning as I was setting up the photo for this comparison I sent a snapshot to Patrick Moore (known to the cool kids as Toque, only because he’s so Canadian) for his comment. Patrick is a great friend and equally great wax nerd, and we send each-other espresso pictures and tidbits on a regular basis. Here’s our exchange:

Z: Quick take on binding options: confusing or awesome?

T: Confusing. Bindings are, unequivocally, the most ridiculous part of the ski industry. By far.

So that’s his opinion. But it’s not why I shared the conversation. It was his follow-up that ensure that this would be a web post, and not just a facebook picture. Here it is, straight from Toque:

I don’t use gifs often. But when I do, it’s in relation to bindings.

The most irritating thing about bindings is their cost. We know how much goes into developing and producing skis and it’s easy to justify the expense of skis, and rationalize the performance benefits of good skis. But bindings are basically widgets. They’re cheaply made necessary commodities and they cost around or above $100 per pair. $100? For chrissakes, I can buy this Ironman refrigerator for only $50! You think that sucker has less molded plastic or stamped steel in it? Or do you think it has a bigger market so they’ll make their money on volume? Please.

Leaving aside my price griping, we have a lot of options to deal with this days. Fischer and Rossignol have teamed up to develop a new slide-on plate system called IFP (which stands for Integrated Fixation Plate). The new IFP plate skis from Fischer and Rossignol will only work with a new Turnamic binding from Fischer or Rossignol. Meanwhile, Rottefella continues to license their NIS (Nordic Integrated System) to Madshus and others. To confuse things a little more, Fischer has released an NIS-compatible version of their new Turnamic binding. And none of this even acknowledges everything going on at Salomon with the SNS and Prolink (NNN compatible) platforms.

When we consider that all we really want is a functional way to hold the boot to the ski, it’s tempting to ask the question: why? Why make it all so complicated? Well, the answer is simple, and I’ve already alluded to it. It’s profitability. Bindings are a great way to make money. I guess Fischer and Rossi got sick of paying too much to Rotefella for boot soles, NIS plates and bindings, and wanted to make all that profit themselves. The good news is that the introduction of the competing system has, in fact, driven prices down, marginally.

The other good news is that Boot/Binding compatibility is going the right direction. Salomon still supports their SNS system with the SNS sole, and the Pilot and Propulse bindings. But everything else, including the Salomon Prolink system, is all universally compatible across all NNN-style boot and binding solutions. So, no matter what NNN boots you’ve got, you can click into any NNN, Turnamic, or Prolink binding.

The more confusing thing is the proliferation of solutions at the ski/binding interface. That’s what we’re going to try to simplify for you. For now, we’re focused on NNN solutions. The only solution for SNS compatibility is to screw-on an SNS binding. Those can be screwed-on to all existing binding plate systems without much hassle. You might see some Salomon sponsored World Cup athletes using Salomon Prolink bindings screwed on top of skis with plates on them. This comes down to sponsorship obligations – there is no good reason to screw a Prolink binding onto a ski with a plate mounted for another binding system – your Prolink boots will work with other bindings.

Alright. That’s a lot of words. Time to cut to the chase. The chase starts here:

From Left to Right:

The left-most ski is sporting the new IFP (integrated fixation plate). You can screw an SNS binding onto it, but for NNN compatibility your only option is a Turnamic binding.

Second from Left. Fischer Turnamic Skate Race Pro.
$90
108grams (weights do not include plate).
Position is adjustable in 5mm increments, with three positions forward and three positions back of neutral (same as NIS). The adjustability is tool-less – you don’t need a key. But you need a strong finger to operate the catch.
This is a functional binding and its performance is on-par with everything else here. The binding is actuated by twisting the large knob at the front of the binding. This is easy to do with gloves on your hands, which is positive. You can only adjust the heel plate position by removing the entire binding from the plate.

Third from Left. Fischer Turnamic Skate Race Pro NIS.
$90
110.5grams.
Look closely. This ski has an NIS plate. This is a Turnamic binding for use on your NIS-plate equipped skis.
The adjustability is the same as all the others – 5mm increments and the same number of positions. The adjustability is tool-less – you don’t need a key. But you need a strong figure to operate the catch.
This is the one binding we haven’t actually skied on, but we can make some assumptions based on shared features and functions. This is a functional binding and its performance is on-par with everything else here. The heel plate is not attached to the body of the binding, and is easy to adjust because the little catch lever is lifted off the plate far enough to slide your finger under. But you will want to make sure to position the binding far enough back so that you don’t stand on that lever.

Third from Right. Rotefella Xcelerator 2.0.
$90
93.5grams.
Position adjustment requires a separate NIS key.
You’re probably already familiar with this binding. It is elegant in its simplicity, with only one moving part. It’s also irritating to use. It can be very hard to actuate the clasp with gloves on your hands. Some racers have felt that the binding doesn’t provide the most positive and secure feeling on the ski. Occasionally a batch of bindings has had issues staying latched shut. Nobody loves these bindings, but they generally work well, with only a slight tinge of irritation creeping in around the edges of your experience. These bindings sit lower on the ski than any other options, but about 1mm.

Second from Right. Rotefella Xcelerator Pro Classic (with a skate bumper).
$130
98.8grams.
Position is adjustable in 5mm increments. Adjustment is tool-less. No key is required. But the heel plate adjustment is almost impossible with gloves on – especially if it’s cold out (like, say, in winter).
We started using these bindings on demo skis because we figured the tool-less operation would make it a breeze to swap bindings from one pair to another. Almost. The heel plate thing is a bummer – especially when your hands are already frozen from standing out in the cold handing out skis. But this isn’t a problem for most skiers!
The upside is that these are great to ski on. They sit just a little higher off the ski, with about 1mm more ramp than the normal Xcelerator binding (very much on-par with the Turnamic bindings in terms of position off the ski). The platform is wider, and the connection is more secure from foot to ski than the Xcelerator. This is the binding I prefer to skate on. Funny thing that it’s made to be a classic bindings (we just swap out the bumpers). The actuator is still a pain in the cold with gloves on. The expense is absurd.

Right-most. Rotefella Xcelerator Pro Skate.
$130
117.8grams.
Same positions, same tool-less operation as the Pro Classic.
Remember binding wedges? This sucker lifts your toe about 5mm higher than any of the other bindings. That wedge idea really peaked a couple of years ago, and while some skiers still really like the feel of a wedge, I personally feel that these are too extreme to be a day-to-day solution. While most racers stick to one binding platform, I like to have the wedge bindings available for those days when they seem to really make a difference. They almost always feel more slippery than flat bindings, but we only occasionally find them to actually provide higher average speed. The problem is – when they’re faster, they can be significantly faster. We’ve seen 20 seconds in a 1.5km loop at the most extreme (Craftsbury snowmaking loop – tested by Amy, who is infallible). On the downside, some skiers (like Noah Hoffman, for example) really struggle to ski well on them. I think it has to do with ankle flexibility – the extreme wedge bindings require more of it.
What can I tell you? We keep these around, and use them when it makes sense. But we don’t sell a lot of them or recommend them too liberally.

Happy Thanksgiving! This spring we ran an Earth Day promotion in which we partnered with our ski suppliers to make a $100 contribution to Protect Our Winters for each pair of skis that was ordered. We had never done anything like that, but we felt strongly that it is the responsibility of all winter sports businesses to raise awareness of the issues surrounding climate change, and create opportunities for consumers and the industry to join forces to protect winter.

The promotion got a much better response than we expected, and we ended up sending a check for $4600 to Protect Our Winters. And even though we were reducing our margins on the skis we sold, it was good business as well. It seemed to give people a great reason to think about skiing, and we picked up more than double the number of orders we thought we might get.

As a small business, it’s tempting to offer sales or discounts to boost business. It’s worth noting that the Earth Day promotion offered no discounts on our prices, which are generally higher than those found at other retailers. It’s instructive for us to see clear evidence that skiers are as motivated by an opportunity to contribute to an important cause, as they are by an opportunity to get a bargain price. It says a lot about our customers, and reinforces the reasons that the ski industry is a really rewarding place to put our energy.

Now we’ve got another idea to help us join forces with our customers to combat climate change. From now until December 15^th, we’ll purchase Carbon Offsets for the shipping of any item purchased from our web store.

Purchasing carbon offsets isn’t exactly the same thing as reducing our own carbon footprint. It’s tempting to claim that it’s simply buying good feelings and a clear conscience. Fair enough. What we see in reality is that buying a clear conscience is a sign that you have a conscience. Awareness and action are close partners. We all can do more in our own lives, and every time we take a small step to make a difference we own a small piece of our own footprint. If nothing else, this will help Amy and myself feel that we have not forgotten that we owe our livelihood and lifestyle to winter. These things are important during the holiday bonanza season!

As always, thanks for your support and partnership.

At midnight on March 23, 2018, my longtime friend Tom and I started the Grand Traverse, a 40-mile backcountry race that starts in Crested Butte, Colorado, and makes its way over Star Pass (among others) to finish in Aspen. This race has been on my bucket list for quite a while, so I was happy when Tom asked if I wanted to be his partner.

You register for this race approximately four months ahead, so you have plenty of time to fixate on all the details of the race. I really thrive on setting a challenging athletic goal and then figuring out how to accomplish it. For me, this doesn’t mean winning the event, but doing everything I can to finish and feel decent about how I did.

This race was kind of a challenge for me to wrap my brain around and prepare for because all the skiers use alpine touring gear, and I had never been in an AT event before this one. The mandatory gear list was enormous! Each competitor had to bring everything from an avalanche shovel, probe, and beacon to an emergency shelter, stove, and down pants. In my mind, I was envisioning a massive blizzard rolling in and having to survive out in the cold mountains for a night.

I never actually weighed my pack, but just to give you an idea of how much racers have to carry, the amount of fluid alone required at the start weighed 6.5 lbs. I even had Zach sew me a special shirt that could hold a water bladder in the front so I could distribute some of the weight off my back. I also bought a front food pack from Function Before Fashion, a small business in Crested Butte.

In the early stages of race prep, I mostly focused on overall fitness. I think the main reason I love to sign up for epically long suffer fests is because these events give me the motivation to get out the door, even when I should be at home working, cleaning, or doing something more productive. As my training progressed, I really started to stress about the gear list and what the race would actually be like.

In August, I finished the Leadville 100 MTB race in 10:04 (which I was very happy about). But that race coincided with our off season, and I had gone out to Colorado several weeks before to acclimatize. I had also either biked or driven most of the course ahead of time. For the Grand Traverse, I was going out just two days before the race, and we had recently finished up our busy season, which usually means working seven days a week, 10+ hours a day, from September on.

As the race drew closer, I started to spend a lot of time scouring the internet for information about the race course to try to get an idea of what I was getting into. I found some helpful articles with low-resolution maps of the course as well as some YouTube videos of previous races.

Probably the most helpful information came from a series of YouTube videos made by Team CB. These videos had a lot of tips about the Grand Traverse itself and what ski mountaineering folks do for training and during the race. They also had an episode dedicated to the gear and food they brought along. It seemed a little crazy to me because they had everything from a Lycra race suit and these little glove covers to a wind poncho that came out of their very small pack and wrapped around them when they needed it.

I wasn’t really sure how my partner and I would fare with our relative speeds, and our goal was to finish, not necessarily place. So I was more concerned about being warm enough and not looking like a total tool with a lot of this super specialized gear.

But I did end up buying the lightest allowable air mattress and two-person emergency shelter. I also bought a lightweight pack from Patagonia that would fit all my gear. In retrospect, I think I planned pretty well but can definitely see how some of the specialized gear would have been helpful. Dynafit in particular makes some amazing shirts and pants to hold a variety of items, such as skins and flexible water carriers. I would definitely consider these items if I were to do this event again.

The day of the race was quite crazy and a bit trying. The race doesn’t start until midnight because of avalanche danger, so you need to sit tight for a very long time. This year, race day also coincided with a fairly significant wet weather event, which dumped snow and rain all day long in Crested Butte, and up to 2 feet of snow up high. As a result, the organizers had to change the course to a Grand Reverse, a route that starts and finishes in Crested Butte.

Some claim this is a harder course, but I can’t really weigh in because I’ve never done the route from Crested Butte to Aspen. The organizers did say a large part of the course in and around Crested Butte would have to be on foot because of low snow. I was a little concerned about this because I have a bum knee, so I packed some extra Advil and running shoes, just in case. My knee has rarely totally stopped working for me, so I was pretty confident I could make it.

Lined up for the start – Image stolen without permission from the organizer’s facebook page.

The race started at midnight, and we were very fortunate to have clear skies and relatively warm temperatures by then. (I think it was about 26F at the start.) We started out fairly conservatively up the first hill, up and over the Crested Butte Mountain resort.

After the first steep pitch, the course became a lot more gradual. We plugged along at a pretty decent pace until the top of the course where we removed our full skins. At that point, we descended the backside of Crested Butte mountain. There were a few sections of pretty steep alpine terrain along with a good section of flat terrain where skating without skins was the preferred method. I was sort of surprised by how slowly a lot of the AT skiers skated. I guess it helps to be a Nordic skier!

Once we got down to the valley below, everyone was kind of bunched up in a small area putting on skins again. Tom and I were separated for a little while, so we didn’t get to talk about which skins to put on. We had specifically cut down the width of the skins to increase speed. Fortunately, we both put on the wider, ¾-length race skins made by Pomoca and Dynafit.

At this point, the course follows the river valley down to the start of the Star Pass climb. It ended up being a little rollier than I expected, and the skinning track was only one pair of skis wide, with really punchy pole tracks. It was very hard to pass in this section, so we basically just got in line and went at a conservative pace. Near the start of Star Pass, there were some pretty lean snow sections.

We also ran into a couple stream crossings. Based on information from the event Facebook feed ahead of time, we were pretty sure that we would be crossing the streams in our boots. Fortunately, there was a small snow bridge at all locations, so our feet remained dry.

Once we started up to Star Pass, I started to get excited. The field began to spread out a bit, and the course seemed way more gradual than I was expecting. We plugged along really well until the 12-mile point. At this point, Tom’s heart rate was good (around 150 bpm), but it seemed like he was starting to get tired. We slowed down a little, but by 15 miles in, he was hitting a wall and stopping every couple minutes to lean over his poles.

Tom is a former Marine Cobra helicopter pilot and was a Division I collegiate cross-country ski racer. Unfortunately, his very impressive background worked against him this time around because I think he took it for granted that he would be able to finish the race without a lot of training leading up to it.

This is Star Pass in daylight. Image stolen from organizer’s facebook.

We kept going up the Pass and hoped to get to the next checkpoint so we could come up with a plan. The location of the next checkpoint wasn’t incredibly clear to us, so we just kept slogging along. I believe the next checkpoint came at about 17 miles into the race, right below Star Pass. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a fire, snowmobiles, or anything else to indicate where it was, and the sun still wasn’t up. The temp was probably in the single digits as well, so we didn’t want to hang around too long. We checked in with the staff and told them we were going to head back down.

I was hoping the descent would give Tom a little rest and rejuvenate him somewhat, but that didn’t turn out to be the case. The descent ended up being fairly technical from all the new snow. By the time we were going down, the descent was fairly narrow, and it was windy out. Tom had to stop a bunch just to catch his breath. And then his legs started cramping.

This was “skiable” in the race. Image stolen from organizer’s facebook page.

It took us ages to get back down to Brush Creek, and there was so much more terrain on the way down than I had remembered coming up. By this point, Tom was really hurting. The sun still wasn’t hitting us yet, so I just tried to keep him moving and reminded him to keep eating and drinking.

We finally made it back to Brush Creek, where I figured we would get to an aid station or at least be able to take a solid rest in the sun. When we finally were able to take that break, it was clear my partner was finished. Before I could even jerry-rig a tow system, he had called for help. We waited for about half an hour before a volunteer on a snowmobile arrived and drove Tom to the nearest aid station, which was about 2 miles away. When I got there after skiing back, he seemed relieved and planned to catch a ride back to the start/finish area.

Since he seemed safe and relatively fine, I asked the officials if it was OK to finish the race unofficially on my own. They were very supportive (and more importantly so was my partner, so I headed off). The last 7.5 miles or so were mostly walking or hiking on roads and mountain bike trails. I crossed the line in just under 12 hours.

In retrospect, it’s really hard to put the Grand Traverse into words. It is obviously a very difficult athletic pursuit, and it takes a lifestyle of winter outdoor fanaticism to make it seem easy. All the super slick gear now seems like a good idea, but it’s also a good idea to train a lot with your partner, so you know your paces will be similar. Also, the list of required gear is extensive, so every place you can shave weight is really critical.

As long as the weather is stable, it is sort of like racing a very long XC ski race, and the gear you need is very similar to what you would want in a similar circumstance. (Also, if you are using XC ski poles, put on the biggest poles baskets you have!)

I want to thank the Grand Traverse race organizers and volunteers for putting on such a great event and for making the hard decision to change the course at last minute so the race would be doable and safe.

I also want to thank Tom for giving it his all and staying stoic, even when he was clearly hurting and not feeling well – and for forgiving me after the fact if I pushed him too hard to continue as long as he did. (Some tears and a bloody ass from chafing are a testament to his suffering!) Last, but definitely not least, thank you to my friends, family, and Tom’s fiancée Lilli for putting up with us and supporting us in our quest for punishment.

2017-18 Review

Salomon has been on a roll in recent years, having launched a series of updates and revisions to their race models that have pushed their ski offerings ever closer to the top of the pile. Last year they finally filled out a full line of S-Lab products with cold, universal, and warm models in both skate and classic, as well as classic zeros. It’s a well conceived and delivered line-up.

Last season’s new products were the “Blue” model skate ski and the classic zero ski. We entered the season with high hopes for both models, but with no prior testing experience. Salomon has not been the best at getting new material out early enough for meaningful testing, although this year things went a bit better (see the preview section below).

Our hopes were really high for the blue model skate skis – at least in part because cold new snow was the one area where we felt somewhat frustrated by the performance of the yellow “universal” model skis in the previous two years. When we arrived in Altenmarkt to select the skis in August we were initially disappointed that the new blue model did not represent a change in camber or material configuration. It was just a cold base material applied to the same ski. This didn’t address the overarching concern that we had with the characteristics of the yellow model in cold North American snow. On the other hand, the production looked good, with enough built-in variation in available cambers that we were able to select material with low and smooth release angles and appropriate contact areas for cold weather. While we always want experience with new materials on the snow, the fact that we were dealing with essentially the same model meant that we had a good starting point for selections.

One problem we often face with cold model skis is finding appropriate conditions for testing. Sometimes we don’t run into enough cold new snow early enough in the season to get a good read on things. December 2017 was somewhat exceptional in this regard, as we bumped into an extended period of incredibly cold weather – topped off with a Christmas vacation trip to Mont Ste Anne where I don’t think we saw temps above -20C for almost a week! The trip wasn’t set-up to be a testing trip, but the cold model Salomon skis got their chance to shine regardless. The combination of cold base material and our carefully selected cambers seemed to deliver some of the only skate skis that wanted to slide at all in the super-aggressive cold snow. We spent most of the week classic skiing because it was the only thing that was fun, and the blue model classic skis also really surfaced as a favorite.

The zero skis got an even earlier chance to shine, as the Super Tour in West Yellowstone featured a mass start classic in tricky conditions near freezing, and a big part of the field went on zero skis. Tad Elliott hadn’t ever skied on his new pair, but day-one on the zeros went pretty well. A flat-course classic race isn’t Tad’s best event, but he had a great day on “ridiculous” skis. We heard the sentiment echoed several times over the course of the season, and Salomon skiers started to think of those zero-degree days as big opportunities for them.

It’s worth noting that these zero skis are different from most. The common design is to inlay some clear or rubberized base material in the kick zone in order to provide durability and easy of preparation for the dense, fuzzy texture of a good pair of “hairies”. The Salomon model makes use of their extremely versatile clear base, also found on their red (warm) model skate and classic skis. The material is good to work with for making hairies, but is also extremely fast in a wide range of high moisture conditions, including new snow. So the skis have no special inlay, or clearly defined zero-zone. The cosmetic underlayment clearly defines an appropriate kick pocket, and the skis are easy to work with. But you also have the flexibility to keep the hairies short, and really emphasize speed. As a race solution, the design offers a great deal of flexibility.

As a side note – zero skis seemed to peak in the market back around 2010 or soon after. The recent ascendance of skin-skis as a mass-market driver has created some pressure in the industry to limit the number of offerings, and zero skis are being produced in smaller numbers, and with less broad distribution. This makes a certain amount of sense, since they tend to be a specialty race solution rather than a day-in-day-out ski (unless you live in the Northwest). At this point, Salomon may offer the best zero ever made. But they also offer one of the only zero models with a clear path of availability.

2018-19 Preview

At the Lahti World Championships in 2017 Tad Elliott raced on some skis that the Salomon race guys loaned him. He was almost apologetic – the stuff that I had selected and ground for him just wasn’t in the same ballpark. The new skis were from a series that Salomon had prepared for the championships, and in the 50K Tad was on skis just a couple of serial numbers away from the ones that Alex Harvey won with. He couldn’t explain what was different, but they were super secure on the icy tracks, and they just seemed to levitate. Good skis.

When we visited the factory in September I had it in mind to ask about the Lahti skis. But before I got a chance, I found a single broken ski standing by one of the workbenches. It clearly had a different core thickness profile, and was an altogether different object than the normal materials. I asked Jean-Marc about that ski. “Did I leave that out? You weren’t supposed to see that!” was his reply. He was joking (I think); they were going to tell us about the new skis, but we found one first.

Note the sidewall thickness – the upper skis are the new ones.

The new “Lahti” skis have been thoroughly reworked. The core thickness has been increased in the bridge, which is critical because it reduces the reliance on camber to provide carrying capacity and strength in the end-flex. Our testing has shown that Salomon’s carbon skate models have had the lowest material stiffness in the bridge of any of the brands that we carry. That’s right – in material terms, Salomon has had the softest skis, and not by a small amount. This means that Salomon cambers are pushed pretty far in order to “preload” the spring to bring the “flex” into an appropriate range. Thanks to the thicker core profile, the new skis have quite a lot more material stiffness – pretty close to the other brands that we work with.

I think this material change will accomplish a couple of things for Salomon right up front. First, it will make their production much more consistent. With less reliance on the camber to provide strength, the variations in camber during production will have less of an effect on the characteristics of the skis. Variation in production has always been one of the major challenges of working with Salomon, and this will allow them to produce more skis closer to their design ideal. I think that the change will also give them a more tolerant ski design – a ski that works well in a broader range of conditions. They’ve been able to flatten the camber through the bridge transitions, which will give them more consistent bridge lengths and lower-angle transitions.

When I attended the first two World Cup weekends back in November and December, I took the opportunity to look over some of Jessie’s skis with Jason Cork. At that point most of her race skis had the new geometry. And when I went back in March for Holmenkollen, Jessie’s old-model race skis weren’t even on the wall anymore. The new design is clearly the direction that Salomon is headed for the future.

It’s worth noting that Salomon’s World Cup team does an incredible job supporting their athletes. Diggins is a super-star, so it’s not surprising that she gets good service, but Salomon does a lot of their own testing, and they regularly show up to check in and be sure that Jessie is getting the best skis they can provide onto the snow. This spring, Sophie Caldwell brought some Salomon skis back home to test during Super Tour finals. The six pairs she brought back were all from production series that Jessie had been using on the World Cup and at the Olympics, and they were awfully impressive feeling skis. The Salomon material, in combination with their World Cup service, has given her a difficult decision. In a small team with no 12-month wax techs and no supported out-of-season testing, a company that will bring winning skis to the wax truck has a leg-up on the competition!

Back home, we started working with these new skis in February, and immediately felt their promise. It’s worth noting that, while the skis are thicker in the core (higher sidewalls under foot), they’re also lighter. It’s not clear to me how they’ve done this, but it feels as though they have fewer or thinner laminations between the core and the base of the ski, based on the way they respond to heat from the iron. The first pairs that we worked with had some base deformation under the binding screws, and I was initially very concerned that this would be a point of weakness. However, after grinding them flat, the skis have been absolutely stable and shown no additional tendency to move. Salomon pre-drills their binding holes in the factory, and I wonder if they put the holes in too soon, or something like that. The later production I’ve seen does not appear to have this issue.

After about a month of working with the new skis on the Prolink platform, I swapped our 192cm pair over to Pilot bindings for Tad to test at Super Tour finals. I wasn’t sure what conditions would be, but the new skis felt good in everything, so I figured it wouldn’t be bad idea to have them available. Sure enough, they were head and shoulders above everything else in Tad’s fleet, and he raced them in the mass start 15K in Craftsbury, where he reported having unbelievably good skis, and finished on the podium after losing out in a sprint with Simi Hamilton.

So, we’ve kissed our first pair of new “Lahti” skis goodbye. Tad isn’t offering to give them back. But the good news is that Salomon has made an inline change for the yellow model for the coming season. To be clear, the blue model and the red model are still being produced with the old design; it is only the yellow model that is coming for next year in the new design. However, I feel strongly that the yellow “universal” model has just become both more universal, and better. In my opinion, the blue model for next season should be a specific solution for cold, new snow conditions, and will need to have a carefully selected camber. The red model remains a great solution for high moisture and old snow. I fully expect to see both of these models migrate toward the new construction eventually. In the meantime, there is no question that the new yellow model skate ski is a compelling step forward in Salomon’s product offerings. If you are a Salomon skier considering a new pair for next year, this is the ski you should get!

In April of 2017 we decided that we needed to make a meaningful gesture in recognition of the threat posed to our industry and livelihood by climate change. We created a partnership between our customers and our suppliers to donate $100 from each pair of skis ordered on one day (Earth Day) to Protect Our Winters; an advocacy organization working to promote a pro-winter agenda.

The program surpassed our expectation. We took orders for 46 pairs of skis, and made a $4600 donation to POW. It’s not millions, but it felt good to write that check, knowing that it represented the commitment and partnership of so many customers and suppliers. Many of our fellow skiers find themselves on the fence about a continued investment in the sport. Is it worth it? Will it last? Last year we conduced a follow-up survey with the people who participated in the program, and we found that this project provided a good incentive to keep people invested in skiing. This is positive for us, but it’s also positive for the industry, and for that reason we invited our friends at Boulder Nordic Sport to join us for this year.

A changing climate remains the biggest threat to our sport. Since making a public recognition of the issue a year ago, we have passed the last year with a greater willingness to acknowledge the role that climate plays shaping weather and conditions. We’re wrapping up a season with record numbers of ski days at many locations in the east. Europe has had an amazing snow year as well, and the World Cup race calendar was unmarred by low-snow conditions. But this isn’t any more “normal” than the lean years we’ve had. For all the places that enjoy good snow and a long season, others suffered with terrible conditions. Volatility is the new normal, and it makes planning for the future a tricky business.

Last year I pointed out many of the ways in which we are lucky to make a living in a sport that we love. This year, our luck has held. We’ve just wrapped up a great season and our business is strong. Our goal remains modest; we want to share our passion with people, and make a living doing it. In the face of the changing climate, that modest goal appears audacious. We will continue to rely on you, our friends and customers, to join us in doing what we can to live this dream. And in the meantime, we’ll ask you to once again help us by creating another donation to POW.

There are many organizations that are worthy of support in a project like this. We have chosen to return our support to POW because of the perfect overlap of their mission with our concerns. The outdoor industry is huge; in February the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis pegged its contribution to the GDP at 2%, putting it on par with other economic giants. While the size of the outdoor industry is considerable, its voice in Washington is small. Any meaningful and beneficial change will be political change, and POW is a powerful and effective voice on our behalf.

Winter has run long, and late April has snuck up on us early this year; we’re a week or so behind schedule putting this program together. So this year we’ll make contributions to POW on all orders received April 30^th and May 1^st – next Monday and Tuesday. We will once again be joining forces with our suppliers to donate $100 for each pair of skis ordered on these days. We’ll also be rolling out options to generate donations with orders from KV+, Red Creek, and Star. Please keep in touch this week, as we roll-out additional information on new products for next year, and provide links to participate in the program.

Selecting new dagger-tip skis.

Last September I wrote about an ambitious development project that Madshus had undertaken, in which they put most of the variables in their ski design on the table for review and revision. Our experience with the new ski designs through last spring was limited to a few outings in sub-optimal conditions. But when we went back to select skis in October, there was a whole bunch of new material (built for the World Cup) to look at, and we took home a big pile of stuff to test. The past season was very much a continuation of the testing and refinement process that really gained traction at the very end of the 2017 winter. Even now, in April, the Madshus team is busy at their Natrudstilen test center, continuing to test the latest refinements to the molds.

Thomas Alsgaard provided a sneak-peak at the new cosmetic on his instagram page. We don’t know if this is a final design for Redline 2.0

It is now clear that the new models from Madshus will be released in a very limited distribution next season as Redline 2.0 models. Madshus is confident in their process and the result; Per Wiik has stated that this has been the best work they have ever done in development and testing. And our experience with the new models back home this past winter has left us excited to share the new skis with all of you.

Classic Models

The project has been less ambitious on the classic side than the skate side. The basic kick and glide function of classic skis leaves less opportunity for disruptive change, and the Madshus team had a clear idea of the incremental adjustments they wanted to make. In short, they changed the sidecut profile, widening the material under the foot in the pocket, and bringing the wide-point of the shovel back (closer to the foot) than it had been. This creates a straighter profile with a less interactive forebody. At the same time they redistributed the thickness profile to add a bit of material to the very thin tip and tail of the previous model. This lengthens the bending radius of those materials, and makes a smoother transition in and out of the contact areas in the glide zones. Overall the ski is designed to float higher in soft snow, and to provide similarly easy access to kick as their previous models.

The office-supply industry will take a hit as Madshus moves away from using these dots to identify special camber modifications in their world cup skis.

Madshus has also taken pains to clarify their product offering with three different models. Three models instead of two models doesn’t exactly sound like a clarification, but hear me out! Like all companies, Madshus has always offered more than two models within their racing designations. In the past few years these have been designated with little colored office-depot dots on the top-sheet, which the Madshus guys use for internal identification, but which end up becoming de-facto model designations. “I’m on the blue-dot skis.” “Oh, yeah? I liked my red-dots…”

Now the skis are clearly labeled as K1 (long and low pocket for cold hardwax conditions), K2 (long and higher pocket for thicker hardwax or hard-track klisters conditions), and K3 (shorter and much higher pocket for softer klisters conditions). In theory, each of these models could be offered in either cold base or plus base configurations, and that would be designated by the “cold” or “plus” on the cosmetic. In practice I don’t see much need for a plus-model K1, or for a cold-model K3, and I fully expect to see both plus and cold K2 universal skis.

While they added models to the line-up, compared with the old “cold” and “plus” designations, they also changed up the length configuration, and reduced the number of lengths on offer. Where they used to offer 195, 200, 205, and 210cm skis, they now offer 197, 202, and 207. In fact, the 202 is purely hypothetical as far as I know. So far they’ve only produced a 197 model, and a 207 model. I’m really hoping for a 202 since that’s what I would like to be on. I spent most of the winter skiing on 197s, and felt that I could handle more.

Our experience this past season has been almost entirely with the K1 and K2 models. The day we left Norway at the end of our ski selection trip, Per showed us the first of a new series of K3 skis that included some camber revisions that we had discussed a couple of days before. We’ve had plenty of time on a range of the K1 and K2 materials, and we’ve taken the opportunity to put some of our skis into races with customers. I think we can mention guys like Ben Ogden and Will Koch without risking their NCAA eligibility – both are junior skiers who pay for their skis. We select their stuff, and grind their stuff, and occasionally loan them skis from our demo inventory when it suits us and them. Ben had outstanding success on a pair of strong 207 K1 skis that we sent out to US Nationals with him. After skiing exceptionally well in Anchorage, he took the skis to World Juniors where he was 7^th in the classic, and was a strong contributor to the medal-winning relay effort. Meanwhile, Will had found himself stuck between the too-soft 200cm skis we picked for him last year, and the too-strong 205s that we picked to replace them. So we sent him out to JOs with a pair of 197s, which he cleaned-up on. Both guys found the skis easy to work with, and extremely fast. That’s pretty much our feeling on them as well.

Skate Models

The skate project has been more disruptive to the status quo than what we’ve seen on the classic side. When the Madshus team decided to revisit their long-term assumptions about skate ski construction, they really opened the door to some big possibilities. Skate skis have always involved some sort of trade-off between stability and speed. In recent years all of the brands have managed to really push process along and achieve an ever increasing balance of great speed and great stability. In their latest project, Madshus has set their goal incredibly high, and in a wide range of conditions they seem to have nailed it.

The dagger tip. These things look lethal, but in a full season of skiing them, we never managed to impale anybody.

The material changes to the new skate skis are very evident. While the construction method remains the same, there is no mistaking these new skis for the old ones. Most striking is the dangerous looking dagger tip, which is so notable that it obscures the more critical shape of the forebody dagger and placement of the wide point of the sidecut profile. They probably could have made the tip a bit less of a poker without compromising the performance of the ski, but it does look striking.

The new ski also features an extensively reworked thickness profile. Like the classic ski, it has more material at the tip and tail, and a longer bending radius in those thin materials. But the bridge thickness has also been extensively reworked. Madshus has always had an incredibly responsive material feel. We have done quite a lot of measurements of the dynamic action of various different brands and models, and one of the metrics we’ve found a way to measure is the dynamic rebound of the skis during the unloading phase. Madshus has always scored high on this measurement, and the new skis are the highest scoring skis we’ve seen in terms of elastic response. To be clear, high isn’t necessarily good. It comes down to a matter of personal preference. But these skis certainly have plenty of “snap” in their material composition and camber expression.

On the snow the new skis have had a little bit of a multiple personality thing going on. They are always incredibly edge-secure and really easy to push off. That is to say, they roll onto the edge easily, are extremely secure on edge, and provide a very powerful and direct interface for the push, with that elastic material response that I described above. They chew up variations in track surface and make challenging conditions for stability and security almost a non-factor. Counter-intuitively, they also float extremely well in soft and sugary snow. Where we would normally expect a strong-feeling and edge-secure ski to be a bit of a plow in soft snow, these skis seem to float on top of the mess, and carry you with them. Sometimes in soft snow I have felt that you need to have supple skis, and you need to cock your ankle and allow the ski to “swim” a bit in the snow. If you don’t fight the conditions, then you can maintain great glide and not move too much snow under foot (which is inefficient). These new ski beg you just to ski straight into the mush – to hit the soft climb as though it were a hard-track flat section. You can be belligerent on them, and they carry you through – or more specifically, over – the mess. It’s kind of incredible to have a ski that excels both in hard tracks, and in deep sugar.

The stated goal that Madshus had was to make the skis good in a much broader range than the old models, and they’ve certainly done that. But as good as all this sounds, the new ski is not an automatic knock-out. The downside is that in a wide range of cold new snow conditions, it just doesn’t seem to run fast enough. Amy has pointed out that it seems to go faster than it feels, but the bottom line is that it too often feels a bit draggy.

We had close to twenty pairs of these skis on the snow this winter, and they were selected to represent a wide range of end-flex values and camber characteristics. When we assess the performance of any product we need to be careful not to let one pair color our findings on an entire design concept. What I can say is that the material and cambers that we tested this winter offer absolutely exceptional performance in a wide range of cold older snow, mild cold new snow, and all kinds of transformed and wet snow. As the season went on, they became better and better, to the point where by late February it was rare for them to have a bad day. And by April they were just unbelievably good. But in the dark cold of December and January, with aggressive new snow and temperatures near zero F, we just couldn’t make them go.

Noah – on a good rip in the skate portion of the Lillehammer skiathlon – on a new pair of F2s.

Like the classic skis, the new skate skis are being built in three camber configurations. In basic terms, the F1 model is designed to have a high camber and soft finish, the F2 is designed to have a medium camber and a snappy and stronger finish, and the F3 is designed to have a low camber and a stiff finish. We have worked almost entirely with the F2 model, and a bit with the F3. The F1 has been a work in progress, which hasn’t been entirely satisfactory to the design team. That F1 model is, in my mind, the “missing link” in our experience to date. When I was in Lillehammer for the period one World Cup races I got to ski on a brand-new F1 camber that Svein Ivar was excited about, and it had far more of the feel that I wanted for the cold new snow conditions.

New models are identified with these snazzy stickers

But the conditions in Lillehammer at the time were quite good for the F2 model – Noah had some of the best skis in the field during the second half of the skiathlon there. So I didn’t have a chance to really challenge those new F1 skis in the conditions where I felt they needed to shine. Since then I know that Madshus has made another revision to the molds, and is back to testing. The final configuration of models may include different geometry (shape and thickness profile) for the different models, or it may not. We will find out a lot more on that front when we go back to check things out in May.

Like the classic skis, the skate models lengths have been reduced in the racing department to 182, 187 and 192cm instead of 180, 185, 190 and 195. In general, the new skis have the material strength of the next larger size in the old sizes – so the 192 has the strength of an old 195. But almost across the board, skiers have migrated upward from 190 to 192 instead of 187, for example. This puts the vast majority of the World Cup men’s field onto 192 length ski, while previously they were fairly closely split between 190 and 195. However, both Amy (at 130 lbs) and myself (at 145 lbs) spent most of this season testing the 187s, and found that they were plenty of ski and offered no less support than our customary 190 length.

For now, I can say the following with absolute assurance. The new Redline 2.0 skate skis offer control, stability, and skiability at a level beyond anything I’ve seen. If you’re interested in addressing anything from moderate temperatures and natural snow, to manmade snow, to a wide range of wet conditions, we can promise a very high level of satisfaction. What is missing is the cold, new snow, “American Birkebeiner Ski”. Of course, that’s an easy thing to grab from normal Redline materials, and that is why we’ll be working with both normal Redline and Redline 2.0 skis for the next season. In the meantime, given the work that has been done, and the work that is ongoing, I fully expect that next year at this time we’ll only be talking about Redline 2.0. Knowing what I know now about the process, and the rate of progress, if I were to pick myself a cold “birkebeiner” ski for next year, it would come from the Redline 2.0 pile. I’m confident enough to take a chance, and the ability to have both perfect edge control and fantastic floatation is… enticing.

Our biggest on-snow demo opportunity of the season each year comes in early December in Craftsbury. It’s usually run on at least a mix of manmade and new snow, and this year was no exception. The new Madshus skis generated a lot of enthusiasm, and quite a few folks were sorry to find that they weren’t available to buy. By arrangement with Per, we’ve also put these skis into the hands of some of our best customers and collaborators from around the country, and we have enthusiastic feedback from all sides. We’re very excited to be able to bring these skis to our customers for next year.

Skin skis have officially become a phenomenon in the industry. The idea was first introduced in the 1970s, and was even used successfully in competition. But it wasn’t until the introduction of the Atomic Skintec in 2011 that factory produced skin skis really became a thing. In the past several years the offerings from all companies have really proliferated, and sales have gone way up. Per Wiik, the marketing director for Madshus, estimates that skin skis currently account for around 50% of all nordic ski sales in Scandinavia. It’s hard to be precise, or to verify the numbers, but very similar estimates are offered by my other industry contacts in Scandinavia, where the trend is really driving a huge amount of the marketing, and is being credited with boosting (and maybe even saving) the whole industry.

Two years ago the Madshus Terrasonic intelligrip skis featured in the video to the right seemed promising, but ultimately failed to ignite any passion for skin skis in our portfolio. We haven’t paid very much attention to skin skis because they really haven’t been good enough to have an impact in high level racing. The success of the ‘70s is not close to being repeated, especially with huge advances in competition “zero” models, and in overall ski design and construction, and the performance of well-waxed skis. However, many of our customers are interested in race-level materials, and want skin skis for an easy training solution, or even for their day-to-day primary classic skis. The companies we work with have all released competition-level skin ski models, and in the past year we’ve seen a variety of instances where skin skis contributed to really good success in high-level citizen racing. It’s clear to us that skin skis are a tool that our primary customer base can use, and should be considering.

My own personal feelings on skin skis remain fairly grumpy. At their very best, skin skis have a pretty natural feeling kick, that you can “feel your way” into. They can be pretty fast at half weight (tucking) on downhills. And even double-poling is fine, if you don’t get too far forward on your feet. The place I don’t like them is when I shift my weight onto them in striding – they never feel really free under foot when I’m striding. Or, if they do, then I won’t have reliable kick. And sometimes I feel that they engage early in the kick, but then let go if I kick with impulse – as though the little hairs are just going backward. It must be my incredible power.

There’s also the fact that I like classic waxing. I would love to be a really excellent classic waxer – like Joakim Augustsson or Fabio Ghisafi who are my two personal World Cup kick waxing heroes. So on an average skiing day, I will happily spend some time applying kick wax, and I’ll look forward to adjusting the kick on the trail to try to get things just right. A brief self-examination yields an interesting insight – when I’m skiing on my own wax job I’m emotionally invested in making it work; I miss a kick, and I adjust my stride. When I’m skiing on skins, anything less than perfection is going to make me angry; I’m not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt, or to find ways to utilize their strengths. So, while I’ve tested skins a fair amount, I seldom go out and ski on them electively. But Amy has a different outlook on skin skis. I asked her why she liked them.

Amy: “I like them when I don’t have a whole lot of time, and want to go classic skiing. I’d rather spend my time skiing instead of trying to figure out the wax, and clean it off afterward. I like them for the ease of use.”

Zach: “What about performance?”

Amy: “There’s usually a compromise. Most times I’m on them, I’m sure they would never be a racing solution. But it works fine for training.”

Zach: “It doesn’t bother you to be able to run downhill faster than your skis glide down?”

Amy: “Don’t be a jerk. Usually they glide pretty well.”

A list of general pros and cons regarding skin skis is helpful as well.

Pros:

• Easy to use – no waxing, no clean-up
• Best performance in some of the most tricky waxing conditions
  • “Hairies” or Zero conditions – skins are great
  • Hard Icy tracks with very little texture, or crust – really usable (though the conditions can still be terrifying)
• Less “noisy” than fishscales or crown patterns
• At their worst, they still “work”, at least well enough to get around

Cons:

• Well, they’re not exactly wax free. You still need to take care of the glide zones, and the skins benefit a great deal from some care, including cleaning and waxing.
• The best performance of skins is still not as good as good hairies or zeros, or appropriate klisters, even in difficult conditions. They aren’t a high-level race solution at this point. If you like the feeling of both great speed and great kick (at the same time), they might not even be a recreational solution. This would only be a problem for people who know what they’re missing (most likely people with a racing background).
• The worst performance of skins can be either quite slow, or very hard to kick.
• No Adjustment… This is a real sticking point for me. You can’t do much to get more kick or glide, aside from moving the binding, which becomes a theme in the market.

One hot topic surrounding skin skis is “fit”. With waxable classic skis you’ve got a little room to move, because the wax thickness can be adjusted – at least within a certain range. With skin skis, you’re stuck with what you’ve got. The only available adjustment is binding position. We’ve been asking various people in the industry how they “fit” skin skis, and even what sort of ski characteristics they like.

We spoke with Rick Halling who has spent long days at demos handing out skis to an incredibly wide variety of skiers. His starting point is to ask whether the skier knows how to kick-double-pole, which is a pretty good short-cut to identifying more “advanced” skiers. The folks who can kick double pole like stiffer skis.

It’s possible that Tore Rønningen is the foremost expert in the world at selecting skin skis.

We also talked to Tore Rønningen, the ski “plukker” at the Madshus warehouse in Biri. My bet is that Tore has selected more skin skis than any other single person on the planet. He is the primary ski selector for a big Norwegian brand, in the biggest ski market in the world, where skin skis are going crazy. Tore wrote down for me the Empower flex values of the skin skis that Heidi Weng likes for training.

The consistent message seems to be that “it depends” – the optimal skin ski “fit” depends on both the skier, and the conditions. The range of flex values being recommended is very, very large.

Prior to this past season, we felt that we were batting about .500 on the “fit” equation. We’d put out some very soft skis that customers couldn’t kick, and we’ve put out some pretty strong skis that were way too draggy. This past season I think we were a bit more on top of the situation, and had a bunch more personal experience with the process. The feedback from this past year has been really positive, and I think we’ve been helped by evolution in the industry, and rapidly increasing quality in what’s available. But satisfaction will always depend on realistic expectations.

So, what about all these new race-model skin skis on the market? What do you get for your money, and if the performance isn’t awesome, then why get the best and most expensive skin skis you can find?

Funny you should ask. I have some ideas on that.

Weight – Top end skis are considerably lighter than step-down models. While the weight isn’t our primary concern when it comes to skis, I certainly notice when I step onto a “cheap” ski. They’re tanks. Heavy skis reduce the tempo of your skiing, increase the effort of your skiing, and are cumbersome to turn and maneuver. I feel like a worse skier on heavy skis.

Speed – Skiing is hard. Good glide is a big help. The racing models of skin skis utilize skin material, and insert lengths and positions that target optimal speed. Of course, this comes at some cost – the durability of the “racing” skin material is reduced, and the kick afforded by a smaller skin inlay is reduced.

But skins aside, the top-end materials generally provide better cambers and better material characteristics for glide – the skis themselves are faster.

Material Response – Cheaper skis tend to feel “dead”, regardless of how stiff or active their camber is. The more expensive ski constructions aren’t just lighter – they also offer more elastic material response, and return more of the energy that you put into them. This sounds nebulous, but over time I find that it is one of the most important considerations in evaluating skis.

Brands and Models

I’m only reviewing the new top-end skis from the brands that we carry here. All of these brands offer heavier and cheaper models – but that’s not really our thing!

Fischer Twin Skin Speedmax

This is a new model for next season, built on a full race material construction, and utilizing the 90L camber configuration. The 90L model is a long-pocket design that has been used with good success on the World Cup, and it’s well suited to skin skis because of the added height and flexibility in the camber arch. The skin inlay has been positioned for optimal speed, but the footprint has also been widened to provide more surface area. The skin is a 100% mohair, which is apparently treated with Teflon to prevent icing. Teflon is a fluoro material, and my guess is that you’ll still want to clean and treat these skis periodically. Of course they utilize the Fischer IFP plate and Turnamic binding, which provides adjustability of the binding position up to 1.5cm forward and back of the balance point.

A short skin inlay for speed, but a wider footprint for surface area and secure kick. It’s almost not even a “twin” skin anymore!

Skin skis need to have a high camber – especially compared with waxable skis – but also be soft enough to pressure the skin against the snow. In terms of the material stiffness of the bridge, the Fischers are on the strong side (the stiffest material of any of the skis we’ve tested). The normal 902 bridge camber is naturally high, but maybe a bit hard finishing, and not quite long enough for the skin. The 90L camber provides additional length in the camber bridge, with the inflection point behind the foot further back than on a normal 902. This lengthens the lever, which softens the bridge action, and makes the kick very accessible, as well as bringing the skin into contact very uniformly. My only concern is that the longer lever also reduces the effect of moving the bindings to “tune” the action of the ski. Normally we count on moving forward to increase access to the kick, and moving back to open the pocket for more speed. With this bridge configuration, the available range of adjustment doesn’t yield as big a change in bridge action as a more normal 902 camber. However, our experience on the Twinskin Carbon model with a similar camber configuration has shown that the binding adjust is effective. I’m eager to test the new Speedmax model next year.

Madshus Redline Intelligrip

We tested this model last fall on saved snow in Sjusjoen, just in the first couple of days that the snow was pushed out. There were no tracks, and conditions were extremely sugary. They have all of the normal Redline feel to them. The skin is 100% mohair, for speed (we’re told). And perhaps most intriguingly, they are set-up with the new Rottefella MOVE NIS plate.

The MOVE binding. Turn the knob 180 degrees for 1cm of position adjustment. It works!

The MOVE binding is an NIS plate that allows you to use a knob positioned in front of your foot to adjust the binding position without removing your boot from the binding. You just bend down, and twist the knob. Every half turn of the knob moves the binding 1cm on the ski, and there are three adjustments behind the neutral position, and two in front. In addition, there are three positions that the NIS binding can be installed, at 5mm increments. In combination this provides a huge range of adjustability, and an unprecedented amount of convenience when it comes to making the adjustment.

I had lots of questions when I first heard about the system, and even when I first saw it. Not least was, “how heavy is that thing?” The answer is, not very. It does look a bit unwieldy, and you do notice the difference when you first put the ski on. But it doesn’t appear to change the balance, or present any particular distraction once you’re on the snow.

Amy wanted me to demonstrate the way the MOVE system works. This is me demonstrating for the camera. I’m a natural; right?

The other question was whether you’d end up adjusting the binding while you were skiing – even while you were moving… Well, I did a lot of adjusting during my ski session, and it was an easy system to use. I even tried adjusting the binding position while I was in a tuck, going down a hill. This was slightly tricky because there were no tracks, and the deep sugary snow was challenging. But it was no worse than adjusting a speed reducer on rollerskis. Certainly plausible to do during a race. Which creates a very interesting opportunity. What if, in a race like the Norwegian Birkebeiner with long climbs and long descents, and a huge amount of double-poling, you could move the binding waaay back for the downhills and double-pole sections, and forward for the longer climbs. I mean, you could do this with any adjustable binding – that’s always been an option. But nobody wants to be taking their skis off during the race, and the amount of adjustment on a standard NIS or IFP plate isn’t very big, at only 1.5cm fore and aft of neutral

In short, I think Madshus is going to sell a boat load of these things to Birkebeiner skiers. Maybe two boatloads. But how does it ski? Well – it’s hardly a fair test. Conditions were terrible, it was my first time on snow, I’ve still got a gimpy leg, and I hate skin skis to start with. I wasn’t wildly impressed. But it was the most encouraged I’ve been by skins, and I CAN say that the binding adjustment gave the skis way more range than I anticipated. It’s also worth noting that we tested two pairs – one of them was much newer, and was slow in every position (in spite of being a 52kg flex for a 66kg skier). The more used pair showed considerable signs of wear on the skin, and that one was much more user friendly and faster. This is a theme we’ve seen with all of the brands and models we’ve worked with – after some use the skis speed up and tend to work a little better. And it seems better to count on this break-in process to deliver optimal performance rather than to pick the skis extra stiff in an effort to find optimal speed from the start.

Inexplicably, this is the only picture we’ve got of the Salomon S/Race Skin skis. The other skis pictured here are the Madshus Nanosonic and the Fischer Twinskin Carbon. You can clearly see the very pink Pomoca skin on the Salomon ski, and you can also see the relative length and position of the inlay in the various different models. Of course, this all depends on the camber configuration of the skis themselves.

Salomon Skin Race

In purely material terms, the Salomon Skin Race might be the most intriguing skin ski I’ve seen. In spite of the “Race” model designation, as opposed to “S-Lab”, these are top-end materials – the same as the S-Lab models. And the S-Lab classic skis continue to impress us as we handle them for the second year since they were introduced. While Fischer raised the bridge camber but left the overall resting camber quite low, Salomon is running a slightly higher resting camber to create action in the ski, but a more standard bridge camber. In combination with softer material stiffness, the net effect is a similar pocket action to the Fischers, but with a shorter lever behind the foot. As a result, I expect these skis to be more responsive to changing binding positions. Too bad we have to screw bindings onto them.

As a matter of fact, Salomon has signed an agreement with Rotefella to sell skin skis in Scandinavia with NIS plates. Rotefella has produced a screw-on NIS plate that utilizes the Salomon screw pattern, and can be mounted in Salomon’s pre-drilled holes. Such is the power of the Scandinavian market – skin skis need adjustable bindings, and Salomon is willing to sell skis to be mounted with Rotefella bindings in order to have access to the market. For next year we’re planning to get some of these mounting plates (available from Salomon) to test the adjustable binding situation on the Salomon skis.

Maybe the coolest part of these skis is the skin itself. Fischer and Madshus both advertise “100% Mohair”, which is all well and good, but maybe a bit like marketing “100% ski wax” on a waxed ski. Salomon’s Skin Race model comes with the distinctively pink Pomoca Race Pro skins that are generally acknowledged (or so I’m told) to be the fastest racing skins in the Ski-Mo world. That’s like selling a ski pre-waxed with Rode VO, instead of “100% Ski Wax”. Cool. Amy was especially impressed by this, since she’s got a set of those Pomoca skins for her lightweight AT skis. The other interesting thing about these skis is that we’ve seen them with more camber variety than other models. This means that we’ve been able to select cambers that limit the amount that the front of the skin inlay drags on the snow, by finding a camber with stronger bridge integrity in the front end. In short, we’ve been able to prioritize speed in our camber selections without just picking “stiffer” skis in the Salomon S/Race model more than with the other brands.

Skin Skis as a Race Solution
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I don’t see skin skis as a viable World Cup level race solution. I just don’t think it’s going to happen because the performance of wax is just really good, and when you’ve got a full staff to develop and test wax solutions, you’ve got a really good chance to making great skis.

But for the unsupported citizen racer, the calculus is quite different. Without a full fleet of conditions-appropriate race skis, and a personal wax staff, the tricky days become a real challenge and a bit of a crap-shoot. In these circumstances a huge amount of experience and personal expertise can be a big help, but even the most experienced self-supported racers will miss the call at least twice as often as a well organized team. I know, from personal experience, that when I’m waxing for a race and I have a test fleet, and test pilots, and my whole wax box, I’ve got a lot of confidence that I’ll get the skis in the game. But when I show up with a smaller collection of waxes, and no extra testing staff, it’s nerve-wracking. And while I still might have the waxer-ego to bluster my way through and not choose skin skis, smarter people might be well served by having a solid back-up on hand.

I think that many people hope to rely on skin skis as a great way to never have to deal with klister again. Klister conditions at the big race? Don’t worry – just use the skin skis! My gut feeling is that this is not going to be a successful approach – particularly in soggy, wet klister conditions. One of the issues with skins is that they get really draggy in wet snow, and my experience indicates that relatively basic wet klister conditions are one place where a rudimentary (if messy) wax job on an appropriate pair of skis is likely to really kill the skin ski option on speed. In general, I think the skin skis can be a great option in what we would consider “tricky” conditions, where there is a balance between secure grip and the tendency for icing, either because of variable track conditions or because of really delicate and tricky crystal structure in the snow.

This season we heard from a number of different friends and customers who had very positive race experiences on skin skis. One of these was our good friend Dave Peterson – the director of the Aspen XC Center – who sent us the following report. Dave’s experience was with the Salomon S/Race model skis, but to be clear, we’ve got plenty of feedback from people on other brands. And also to be clear, there will be disappointing days as well. But Dave’s experience is a good indicator that things are going the right direction. Here’s Dave:

Concerns & the sales pitch:

I had planned to ski the Korteloppet 29k classic this past February and had some concerns about conditions, running out of kick wax halfway into the race, missing the wax entirely, etc. At the SIA show I spoken with Pete & Isaac about the new Salomon S/Race skin skis, would they be appropriate? How well would they glide compared to a waxed ski? Isaac suggested in the tests they had performed, the skins were within a few percent of a waxable in glide testing which piqued my interest. Since I had not skied the Korte since 1991(skating) my plan was to simply enjoy classic skiing at sea level, stop at all of the feeds, not necessarily “race”, and have some fun.

The Race(s):
I did some testing on the new skis at our local “Race for the Pass” (7k all up Independence Pass) the weekend prior to the Korte to make sure they kick AND glide. Yes they do, my observation is you have to ski correctly to get them to kick – no freebies here – somewhat like a well kick-waxed ski that just barely grips if you get lazy. BTW they were a 201cm flexed for a 170lb skier, and I am right at that weight. The glide coming back down the pass was phenomenal, I was able to stay in a tuck the whole way down passing folks on waxables!

I did my own glide prep for the Korte; Swix LF5, HF5, HF7 & HVC Cold topcoat and Swix Skin treatment, again just hoping they would have decent glide and not be embarrassed on the downhills. I believe the temps were in the high teens-low twenties with a relatively high humidity, probably perfect conditions for Swix blue extra. I was put into the 3rd wave as I had no qualifying time, so staged myself at the front row giving myself at least a fighting chance of working my way through the waves ahead of me. I immediately noticed what great glide I had double-poling out of the start, so decided to actually “race” the race. Skiing through the waves became almost laughable I was having so much fun gliding right up into & past most everyone including the skaters; at one point crashing into several skiers from behind as it was very congested. In the tracks when there was no traffic ahead, the skis ripped. I also had to “Klaebo” (yes run) some of the uphills as out of the tracks it was 3-4″ of soft snow from the night before, so there was snow-shear effect, where the grip just breaks away. I ended up finishing 3rd in Men 60-64, 72 out of 887 overall.

Conclusion:
The main thing I am left with is the glide of the S/Race Skin skis, I find it pretty incredible that a skin ski can glide like a waxable ski and at the same time have grip whenever you need it. No more second-guessing yourself, which is very reassuring. Like I mentioned earlier, the grip is not free, you must ski them correctly. At the Korte, I am sure they could have even been faster with some iron-in flouros & different top-coats, but the fact remains, this pair at least glides remarkably well and I have already pre-sold a few pairs based upon my experience racing them. I do plan to race them exclusively (no more waxables) this next season to continue to test and see where they work and where they don’t, and I will keep you posted.

Hope this helps,
Dave Peterson

As promised, today and tomorrow – April 30th and May 1st – your orders will generate donations to Protect Our Winters. For each pair of skis ordered during these two days, we will donate $100 to POW. Why do we do this? We’ve discussed it at length in our previous post announcing the program – check it out here.

We’ve got a special modified POW Ski Request Form to collect a $100 deposit, which will be donated directly to Protect Our Winters. That $100 will be applied to the final invoice once your skis are selected and ready to ship in the fall. If you didn’t spot the inline link above, the URL is here:

http://shop.caldwellsport.com/ski-order-protect-our-winters-donation/

We’ve been working on preview articles to discuss next year’s skis. We want to reiterate that these ski companies are active participants in this program, and they contribute half of your donation $$ through special discounts in our pricing to support this project. If you haven’t already checked those out, please have a look using these links!

Fischer: (I’m working on this one right now and will post the link ASAP. In short – there are no major changes to announce.)

Madshus: http://www.caldwellsport.com/2018/04/madshus-2018-review-preview/

Salomon: http://www.caldwellsport.com/2018/04/salomon-2018-review-preview/

Race Skin Skis (all companies): http://www.caldwellsport.com/2018/04/race-skin-skis-2018-review-preview/

This year we’re also introducing some smaller $50 contributions for smaller purchases of wax, tools, and poles. This is fairly experimental, but we’re doing it in order to broaden the reach of the program, and to involve three other outstanding brands with which we have outstanding relationships.

KV+ Poles has been an excellent partner for us over the past two years. Their innovative designs have forced other companies to raise their game. When you order a pair of KV+ Tornado Plus poles, we’ll donate $50 to POW on your behalf. Use this link:
http://shop.caldwellsport.com/kv-tornado-plus-poles-protect-our-winters-donation/

Red Creek has been our favorite company for tools – brushes, scrapers, and rillers – for many years. We’ve been close partners for the past few years, and it’s been a rewarding thing to work with a company that is focused singularly on quality. All of their products are produced in Sweden from the best materials they can source throughout the world. In the past two years we’ve been working more and more with roto tools, and in order to help people get on board with a better and faster way to brush skis, we’ve put together a comprehensive roto brush package. When you order this package, we’ll donate $50 to POW.
http://shop.caldwellsport.com/red-creek-pro-roto-package-protect-our-winters-program/

Star Wax has been a longtime favorite of ours, and in the past two years we’ve been working very closely with Davide Mosele to test new products, and find creative ways to apply wax for optimal results. Davide is the son of Donna and Roberto who started Star over 30 years ago in Asiago, where they remain a family company. Davide is also a talented chemical and electrical engineer, who is always looking for the next answer. In the past two seasons much of the prototype wax that we’ve been testing utilizes processing technology that limits and possibly eliminates the presence of PFOA. We have all heard that the EU will legislate a “fluoro ban” sometime soon – it’s expected in 2020. These new products will be the answer to those new rules, and we’re excited with the performance we’ve seen in Davide’s work.
We have many requests for wax kits, and I’m working on a Star wax kit to address a the entire range of race conditions, based on our testing from the past several years. Buying this kit will generate a $50 donation to POW during this program.
http://shop.caldwellsport.com/star-glide-wax-kit/

No news is good news?

With lots of news of new models from other brands, Fischer has been pretty quiet, and this is nothing new. In spite of rolling out a major change in their material with the introduction of the Speedmax models, followed by a substantive in-line adjustment to their geometry in 2015, their overall message has been one of continuity. And it’s not only a message; Fischer has a great series of design concepts, and has managed to maintain their status as undisputed industry leader with an ongoing series of relatively minor and conservative adjustments. Even if the Speedmax release amounted to an entirely new material assembly, the change was in service of a material and quality control improvement to an existing and proven set of designs.

This year is no exception. Since the introduction of the Speedmax models in 2013 Fischer has been working out the kinks. The early skis were good, but they’ve really found the sweet-spot in the last couple of seasons, and at this point there are no weaknesses in the line.

Skate Skis

Fischer’s Speedmax skate models are all built in the 61Q mold. This has been the standard for Fischer skate skis for the past 30 years, and while the skis have evolved immensely, the basic configuration of the camber has remained relatively consistent. When they introduced their Carbonlite models back around 2006, Fischer released those skis from the 115 mold. The 115 camber bridge stays open from the high point forward, and resolves in quite a steep approach to the forebody contact point. The 61Q has a long and even taper to the forebody contact, all the way from the high point. As a result of these different cambers, the 61Q skis have more relaxed and low tension material under load, and the 115 skis have a longer and more decisive bridge, with more tension in the materials in front of the foot. The 115 construction has been quite good in older snow and icier conditions, while the 61Q has been a broadly universal ski for a wide range of conditions – arguably the most tolerant and universal skate ski design of all time.

Overall, Fischer’s skate skis have material characteristics and camber that give them a very “damp” response. This makes them very predictable, and provides a distinctly direct snow-touch. You tend to feel a 1:1 interaction with the snow, and not a lot of active “translation” from your push to the snow. At the same time, the bridge response is snappy and elastic, and skiers who look for a feeling of response from impulsive overload (loads above full body weight) tend to report these skis as feeling lively. Skiers who are looking for more dynamic action on and off the snow (half weight to full weight) tend to feel that Fischer skiers are over-damped, and a bit dead feeling. But while personal preference reigns, all skiers seem to be able to produce good speed on Fischer skis. They are reliable in their delivery of representative performances.

Speedmax Cold

Speedmax Cold skis are differentiated by their cold “A5” base material, a cold factory grind (which we usually replace with our own grind), and a camber optimized for cold conditions, with longer contact areas and low release angles. The cold model skis from Fischer have always been hit and miss. In the past few years we’ve found some productions that looked absolutely amazing, and have ended up being relatively narrow range specialty skis, and somewhat unpredictable. Last season the cold model skis turned out to be really excellent. For all of our experience with cambers, we’ve struggled to predict which cold model skate skis will be good, and which will be mediocre. Part of this comes down to very fine tolerances in the salient camber characteristics of cold construction skis. But another part of the issue appears to be some inconsistency in the A5 base material. The A5 base is quite hard, and is much easier to damage with the iron than the standard “28” plus base. But potential damage aside, it also seems to range from providing great all-around performance to very limited performance at the periphery of the normal range of conditions. Curiously, at it’s “worst”, the A5 base material is best in extreme cold, and extreme wet conditions! While it really shouldn’t be the case at all, we have sometimes found excellent wet snow performance in cold model skis. If you have a “dud” of a cold model ski, it might be worth giving it a spin in the wet!

In general we focus on selecting colder cambers from the plus model production for our customers looking for good cold skis. The 28 base is very flexible and suitable for cold conditions, and the plus model skis seem to be much more predictable.

Speedmax Plus

This is it – the gold standard skate ski. As noted, the 28 base is incredibly versatile, and the 61Q camber is the most tolerant and versatile ever developed. If you’re looking for a single “all-around” ski, this remains the best option. In general we have had the best luck finding success when we center the target range of conditions somewhere in the blue-red spectrum. Finding true specialty cold or specialty wet skis from the 61Q Plus production has been hit or miss. The skis produced specifically for the world cup include some camber variations that target these outlying conditions with reliable success, but the regular production is clearly aimed closer to the middle of the target. For a one or two pair fleet, you can’t do better than plus model skis. By the time you’re interested in adding specialty skis for the extreme ends of the temperature spectrum, you probably want to roll the dice on Cold or C-special models.

C-Special

Fischer’s yellow-colored clear-base model gets a lot of air-time because normally the “podium skis” that get handed to the top-three finishers at the end of the World Cup event are the C-Special model. This is for the simple reason that the clear-base skis have a very well branded base, and it’s impossible to miss them from any camera angle. But we’ve spoken to a lot of customers who have seen podium skis and assumed that they were used in the race, which is not always the case.

In fact, Fischer’s clear base material is not among the most versatile and tolerant on the market. It is a tremendous asset when it is good; predominantly in transformed and dull crystals that aren’t too moisture-saturated. The C-Special base material seems to be best when it is not selected with what we would normally consider a “wet” camber configuration. C-Special skis are better with a more universal camber; and moderately long contact areas, as opposed to the very short contact areas that we normally look for to break suction in wet conditions.

We don’t sell a lot of C-Special skis. In general we prefer to look for good wet-snow cambers in the regular Plus model production. But there is a place for these skis once the other boxes have been ticked, and we’ve seen them produce big advantages when the conditions are right.

Classic Skis

Fischer’s classic skis are legendary, and have maintained a distinct “Fischer” feeling for as long as I’ve been aware enough to experience it. That distinct Fischer feeling and its continuity can be traced to continuity in material design. Fischer still uses the same basic materials that they introduced with the first RCS air core skis back in the mid 80s. They have the ability to change to different core materials, and to remove the wood from their construction. But when they do that, the skis don’t feel like Fischers.

8Q2 Cold and Plus

The 8Q2 is the designation given to the Speedmax version of the traditional 812 camber, which was introduced nearly 20 years ago. While the tip of the skis is stamped “8Q2” the topsheet still makes reference to “812”, and that is how we think of them.

812 skis are characterized by long contact areas in the glide zones, and a progressive camber with a long and relatively flat-finishing wax pocket. What do I mean by a “progressive” camber? That’s a good question, and I’m glad you asked. Most of the strength in a classic ski comes from the material behind the foot – this is because of the geometry of the pocket. The back of the pocket is much closer to the load than the front of the pocket, so it bears the brunt of the load. The camber behind the foot closes continually as load is increased, and so that contact behind the foot moves from behind the foot, to a point up under the heel. As that contact point moves, the bridge length shortens, and by virtue of the shortening level length, and pocket gets stiffer. This is what makes the camber “progressive”. It’s a classic leaf-spring configuration with a shortening and stiffening bridge as load is applied.

This means that finding the kick on these skis is a bit like bouncing on a trampoline – you load into the pocket and find the kick with a combination of position and down-force.

When Fischer first introduced the Speedmax version of their 812 camber we struggled to find fast-enough skis. The Speedmax material seems to welcome higher flex values than the old Carbonlite models, and in combination with a very flat pocket configuration, the early renditions tended to be draggy. In the last two years the Speedmax 812 skis have been through some really good adjustments, and the result has been a reliably excellent ski for cold conditions. Some skiers really like and prefer the 812 camber in these conditions, while others do better on the 902 camber which I’ll address below. We can help you figure out which model might be best for you in which conditions.

9Q2 Plus

The 902 camber was introduced in racing around the same time as the 812, and really took hold at the 2003 World Championships, where a young Kris Freeman rode a pair to fourth place in the 15K classic, and tagged off in the lead after the scramble leg of the relay. The Fischer guys say that they started producing the 902 skis for the Finns, who had been clamping the skis with tips and tails popped apart and cooking them in their saunas. I don’t know if this is the real story or not, but indeed, the main characteristic of the 902 camber is a considerable amount of tip and tail “splay”.

When they were first introduced to the market, these skis were offered as a soft-track model. This was somewhat logical since the floppy tip and tail look like they would float really well in soft and mushy snow. But the bigger story has always been in the material behind the foot, and the way the pocket is supported.

While the 812 has a gradual compression through the material behind the foot, resulting in a gradual shortening and stiffening of the pocket, the 902 handles load in a very different way. The shape of the camber in the 902 has a distinct inflection point behind the foot which means that the ski “sits down” to the pocket very quickly under load. While the 812 has some action outside the pocket, the 902 pocket resolves early, and stiffens sooner. And then, as you move your weight forward on the foot, you “roll” forward over the inflection point in the read camber, and the relatively stiff pocket closes rapidly and easily. If the 812 camber is like bouncing on a trampoline, the 902 is like falling off a log. The kick feels almost digital and pretty easy. In spite of the early stiffness as the pocket resolves, the pocket doesn’t shorten much during the kick, and so it also doesn’t stiffen much.

The 902 ski is designed to carry thicker wax jobs, but we have had lots of experience and luck selecting 902 skis for hardwax. During the years when the 812 skis felt slow to us, we picked 902s almost exclusively, but now we’re about 50/50 on our use of 902 versus 812 for hardwax conditions. Many skiers find the “digital” kick feeling of the 902 to be better than the 812.

Of course, when we select the 902 for hardwax we need to pay attention to the height and shape of the pocket, but also to the shape of the contact areas in the glide zones. While we have found 902 skis for extreme cold conditions, they really come into their own in extra blue conditions or warmer. In the really cold snow, the long contact areas and low angles of the 812 are a better bet.

We’ve just wrapped up an early season visit with Jean-Marc Draeyer, and the famous ski-farmer Willi Engelhardt (https://youtu.be/NZZ_Q0bNlQk) at Salomon’s factory in Altenmarkt. We selected a handful of skis for our 2018 order, but mostly we spent a bunch of time going over the new inventory – in particular, learning the parameters and variation in production for the new yellow-model skate ski. In addition to the new materials and camber, Salomon has updated their measurement system for quantifying the camber and flex characteristics of the new skate skis. This new measurement system is quite comparable to the system they introduced in recent years for their classic skis, and it is quite comprehensive, with over 20 different values measured to describe each individual ski. The chart that Jean-Marc is holding in the photo above is a quality control report showing the measured values of each ski in a production series. The skis are paired to within tight acceptable tolerances in each of the measured values. Measuring skis precisely does not equate to making them well; if you make a crappy ski and measure it really precisely, then you just get a precisely measured crappy ski. But we know that the designs are really good, and the measurement system helps to ensure that the quality control in production matches the quality of the design.

Back in April when I previewed the new model, I wrote the following:

“I think this material change will accomplish a couple of things for Salomon right up front. First, it will make their production much more consistent. With less reliance on the camber to provide strength, the variations in camber during production will have less of an effect on the characteristics of the skis.”

I actually wrote a whole lot more than that, and the quote itself doesn’t tell the whole story. But that’s not the point. The point is – I was right. It’s a rare enough thing that I’m going to crow about it just a little bit. In the picture to the right, Jean-Marc is showing us the cover sheet of the quality control report from above. That pie chart shows the ski pairs in four different categories – “green” (good in all parameters), “orange” (a bit off, but still acceptable), “red” (something parameter, relationship of parameters, or pairing factor is out of range), and finally, “No Pair”. In this production, 82% of the skis were “green”. That’s very, very good, and it’s a big step from their previous designs, where they were often dealing with much bigger challenges.

It’s interesting to note that Salomon still has some of the widest variation in their production of any of the companies that we work with. The yellow skate ski productions that we’ve been looking at have cambers suitable for all different conditions. But the number of undesirable skis in the new construction is far, far lower than we’ve seen in the past. This is good news for us, of course. But it’s even better news for shops that don’t travel to Europe to select their inventory, or don’t know what to watch out for to differentiate quality. We’re all going to see a lot more good Salomon skis on the snow next winter!

We’ll be back here at the end of the summer to finalize our selections. We could have done a lot more “work” during our visit, and maybe less of what Amy calls “geeking out”, which is what I’m apparently doing in the photo to the right. But being a ski nerd takes a lot of work, and some really deep thought. We’ve got the summer to ponder and process what we’ve learned, and review the skis we’ve had on the snow in light of what we’ve seen in new production. By the time we return we’ll be in great shape to utilize all those measured values to find exactly what we want.

On Saturday Amy and I will return to Europe for our second ski selection trip of the year, and we’ll spend a week in Norway where we’ll be working with the first full production of Madshus Redline 2.0 skis. The Redline 2.0 model is coming for the 2018-19 season in a limited release. The standard Redline models are still being produced for the broad market and will fill the needs of most retailers and skiers. But the Madshus race department is now fully invested in the 2.0 model, and that’s what will be distributed through racing channels.

Project Objective – Broad Range Solutions

The Redline 2.0 models have evolved out of a process of evaluating weaknesses, and striving toward broad range solutions. Specifically, the Madshus race team has felt that they needed better skis for softer and slower conditions, and more reliable broad-range performance from their race models. Madshus has produced great skis for all conditions, but many of their skis have had narrow ranges of optimal conditions, with evident liabilities outside of their optimal range.

One (New) Base Material

One of the most notable changes to the line-up is the introduction of a brand new base material. This material comes from a new supplier; a large company with excellent quality control and very consistent production, but very little presence in the ski industry. The new base was first tested as a wet base, and it’s performance in wet (and especially dirty) conditions has surpassed anything that Madshus has tested in the past, including their clear-base options. The bigger surprise has been that the same material has won tests down to -20C, all over the world, with near-perfect consistency. A single universal base material that is best in all conditions is a bit of a holy-grail, so Madshus is understandably excited.

Two Classic Models & Two Skate Models

Classic

Redline 2.0 Classic skis will be offered in the following models:

K1 Cold for specific hardwax conditions. These skis have a long and low wax pocket with long and low residual camber, low release angles, long contact areas, and long, low tip and tail splay.

K2 Plus for universal plus conditions, binder, soft hardwax, and klisters conditions. These skis have a higher camber arch in the pocket, with more residual camber, steeper release angles, and shorter contact areas.

For specific race applications there is also a K3 model within the race department; a dedicated klister ski with a shorter and higher pocket, for soft and breaking klister conditions.

What’s new? The Redline 2.0 classic models have a new geometry, with a straighter sidecut than the previous model. The new skis are wider in the pocket, under foot, and the widest point of the shovel has been repositioned to complement a new thickness profile. Following a couple of seasons of testing with added laminations, the thickness of the thin materials in the tip and tail have been increased to provide better floatation in soft conditions. The 2.0 models still consolidate most of the strength of the carrying capacity in the pocket, which means that they sit-down in the track quickly, and provide consistent and reliable access to kick with a clear differentiation between kick and glide.

Skate

Redline 2.0 Skate skis will be offered in the following models:

F2 for harder tracks and higher speeds. These skis have a moderately high resting camber and a long bridge, providing an elastic and energetic response to active skiing, and optimal stability and speed in hard tracks and at high speeds.

F3 for softer tracks and lower speeds. These skis have a lower resting camber and a shorter bridge. The offer a more “slippery” feeling under foot, and good low-speed performance. They also have higher contact angles.

There is also an F1 model in development by the race department for specific race application. This is intended to be a higher-camber model than the F2, and we anticipate that it will have limited application.

What’s New? The new skate models are visibly very different from previous Redline skate skis – most notably because the distinctively round tip-profile has been traded for an aggressive-looking dagger-tip. The new tip profile is an extension of a reconfigured sidecut in the forebody, which has a distinctive javelin from the wide-point forward. The thickness profile of the skis has also been extensively reworked, and like the classic skis, the thin materials at the tip and tail have been thickened to provide better floatation. The new geometry has been complemented with entirely new camber configurations aimed at very specific contact-area specifications and release angles.

What about “Cold” and “Plus” models? Because of the broad range base material, Madshus has dispensed with the cold/plus differentiation. Both the F2 and F3 models have very broad range performance profile and can operate well throughout the temperature range. They are differentiated more clearly by the track conditions that they address. Like with all brands and models, skis within the F2 and F3 model ranges can be selected for more specifically cold or warm conditions, and can be ground to complement and enhance the strengths of their specific camber characteristics.

Consolidated Lengths

Up to now, Madshus has remained the only ski company with “traditional” length designations at round 5cm increments; 180, 185, 190, 195. This has been changed, and the change reflects a consolidation of lengths. That 180-195 series of four skate lengths is now 182, 187, 192. In the classic models, 195, 200, 205, 210 have become 197, 202, 207. Presumable these new lengths will be complemented by shorter skis but we’re not sure when that will happen or how short those lengths will go.

Binding Interface

You’ve probably heard about the MOVE binding from Rottefella – that’s the one with the knob up front allowing you to reposition the binding fore-aft on the skis without taking your foot out of the binding. The MOVE system requires a new style of plate bonded onto the ski. The new plate is compatible with both the regular NIS bindings, and with the MOVE system. And all the new skis are being manufactured with the MOVE binding plate. Some of our selections from the spring trip have normal NIS plates, because that adjustment hadn’t been made in race production yet. But going forward, the MOVE plate will be the standard. We haven’t tested the MOVE binding on anything aside from skin skis, and we don’t anticipate it being widely used in racing. But given the capability to play with it, we may give it a shot. Even on waxable classic skis, one could envision a benefit to bringing the bindings way back off the pocket for sustained downhills in the tracks. In the meantime, there is no downside to the MOVE plate instead of the NIS plate, aside from the requirement of a clear plastic insert to use with the Xcelerator bindings (as shown in the photo).

Back Story Review and Outlook
(Amy says this next part is “nerdy” so you can skip it if you want, but you should read the conclusion because she says that’s important).

We’re written a couple of different articles tracking the development of these skis over the past two seasons. You can review those here:

www.caldwellsport.com/2017/09/keeping-up-with-madshus

www.caldwellsport.com/2018/04/madshus-2018-review-preview

There are a lot of words in there, but it boils down to a simple story. The classic ski adjustments came easily, based on testing skis that utilized laminations to model varied stiffness profiles. These adjustments were then built into the thickness profile of a new model, and the testing was immediately positive. So the Redline 2.0 classic ski has essentially been a finished product for over a year, and has a full race season of proof behind it.

The skate models have undergone a more comprehensive redesign, and extensive testing has been done on a wide range of cambers and geometries, including sidecut profiles. Along the way Madshus has produced at least three entirely new molds to land at their current design, and the progression has been steady. The first round of new molds produced promising but unsatisfactory skis. The second round is what was distributed for race testing last season, and it saw considerable World Cup and Olympic success. But it was not difficult to identify gaps in the performance profile and snow-touch of the skis.

At the conclusion of our testing last season we were very satisfied with the performance of the new model when it was good, and hopeful that the F1 model they had been working on would fill the gap. Our plan was to pick 2.0 model skis where we knew they would be good, and to continue testing new stuff, but focus on selling original Redline model skis for the conditions where we were uncertain about the 2.0.

But then we tried the final, production version. The Madshus testing team had seen the same problems with the skis that we saw, and the identified a need for an addition adjustment to the thickness profile of the model. The previous design was intended to provide very strong bridge integrity, with a limited amount of rearward migration under load of the contact point at the front of the bridge. This is a quality that they correlated strongly with good performance, and they certainly built it into the skis. But it resulted in an inflexible and “wooden” feeling front end, with sub-optimal snow-touch, and a limited range of really good performance.

As soon as we saw the new design in May, it looked and felt as though they had completely addressed the issue. The redistribution of material softened the interface at the front end of the bridge, and it allowed them to really control the bridge length and contact angles with camber manipulations. So we were optimistic.

Then we put the skis on snow at Sognefjell. I set-up a bit of a blind test – two pairs of F3s with the same cosmetic, and very similar overall flex and camber characteristics, but one was the old geometry, and one was the new geometry. Amy and I tried the skis as pairs, and after swapping so we both had skied each pair, we agreed that the difference was stark. While the old ski felt familiar, and quite good in the hard, salted summer snow at Sognefjell, the new ski felt far more accessible and friendly under foot. It had softer snow touch, and more reactive and elastic camber response, and better speed both at initial contact, and at high speed. Better in every respect. Better, better, best.

Conclusion (start paying attention again here)
Every time we select skis, we’re working with a production we haven’t seen before. Finding the best skis is a process of evaluating what’s been built, and measuring it against our expectation of what we want to see. That expectation is heavily informed by our on-snow testing time, but also by our experience with materials, and the lessons we learn from other productions, and even other models and brands.

The newest 2.0 skis have us convinced. They felt “right” and balanced in both materials and expression when we worked with them in the factory. We selected a handful of pairs of skis that we expected to behave slightly differently, and then we skied on hard, frozen granular snow until it broke and got extremely wet and soft, and the skis we selected behaved as we felt that they should based on our expectation. We sent a bunch of new 2.0 ski down to New Zealand for tested, and divided them into “cold”, “uni”, and “wet” test groups, and they’re behaving as we expected them to down there, and beating out the older skis in testing. They’re also demonstrating really good performance in a wide range of conditions. In short, we’re seeing what we need to see. Our new plan is to go all-in on the Redline 2.0 models. Any customers who specifically want an original Redline model can get one if they ask for it prior to Sept 17, but otherwise we’ll be a 2.0 shop, because these skis are a meaningful step forward.

Last spring, when it came time to place a pre-season order for wax, the Vauhti guys mentioned that, “oh, hey, there’s a new Mid fluoro formulation coming for next year.” I sent a very nasty note back. We don’t like changes that we haven’t had a chance to test – how are we supposed to sell and support a product that we haven’t ever even seen? We need to be advance testing these products! Grrr.

Now we’re half a season into working with this new Mid product, and I’m even grumpier, because we could have sold a LOT more of this if we had known how good it is.

Background
We started working with Vauhti at about the same time that they introduced their hfC fluoro line. The first version of “mid” product was called hfC15, and it was the same as their race “Code” powder known as C11. We still test and use C11 in old or manmade snow with good success. But C11 was never the answer for newer snow in the cold-mid range. You can tell if you have old C11 because the label is black with a violet stripe on it. Keep it for old snow!

The second version of hfC15 was released under the same name, but with a blue and red stripe on the package. This one was a combination of Code powders C125 and 330C. The C125 is a very warm new-snow product, and 330C is a quite cold and dry snow product, and the combination was pretty good. This formulation was released at the same time that the first hfC liquids were released and the hfC15 liquid was an outstanding product that we sold a lot of.

The third version of the hfC line introduced all new cold and wet formulations (which were big improvements), and the mid was adjusted to a slightly warmer mix of the same two ingredients. These were sold as hfC21.1, hfC15.1, and hfC9.1. The hfC15.1 was really good in a narrow range of high moisture new snow near freezing. The powder was reliable in this range. The block produced good descending speed, but didn’t often feel great for skating. And the liquid took a backseat with the concurrent introduction of the LDR product range. LDR liquid was (and remains) one of the most versatile fluoro products we’ve ever used, and it really eclipsed the 15.1 liquid in most conditions.

After a year or two of selling the hfC line in that most recent form, Vauhti changed their packaging and started selling the same products as FC Cold, FC Mid, and FC Wet. There were no changes to the formulations introduced with those label changes.

Throughout all of this, we struggled to deliver really top-level results in the new-snow cold to mid range conditions that are really common for us. At the coldest end of things, the 330C Code powder was pretty good. And at the warmest end of things, the Mid (hfC15.1) was good. But there was a big range of conditions from the low and mid-teens (-10/-12 C) to the mid-twenties (-3/-5 C) where lots of other brands had superior products.

New Product Testing and Results

We’ve been testing the new (look for the little yellow “New!” tag on the label) Vauhti Mid (race Code VFCP15) product since the beginning of the season. When I say “we”, it’s important to note that we’re doing our own testing, but also gathering information from teams that we work with. It takes a little while to get traction on new material because when teams are testing for races, they need to be quite targeted in their product selection. In order to even get tested, a product needs to be fairly well proven, since test resources are limited and time is tight. But the new Mid product showed encouraging results in early testing in West Yellowstone, and Silver Star. I don’t think it ended up on race skis in either of those events, but it earned a place in testing.

By the time we got to US Nationals in Craftsbury, expectations were high enough that the new Mid had earned an “automatic” test slot whenever conditions were in range. And the results were outstanding. We raced on Mid powder once, and Mid liquid three times (out of four races) during US Nationals. Anytime the race was characterized by new snow, the Mid was showing up very well, and it won tests from temps in the low teens, right up to freezing. In particular, on both sprint days we (and others) felt that the Mid liquid was a competition advantage in a large and competitive race field. On the final skate sprint day, we raced on mid liquid, reapplying for each heat, and had skiers win both the men’s and women’s events.

This past weekend at the Super Tour / Eastern Cup in Lake Placid, the new Mid product once again won our testing two out of three days, and produced winning skis both days.

Specific Notes

Powder

The new Mid powder has a broad range of very competitive performance, but it’s not a runaway winner throughout the range. We’ve had LDR powder, and powders from other brands directly in the mix in head to head competition. These are conditions where the old mid powder would be really challenged to compete, and the new product has been reliably competitive to the point where we’re comfortable recommending its use without extensive testing.

We’ve done a lot of durability testing of all our wax applications this year, and we’ve seen big changes in the running order of powders after a few km of skiing. We really want to see products remain fast beyond the first couple of km, and we’ve been veru satisfied that the new FC Mid has held its speed well, and even seems to improve with skiing.

Liquid

The new Mid liquid has been the real stand-out for us. Liquid fluoros have been a huge part of racing for a very long time now, but conventional wisdom has always held that liquids are good mostly in older snow, and that new snow demands fluoro-blocks (hand-corked rub-ons). In the past month we’ve seen a lot of conditions where most liquids are not competitive, and the attention has turned to fluoro blocks. We’ve been really happy to see this Mid liquid winning tests against proven blocks in conditions where blocks have normally won.

Why does this matter? Why not just use a fluoro block? Well, as a matter of personal opinion, I have felt for a long time that liquids produce better races when you can get them to be competitive in testing. I’ve certainly seen circumstances where blocks are the best choice, but when it’s a toss up, I really think liquids are better. I have ideas about why this might be, but I’m not qualified to state them as facts because I’m not a chemist, and I don’t really know what’s going on under the skis! So let’s just say that I have a strongly-informed bias toward liquids, and like to use liquids when test results support at least equivalent performance.

Incidentally, like the powder, the Mid liquid seems to improve with skiing, and our gut feeling has been that it should be brushed pretty aggressively – especially in conditions where an excess build-up of surface coatings is problematic. The final sprint day at US Nationals was one of those days, and while we did end up reapplying between rounds, we also aggressively roto-brushed with Red Creek fine steel after each heat, and aggressively hand-brushed with Red Creek fine white nylon after each application.

Block

We haven’t used the block in racing. And not because it’s not good. It’s because the liquid keeps winning, and we like liquids. We have had six National Championship or Super Tour races in the last month in new or falling snow conditions, and we’ve ended up racing on Mid liquid in five of them, and cold liquid in one of them. And we’ve had race winners in each of those events on that product. Without that Mid liquid, I’m confident that we’d have been on blocks for most of those races. The one exception is that Star XF6 spray has been equivalent or very close to the FC Mid liquid on a couple of those occasions (and better in some of the early season testing and racing).

Take-away

Be careful. Recent success doesn’t guarantee future success. We’ve been very successful with this product at two venues that are relatively close to each other, within one month, during one climatological regime. The weather will change. Races will be held in other locations. Conditions will be different. But this new Mid is worth testing in a broad range of generally new-snow conditions with temps and humidities reaching down pretty low. This stuff will win a lot of tests, and races.

This silly picture is from our first test of the MOVE bindings, back in October of 2017 on saved snow in Sjusjoen.

This season Rottefella released their MOVE bindings – a system that allows skiers to adjust the position of the binding on the ski without taking the skis off; with a little practice and coordination, you can even adjust the position on the fly. The purpose is simple – with the bindings positioned forward and high on the camber the skier has better access to kick, while a position further behind the high point of the camber will optimize the running speed. The MOVE system has been primarily market for use on skin-skis, where binding position is the only means the skier has of adjusting the kick/glide balance of the skis. But it’s been clear that there was a possibility to find advantage using the MOVE system on waxable classic skis as well. For the recent Craftsbury Marathon, Kris Freeman asked us to put MOVE bindings on his favorite hardwax skis. The system is designed and intended for classic skis, and while it can be mounted on skate skis, there isn’t any discernable benefit to on-the-fly position adjustment on skate skis.

The MOVE system is available in several different versions. The new NIS 2.0 plate is designed specifically to work with the MOVE binding system. To take advantage of that opportunity you need to purchase a $119 “Move Switch Kit”, and you also need to purchase bindings to use with the MOVE switch. The good news is that pretty much any NIS binding will work with the kit.

Rottefella has also produced three versions of the MOVE binding to work with other plate systems. There is a version for the original NIS 1.0 plate, a version for the new Fischer/Rossignol IFP plate, and a version for Rottefella’s screw-on “Rottefella Mounting Plate”, which utilized the Salomon screw pattern, and will work with any flat-top ski. These three versions all sell for $150, and the package includes an integrated binding, along with a MOVE switch that is molded specifically to fit against the front of the selected mounting plate. The MOVE switch is be permanently bonded to the top-sheet of the ski using industrial-strength adhesive (all required parts are included in the kit). It is necessary to have a flat top-sheet surface for about 10cm in front of the existing plate, so many Madshus classic skis are not compatible since they have a 3D topsheet surface.

The MOVE system is well designed and highly functional. The pricing on the Move Switch Kit for the NIS 2.0 plate is mind-blowingly insulting, considering it doesn’t include bindings. But that’s nothing new from Rottefella, and it’s pretty much the only complaint we have with the system. Which really begs the question of benefit; is it worthwhile having on-the-fly adjustability?

When Kris asked us to put the MOVE bindings onto his skis, we figured it was an opportunity to get some real-world competition feedback. Here’s his report:

By Kris Freeman
The last time I competed in the Craftsbury Marathon was in 2017 and the conditions were funky. Warm weather had melted the base snow before a short storm dropped two inches of fresh powder on top. The mixture of wet and dry snow created a suction between the ski base and the tracks. Kick wax made the suction far worse and I estimated that it slowed the skis by about 10%. Normally I would estimate that a good kick wax application would slow skis somewhere from half a percent to two percent. I decided to double pole the race on skate skis and I quite literally glided away from the competition on the first major downhill.

Yesterday I raced Craftsbury with absolutely perfect snow conditions. The snow was crisp and dry and almost any shade of green hardwax got the job done. The glide penalty for applying kick wax was so small that double poling was clearly a slower choice. However the marathon course was three laps of a 16.5k loop that broke into three distinct sections. The first 5k was flat, the second 5k climbed and third 5k descended. Basically from 11k to 21k and 32k to 42k I would be double poling 95% of the terrain.

From playing with the binding position on my NIS and Turnamic plated skis, I knew that sliding my binding back behind the balance point unweighted my kick zone increasing my glide while making kick less accessible. Conversely, sliding the binding to center or in front of center slowed my skis but gave me better kick. Given that I knew I would be racing a course that broke into clear sections of terrain I wanted to see if adjusting my bindings back and forth during the race would be faster that a fixed position.

Rottefella launched the MOVE adjustment system this season. Move allows the user to slide the binding on the ski by turning a dial in front of the toe clasp. Adjustments are made in 1cm increments and can be used to move the binding 1cm in front of or 2cm in back of the balance point of the ski. By reaching down to the dial I could move the binding while gliding downhill. Adjusting while in motion is awkward and I found that my dominant right hand was far better at turning the dial than my left. So after initially trying to adjust both bindings at the same time I ended up changing the position on the skis one at a time with my right hand. To be fair yesterday was the first time I had used the setup and I know I would become more adept at the process with practice.

I started the race with my MOVE binding adjusted to 1cm behind balance point. I double poled the first 5k and then started striding up the next 5k rolling ascent with my bindings in the same position. I don’t like the feel of striding behind balance point as I feel like I have to “pull” my kick under me rather than just stepping on top of the kick zone, but this was the happy medium position for the first 10k.   When I got to the high point of the course I reached down and adjusted my bindings to -2cm. My kick zone became almost entirely unweighted and my glide was much freer. I kept the bindings there until I reached the low point of the course 10ks later and then moved my binding forward 2cm to balance point. I was actually a little shocked how slow my skis felt with the bindings in a neutral position but my kick was suddenly very accessible and after 25ks of racing this was very welcome. I made the same adjustments to my bindings on the final lap and won the race by just shy of 18 minutes.

The MOVE system can definitely be used to increase efficiency in a race but the advantage that can be gleaned will be very individual. I know that a lot of people (including my father) who raced yesterday probably read my description of the course and are scratching their heads wondering what I am talking about. As a longtime world cup racer my perception of what is double polable and what constitutes a difficult hill is much different than a the average weekend warrior. Each adjustment that I made to my bindings took energy and probably cost about 5 seconds of time. This penalty was well worth the efficiency I gained over long portions of terrain but would be less applicable to difficult varied terrain over a short distance. As I made my adjustments my poles also splayed to the side of the trail which would be very awkward in a pack of racers and would risk broken poles.

However, there is virtually no weight penalty.  Even if you never decide to adjust the binding in a race you won’t lose anything by having the option. The MOVE could be used just once in a shorter race to adjust for too much or not enough kick wax. It would also be nice on a training day when kick wax wears thin and you don’t feel like reapplying to get back to the lodge. A few turns forward on the bindings and you could be good to go. I have only used the system for one day but so far I only see benefits.

If you just want to skip directly to the recommendation, scroll to the bottom. Otherwise, grab a cup of coffee, and enjoy my prose as I discuss how this recommendation was generated…

Our Guy in Hayward

When we first moved back to Vermont and started up the most recent iteration of Caldwell Sport, one of our most engaged and loyal customers was a guy named Jeff Tumbleson, who lived in southern Wisconsin. Jeff gave us great feedback on skis, and we started to consider him one of our more reliable sources of feedback and information. A couple of years after we started working together, Jeff and his wife Cheryl made the lifestyle-driven decision to move to Hayward, and Jeff approached us about doing some testing and some brand ambassador work for us.

If you’ve paid any attention to our facebook stream in the last five years, you’ve seen Jeff’s contributions. Anytime there is a report from the Birkie Trail, it’s coming from Jeff. He’s a poorly supported contributor – we send him some test product free of charge from time to time, but for the most part he buys everything, and then generates about 50% of our social media content and information specific to the Birkie. Pretty good deal for us!

Jeff doesn’t have matched test skis. Actually, he does, but it’s a set of cold grind test skis that we sent him for testing on the Birkie trail, and those don’t help much with controlled wax testing. So he gathers information over time by continually putting wax jobs out on different skis, and comparing results. It’s a difficult way to gather really precise information about exactly what each variable is contributing. But it’s a fantastic way to figure out what wax jobs work over time, and to keep up with trends in the snowpack and the best practices for preparation. We lean extremely heavily on Jeff’s local knowledge. He lives on OO, and skis on the Birkie Trail every day. And he tests product every day.

This year is a bit of an exception. Jeff had ACL repair surgery in January, and is in for a long recovery. His rehab is going very well (his bike fitness will be scary this summer), but he can’t ski yet. So he’s recruited some of his local pals to put his carefully prepped skis on snow and test for him. He’s had Terry Tansey out there, and likely some others that he hasn’t mentioned directly. The point is, he’s still out there testing product, and sending us reports. So the following recommendation exists only thanks to Jeff’s serious dedication to the cause. Everybody say thanks to Jeff. Thank you Jeff!

Conditions & Weather Outlook

The coming week is starting to come into focus in terms of weather for Birkieland. Wednesday there is a very strong chance of accumulating snow. Temperatures for the remainder of the week look moderate to mild, with another low pressure system passing through the area Friday into Saturday. What is least clear is whether the weekend system will result in fall snow during the race, and whether it will establish enough overcast Friday into Saturday to prevent typical overnight cooling into the low single digits, as we’re accustomed to seeing up that way. Overall, this isn’t setting up to be a brutally cold Birkie. And overall, you’d be a fool to assume that it won’t be cold.

Cold isn’t the scary side of the forecast. Everybody will be ready for cold. But if the current forecast misses to the warm side (which would mean the low pressure system tracking just a couple hundred miles north of what’s currently projected… then the warm air incursion on Saturday could bring things into plus degrees and possibly… rain. OK. That’s a long shot. But let’s just keep an eye on things.

Overall, there is little doubt that the snowpack heading into Saturday will be untransformed, and well refrigerated. The groomers have been blading snow to bring up deeper cold snow and integrate the snowpack in order to try to build a firm base. They’re not exactly hoping for a lot more snow, because they’ve got plenty, and the bigger challenge is getting it all to set up hard. In general it’s a better bet to lean to the cold end of things in your Birkie build-up, and that sentiment is reflected in Jeff’s recommendation.

And with that said, here it is. Tumbleson’s Birkie Recommendation, with comments by Caldwell:

Base Paraffin – Star LF8

Zach’s note: I love Start LF8 – it is quite elastic for an extremely high performing cold paraffin, and very flexible in support of a wide range of wax jobs. However, I might personally lean toward LF6 as a “safer” bet as an underlayer based on our long-term testing indicating that it’s really easy to over-harden the base. I guess, if you’ve been putting hundreds of layers of green paraffin into your race skis and the forecast really solidifies on the warm end on Wednesday, then you should use a softer base paraffin like LF6. Having said that… I might trust Jeff’s gut feeling over my gut feeling when waxing in Jeff’s back yard…

Race Paraffin – Vauhti UF Cold

Zach’s note: I can’t argue with this. Sometimes I end up feeling that Star VF6 is a bit better in new snow, and a salivate over the chance to run VF4 in warm Birkie conditions because it’s been awesome out there. But Jeff has been putting skis on the snow and the UF Cold is consistently impressing him with its performance, as well as its range and flexibility. If you have a warm pair to build-up in case you wake up to 28 degrees and warming temps on race morning, then go with Star VF4. But even with morning temps in the low 20s, I’m happy with UF Cold.

Fluoro Powder / Top Coat 

Not Snowing Scenario (2 or more grooming cycles since new snow) – Vauhti LDR Powder / LDR Liquid

Zach’s note: I recommend Ironing LDR powder at 165C, and then finishing with a felt roller. The felt finish pushes the LDR into a great performance range for overall “new” snow. No matter what happens out there, the snow will act “new” by our Eastern standards, where “packed powder” is another term for blue ice, and “moist conditions” are what comes out of an Italian Ice vending machine. So let’s call this a “new snow” application of LDR, even though this isn’t the new-snow scenario for the race. That means iron at 165 and then finish with felt roller.

LDR liquid should be applied after scraping and brushing the powder. Just let it rest for ten minutes or so, and then brush. It’ll be good.

New Snow Scenario (Snow in the air, or only 1 grooming cycle on new snow) – Vauhti Mid Powder / Mid Liquid

Zach’s note: Iron the Mid powder at 175. Scrape and brush. Apply the mid liquid, and brush it thoroughly. The Mid liquid seems to improve with some KMs of skiing. It has a wide temperature tolerance in new snow, including a cold snow surface with new snow changing to light rain (exact scenario of US Nationals Skate Sprint where Mid was on winning skis in both men’s and women’s elite races).

Pick-one Scenario (I need to wax Wednesday and can’t wait to decide between wax jobs)

Use the LDR. A year ago that would have been our solid recommendation and we would have been very confident. The addition of Vauhti’s new Mid this season has simply added some dimension on the new snow side of things, and it’s proven to be effective in conditions otherwise dominated by LDR on the Birkie trail.

Wild Card Warm (I have some warm skis I’d like to prep just in case it’s 34F and falling snow changing to rain)

Go Star VF4, and Star F20, with XF6 spray on top. F20 has been a very solid pick for quite warm new snow, and it’s the only product that has beaten the Vauhti Mid this season as long as it was quite warm. While the new F20 formulation does better in colder mid conditions than the old formulation, it’s still a warmer solution than Vauhti Mid. But it’s a specific new snow product, and in that transition to above-freezing temps and the possibility of tracks glazing to wet, it’s very hard to beat!

What About Classic?

Jeff hasn’t been testing classic for us. Based on the forecast right now, I will suggest that a thin super-base with a couple of layers of Rode -1/-7 is a very solid starting point. I would plan to have VO on hand to grab a bit more kick, and I would have -3/-10 on hand as a speed cover. These waxes have been good out there in the past, and provide about as wide a range of coverage as you can get from any simple three-wax set-up, with very good characteristics in combination (layering the waxes is simple and intuitive).

I also have a prediction. At some point this week the forecast will “trend” slightly warmer. This is almost inevitable as it appears that the potential for warmer air depends on the track of the low pressure system, which can certainly vary from run to run of the forecasting models. At some point somebody will realize that the temperature might approach freezing, and the proclamation will go out that “skin skis are the only solution that will prevent you from dying alone and afraid on the Birkie trail, with the howling of approaching and circling wolves as the final sound that reverberates in your ears as your vision fades to black and you expire from the futile effort of trying to ski on wax in temperatures approaching freezing”. This is what happens when people from cold places see a warm forecast. But, I don’t think it will be that bad. Maybe I’ll follow-up mid-week if the forecast is looking warmer with some more productive and less derisive suggestions!

In the meantime, just remember that if you don’t have skins, you’ll be like this guy:

It’s time for our annual series of reviews and previews, discussing what we’ve found this past season, and what we’re looking forward to next season in new skis. This also marks the start of our annual ski request process. We’ll accept requests for new skis anytime. We travel to Europe to select skis in May, and again in August or September. We always encourage people to order early, so that we’re able to review the greatest selection of skis over our two trips. There will be some pricing changes (yeah, upward changes) in the industry this year, and we haven’t finalized everything about the ordering process. So I won’t point you at an order form right now. That will be an opportunity for a little more marketing in the coming weeks. But if you’d like to get in touch to start discussing your needs, please contact us via email.

If you want a huge amount of technical information and multi-syllable words, contact Zach (that’s me) at zc@caldwellsport.com. If you’d prefer a more abbreviated conversation with somebody who will use language you’ll understand, and keep things a bit more focused on you than on the specific dynamic rebound characteristics of the various laminate options and a variety of resting camber starting points… then you want to check in with Amy, at ac@caldwellsport.com.

Fischer’s speedmax models have been stable for the past several years, without major changes since the spring of 2015. Our Fischer customers have been really satisfied with what the Austrian industry leaders have done. We’ve written extensive about Fischer’s designs and models in the past, and we invite you to browse our archives for specifics. We remain big fans of Fischer’s 610 Plus construction as a universal skate solution – we can select it in a range of camber variations to suite a wide range of conditions, and the 28 base remains one of the safest and most versatile base solutions in all conditions. We also remain big fans of Fischer’s 902 model classic skis as a broad range solution for all but the coldest hardwax conditions. We’re happy to discuss specifics with you anytime. But you’re probably more interested in the new stuff.

By now you’ll have seen pictures of next year’s Fischer Speedmax 3D skis, if you haven’t actually held them in your hands or tried them on snow. Fischer US sent out 5-pair “care packages” to all of their race dealers back in February, and we’ve had plenty of time to work with the new skis in the shop, and test them on snow.

There are two changes to next year’s skis that are really notable. One is the addition of a “base-like” material on the sidewall of the ski. This is the update that has been garnering most of the attention, and is the focus of Fischer’s marketing push. Many people have noted that this is not a new idea. Fischer, as well as other brands (perhaps most notably, Karhu) played with this in the early ‘80s.

This gliding sidewall innovation seems to have prompted two different reactions. Some people have enthused “this changes everything!”, while others respond with a “yawn – old news – they did this in the 80s and it didn’t do much then”. Neither of these responses is really going to tell the whole story.

These changes don’t spring into existence without testing. Fischer has been working with the gliding sidewall material for at least a couple of years on prototype race skis. Kris Freeman has had a pair in his fleet for the past two seasons, with a “PV6” designation stamped on the tip. We also have some prototype classic skis with a “PV3” designation, which the race guys tell me is simply an earlier iteration of the idea, with a different sidewall material. So, not only has the idea been tested, but it’s been tested extensively, with multiple generations of prototype material, in a race setting. All of this is what we expect from Fischer.

So – what have we learned about these gliding sidewalls in two years of testing and racing? Well, particularly on the skate skis, there is no question that the pair in Kris’s fleet “feels good”. When he first tested the skis, the primary feedback was – “that is a really nice pair to ski on”. It’s also one of the most stable and edge-secure skis in his fleet. But not one of the fastest. It’s been a race-pick for Kris once in the past two years – at the Craftsbury Eastern Cup in December of this season. On that day we only tested it against one other pair, but it did very well for Kris in the race.

Gliding sidewall prototypes from 2016 and 2017

I believe that the performance of Kris’s PV6 pair is more a question of its camber than the sidewall material. It’s got quite a high FA/HR value combination, and I selected it as a hard/transformed snow ski from the outset. It’s been fast in the intended range of conditions, but the feel of the ski is always good. Kris usually “wants” the ski to win because he likes skiing on it. But in the end, the speed is a factor of overall camber characteristics more than sidewall material.

The other major change is the removal of the screw-retaining material in the core of the ski – Fischer has had a filler material in their air core to provide substance for binding screws to hold onto. It’s easy to forget a time when the skis didn’t have binding plates bonded onto them, but that screw-retention filler has been in there the whole time. And now it’s gone, which makes the skis substantively lighter. Again, this is a change to the material construction of the skis that has been prototyped and tested at length. Kris has a pair in his fleet that have the “OK” stamp on the tip that designates the removal of that screw retention material. I don’t know what the “OK” actually means to the development department guys who put that stamp on there, but it’s given us some laughs. “Think I should try the ‘OK’ skis?” Ha ha ha.

Like the PV6 skis, the OK skis have been… OK. They’re good in the conditions they were selected for, but that is quite wet snow, and Kris hasn’t done a lot of skating in wet snow, for whatever combination of reasons. I don’t think he’s ever raced on these. But they’re light and nice feeling skis.

Our testing of the new skis has given us the feeling that the sidewalls produce a slightly “edgy” feeling compared to the previous material; as though the edges are sharper, or perhaps provide more edge security. It’s not a big difference, but both Amy and I have noted it independently. I did a little test of waxed sidewall material versus unwaxed sidewall material (using Vauhti UF Wet liquid paraffin in wet conditions), and was unable to feel any difference. I don’t believe that waxed sidewalls are the story here, although now that Fischer is distributing Vauhti wax in Austria, and selling their own rebranded Vauhti liquid paraffin specifically for sidewalls, I guess we’ll see plenty of marketing, and everybody will be waxing them!

Both Amy and I have also felt in testing that the new skis are noticeably lighter. On the scale the 3D skis average out to weigh a bit less than the previous models. But it’s a ski to ski thing – the variation within a pair can be as much as 20 grams, which is similar to the difference between the old skis and the new skis. Overall, I’d estimate that the new skis can claim a 4-5% weight savings, and that is worth a bit.

It’s clear that neither of these changes is going to make a decisive difference. These are incremental adjustments that represent marginal performance gains. Fischer is dominant in racing and in the market because you know what you’re going to get, and you can plan on it working. The skis were already great, and now they’re a tiny bit more great – slightly lighter, a bit more edge secure, and altogether still awesome.

Other things worth noting about the new skis:

The carbon reinforcements at the tip and tail of the skis that were introduced when Fischer first came out with their Carbonlite models in 2006, are gone. They sort of needed some visible carbon at that time to support the name, and while they claimed that it reduced the weight of the tip and tail of the ski, I think it was mostly marketing. I don’t see any issue with this change, although at first glance it makes the Speedmax models harder to differentiate from the RCS, which has never had the carbon tip and tail. All in all, it’s not something to obsess over.

The removal of the screw retention material means that there is nothing in there to… you guessed it… retain screws. They’ve got a warning printed right on the ski; “do not mount with screw bindings”. I assume this means that Fischer won’t extend warranty support to people who screw bindings on the skis. And given that there is nothing inside to hold onto the screws… I think that likely puts the nail in the coffin for SNS Pilot binding users on Fischer skis. I’m sure somebody will come up with a bodge-job that works, but it’s not a fight we’re going to take on.

And finally, we can all look forward to a $50 price hike. The ski industry doesn’t tend to raise prices incrementally, year to year. But inflation happens, and prices will go up. So they go up when a new model comes out. To be fair, there are production complications with the new sidewall material, and I’m sure these cost a bit more to produce. But let’s not all lose our minds over whether we’re getting what we pay for with our extra $50. These price increases are inevitable and will continue to happen in the same fashion. What we’re paying for is an entire development department dedicated to keeping Fischer at the front of the pack, and the introduction of new products that have already been tested and proven by the best skiers in the world. And if it makes you feel any better, $800 in 2013 (when the Speedmax model was introduced and the price was set) is now worth $868. So the price has actually gone down!

Tad Elliott’s “retirement” took a quick turn toward the unglamorous side of ski racing this year when he signed-on as an intern coach with Sten Fjeldheim’s Northern Michigan program. If you thought that life as a 30-year-old college freshman might hold some surprises and offer some new perspective, you’d be right. But you’re only part way toward the lessons and perspective of life as a coach in one of the preeminent collegiate programs in the country. Here’s Tad’s very funny look at a race day, from both perspectives. Enjoy!

By Tad Elliott

Going from being a really spoiled athlete right into a Northern Michigan University coaching assistant has given me a unique look at both sides of the coin. I honestly don’t know if I could have coached myself.

Race Day

Tad the racer

5:15 am: BEEP BEEP BEEP. Oh hell, what is that noise? What is happening? Is it time to wake up already? I open my eyes to a figure blocking the inhumanely bright light. Sten yells, “Wake up! It’s time to make the doughnuts.” I roll over and tell him I am good on the doughnuts.

6:00 am: Off to the venue. Thank goodness the hotel made coffee. I would kill for a breakfast burrito right now. But that has to wait until the store opens. For now, I will stay busy scraping skis, even as my stomach audibly protests.

6:30 am: Walking out of the wax room door, Sten tells me the worst part of 32 years of coaching is the cold toilet seat. I never realized.

6:53 am: Oh dang, I woke up before my alarm again. It has to be these pre-race nerves. I drink water before coffee to make sure I am hydrated. I make my usual healthy race morning breakfast.

7:00 am: I know oatmeal is good for you and the best pre-race meal, but man, it sucks. I want a breakfast burrito like what.

7:00 am: Sten comes back into the wax room with McDonald’s and it looks like some poor soul did in fact make the doughnuts. I hork down an Egg Mcmuffin, hash browns, and slam some coffee on my way out to test skis. Three minutes later I am sprinting up a hill and I feel amazing. Why did I always eat oatmeal three hours before??

7:20 am: Dude, why in the world does this athlete need to test seven pairs of skis? They have only ever raced on two of these things. I grouch about helping enable an athlete’s security blanket.

7:20 am: I look outside and it seems that there is a slight mist. I should call the wax room and ask them to throw in that eighth pair of skis. I know it’s a long shot, but today just might be their day.

8:00 am: Ah, this weather and snow is tricky today. Our three-person team can’t quite dial it in so far. We scrape half the test fleet and are now testing our 15th combo of wax, looking for the best option.

8:00 am: Just killing time with Jay Leno telling me about that amazing 1968 Pontiac GTO of his. After watching this, Kate Upton can show off her dance moves again.

Tad the coach

8:45 am: We finally have the wax call. Whew, that was stressful there for a bit. But I can kick up anything and they are real fast. Now we need to wax the athletes’ skis so they can go test them. Now that I think about it…I don’t think I have drank any water or peed yet today.

8:45 am: I arrive at the venue and check in with the wax guys.

“Hey what temp is it out there?”

Dumb dumb, you literally just got out of the car and walked here. It is that temp. Make that music/snapchat device useful and look it up. “It is 17 degrees.”

“Should I wear long underwear?”

How you can be a world traveler and not dress yourself is beyond me. “Yes, yes you should.”

9:00 am: Time to start this warm up. I need to make sure I start slow and build into it. I will keep it chill until I get to test skis in 15 minutes. I hope they are ready on time. It always seems so chaotic in that wax room.

9:00 am: “Skis will be ready 45 minutes before start.” Whew, five to eight  glide layers and making sure the four layers of kick on 12 pairs of skis takes some time. We are hustling. Waxing each ski dependent on ski flex and skier. Trying to keep it straight and efficient.

9:12 am: “Are my skis ready?”

4.0 math student my…. “Three minutes.”

Never ready on time. Stressful.

9:20 am: These skis feel so fast, must mean they are lean on kick. Those out-of-shape-doughnut-munchers could kick these? I doubt it. Man, I am nervous.

9:30 am: “I for sure need a bump.”

?????? You for sure need to bump your foot down, not back. “OK, I got you.”

9:50 am: OK. Skis are done. I have spare poles, spare skis, radio, split timer, down jacket, heavy gloves. Now it’s time to llama my way out to the best spot on course and cheer. The temperature swings your body goes through! So hot skiing. Unbelievably cold cheering.

9.50 am: OK. Favorite hat, sunglasses, dry top. Wow, so much to keep track of and remember. Race suit zipped, bib on. Great, now I have to pee. Is there time? Puzzles.

10:01:30 am: Beep, beep, beep. GO! I am off and racing, the supposedly fun part.

10:01:30 am: Made it to my cheering spot, the fun part! I love racing.

I see my coach up near the top of the hill. Drats, I am slipping a bit. I wonder if they gave me that bump?

“Stand up, stand up!”

Hard to stand up when I can’t kick my skis.

Hard to kick your skis if you don’t stand up. “Having a solid race let’s GO.”

10:26:00 am: Across the line. I can’t give any more. So spent. I can’t stand. Have to lay down. In the snow. In the way. Thank goodness that is over.

10:26 am: Cheering is AWESOME.

11:30 am:. Results are in. What….? My teammate beat me. That never happens. I mean, aaaakkk. Not the result I worked so hard for. Now I have to be happy on the outside, when I am sad on the inside. They must have had different skis.

11:30 am: So cold, thirsty, tired, and… stoked how fun that was? Amazing race from one of our skiers. I hope they are as happy as I am for them.

12:00 pm: After cooling down, I am feeling a bit better. Have to be honest and tell the coaches, “Skis weren’t the best.”

Yeah you weren’t the best. Why didn’t you just stand up? Now I know how many times my coaches saved my confidence and ego. “I know, a little lean I saw. I’m sorry. Get in a good recovery, tomorrow is another day.”

3:00 pm: Back at the Generic Inn. I am staring at the wall and wondering what I am doing with my life? Is this really worth it?

3:00 pm: Cleaning athlete’s magic eighth pair of skis. Five minutes of my life I won’t ever get back. What am I doing with my life? Is this really worth it?

4:30 pm: Man, racing takes it out of you. I am hungry. Gotta weigh all the healthy options for a snack, there is a race tomorrow.

4:30 pm: So many skis. Feels like Groundhog Day in this wax room. I am so hungry and thirsty, contemplating seeing if that horse in the field next door will share his trough of oats.

7:00 pm: Dinner. So many options. What should I order? Can I get my pasta with less cheese? I wonder how they cook the chicken? Oh look, the coaches have arrived. WOOF, those dudes look haggard. Why don’t they take better care of themselves?

7:00 pm: FINALLY. Fooood. And drink. I order the first thing that looks good. Happens to be the second item on the menu.

7:01 pm: I can’t remember what I ordered.

9:00 pm: I crawl into bed finally feeling optimistic and looking forward to another race tomorrow. A whole new day, gotta be positive. After this I will train harder for better results. More = better.

9:00 pm: Who knew a shower could be so amazing? I am just going to sit down for a sec. Unconventional, I know, but at the present moment, this is living.

9:10 pm: Thinking about it, what a cool result for my teammate. My most treasured race memories are unexpectedly getting fifth or I when I got second but had my best race ever. Those were more fun than almost all of the wins.

9:30 pm: Man, what a cool day getting such an unexpected result. The joy and confidence it brought that athlete. Amazing to watch. Hard work, good decisions, and perseverance paid off. That is the beauty of sport.

10:00 pm: I am pretty dang lucky to be able to call this a job. I love cross country skiing.

Salomon has continued to push their development cycle relentlessly hard, with the introduction of new designs and models almost every year. This year we’re looking toward a totally new classic design, and we’ve got some limited but interesting testing feedback and lots of excitement about that. But we need to start with a review of what we already know. Last season Salomon launched a redesign of their carbon skate ski in the universal “yellow” model, and we were very excited. You can re-read our preview of the new model here:

http://www.caldwellsport.com/2018/04/salomon-2018-review-preview/

We’ve now had a full season to work with the new “34” model skate skis, and we’ve been happy to find that Salomon has really delivered on the promise of the design. We’ve had outstanding feedback from our on-snow demos, and from our customers. And perhaps most telling – we’ve seen the new 34 construction skis displace established favorites in pretty much every Salomon skiers’ race fleets. The 34 construction is clearly a step forward.

That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been lessons to learn. We’ve found surprising limitations in the performance profiles of some of the production series that we took for testing, and in fact ended up reallocating some of our intended conditions designations in our race/demo fleet of 187s. Skis that we selected for blue-range conditions got reground for warmer snow, while some of the stuff we expected to run warmer got moved into more of a universal cold slot. After a bit of head scratching we’re satisfied that we’ve got our understanding squared away, and are on the right track with these skis.

Part of our job as we learn these products is to identify which skiers will benefit most from the characteristics of the skis that we carry. The Salomon skate skis have outstanding edge security, and great flat-ski stability for skiers who ride the ski in a neutral foot position. Both Amy and I feel that an aggressive forward position on the foot doesn’t bring the best out of the material – overloading the front of the ski actually seems to detract from the edge stability and elastic response of the ski.

Another change we saw last year was a new Prolink binding model that reduced the thickness of the heel plate, and generated just enough ramp in the binding platform to give the skis an easier initial acceleration. Overall the Prolink bindings have been a reliable platform, and Amy has a clear preference for the overall sense of connection and somewhat stiffer bumper feel than the various other NNN compatible binding options on the market.

Preview

For next year, Salomon is bringing the 34 construction to their blue and red model skis, and this is big news. Not because of any big change in camber or construction – the basic ski construction is the same for all three models – but because Salomon’s cold and wet bases are the best in the industry. It’s difficult to generate a big advantage with base materials, and still have tolerant and broad range solutions. Salomon has done amazing work in this area, and their clear base (126) and cold base (F) represent reliable and tolerant solutions for wet and cold conditions. Last year we suggested that customers should hold off and not get the blue or red model skis until they were available in the new construction. Now is the time to round out the fleet with dedicated warm and cold skis!

We did have a chance to ski on the new models during US Nationals in Craftsbury. It was a decidedly middle-of-the-range day when we headed out with Bryan Cook to check out the new stuff, and we couldn’t tell much, except that they both felt really good. And more importantly, they both felt like the 34 construction skate skis we’ve gotten to know. We didn’t invest too much energy chasing testing on these new models because we’re already familiar with all of the variables at play.

Classic 

Testing new classic skis with Bryan Cook at US Nationals

The big change for the coming season is a totally revised classic line-up. Salomon put themselves right into the mix in the classic game several years ago with their previous new line-up of skis. For reference, here is our preview of the 2016-17 model year:

http://www.caldwellsport.com/2016/04/reviews-previews-salomon-for-2016-17/

The introduction of those models has been really good for us. We’ve had a lot of happy customers – particularly with the red (klisters) and blue (hardwax) models. In general the weakness of the brand has been in the mid-range, where it’s been tough to find good, easy access to kick along with good carrying capacity and great double-pole speed. Most of the time we’re finding that limitation in the yellow model ski, but I think it has more to do with the overall material design and the demands of medium-volume wax jobs than with the yellow model itself.

For next year, everything is new. The materials and geometry of the skis are totally reconfigured, with a dramatic reduction of thickness from the mid-body front and rear, out to the ends of the ski. They have introduced their thin-ply carbon topsheet material to the rear end of the ski, and a lot of the early attention to the new models has been focused on their very rapid acceleration and release in double-poling. And it’s true – the skis really seem to “scoot” when you double-pole. It’s hard to parse the contribution of material, thickness profile, and camber to figure out what is accounting for the difference in the feeling. My sense is that the revised thickness profile and camber contribute at least as much as the carbon cap material.

Rear end bridge markings at 2kg load increments. New skis are above, and current model is below. Further mark to the right is 10kg on each pair.

The result of all this is a pocket that forms early, with quite a long rear end – as you approach half-weight load the camber bridge contact point gathers up right where the thickness profile of the ski builds, about 35cm behind the balance point. This characteristic provides a very energetic unloading effect on release (that’s the “scoot” you feel in the double-pole), and it also creates a very soft finishing hardness, and proportionally high load on the front of the ski.

Load response curves on the two pairs shown above. The steeper slope of the new ski curve indicates lower stiffness (less resistance to change).

The advantages to this design are really easy access to kick, and really energetic and decisive release, which provides a very fast and free feeling under foot. The disadvantages are that it’s a tricky thing to find really good balance in the camber, and the skis can end up feeling quite wrong. Two of the three pairs we’ve tested have felt as though the front of the pocket is prone to collapsing early, creating a somewhat hitchy feeling.

To be clear, this is not a case of simply lifting the camber under the foot to create a long back end of the pocket and a soft finish. Many companies have done that, and it’s typical to end up with “inverted” pocket, where the middle of the bridge closes before the ends. That’s generally a really bad thing, and it doesn’t provide good kick. I believe that these 29model skis are getting their bridge characterstics in large part from the material and thickness profile, and in spite of the long rear end of the bridge, the pocket’s do not invert. It’s quite a feat, actually, to build a ski with finishing hardness this easy, and with sufficient material strength to hold the integrity of the bridge.

In the end, we feel strongly that this design can yield outstanding results if its well understood and the ski selection is done well. There is some risk involved – we’ve certainly seen skis that don’t feel right, and don’t perform with the consistency that we’d like to see. In the end, we’ll be looking for skis with a fairly clearly defined residual camber, and a little bit of an “old school” leaf-spring shape rather than a really flat and long pocket. The flat and long pocket versions we’ve been on are the ones that end up being tricky.

It’s worth noting that this design has seen a lot of success and very rapid adoption by World Cup skiers. It’s a proven design, and many days it appears to provide a decisive advantage to Salomon skiers. The demand in high level racing is for exceptional double-pole speed, and the ability to carry light kick wax jobs and still have access to kick. That’s clearly what these skis are about, and we’re really excited to work more with them because we think they will produce some outstanding results.

The skis are incredibly light – 10% lighter than the previous Salomon models – and even lighter feeling under foot with the reduced thickness in the tip and tail. They almost disappear under foot, until you put them on edge and realize how secure they feel.

The other interesting news from Salomon is the introduction of a position-adjustable classic binding. It still screws onto the ski, using the same hole pattern that is pre-drilled in the skis. Given the expected sensitivity to load and position in the new 29 model skis, we think that these adjustable bindings are a really good idea.

Over the past couple of years we have chronicled the development of the new Madshus Redline 2.0 model through the process of conception, development, prototyping, and testing. We’ve been able to do this because Madshus has been very open with their process, and has welcomed us to test the product at every stage, and write about what we think. This past winter the 2.0 models hit the market with a limited pre-release, and they were very well received. Anytime a brand new design hits the ground we expect to see a bit of an adjustment period as we learn the ins and outs (and ups and downs) of the new materials. This time around has been no exception, but the overall experience has been one of an outstanding base level of quality.

Generally speaking, we only write positive reviews. We focus on the best of what our industry partners have to offer, and if we don’t like something, we omit it from our line-up. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what we like and what we don’t like, and in general it works well to focus on positives. In this case I’m going to take a less nuanced approach and be free with the criticisms that we have. I’m doing that because they’re minor – because we believe in the Madshus process, and we believe that our readers will be best served by a forthright description of limitations as well as strengths. I’ll be critical the way you can be with family, and not with acquaintances.

So, with that as a precursor, I’ll go ahead and say that the new 2.0 model skis were the highlight of our season. They’re excellent, and easy to work with.

Skate Models

The design objective for the skate skis was to provide broad and tolerant solutions – skis that would excel in a wide range of conditions. That’s a common goal in the industry, but it’s something that Madshus had struggled with, particularly in wet, soft, and slow conditions in the past. Overall we give the skis very high marks in this respect. However, it’s worth noting that there are two distinct forebody camber concepts that we’ve seen – one with very smooth and straight camber expression, and one with a distinct bridge transition at the forebody contact area. Both are good, but it’s one of those “in the right conditions” situations that we wish would go away. The smooth front end offers a lower forebody bridge release angle, and a slightly longer contact area, and these skis have been excellent broad range cold and new snow solutions. The camber with more distinct bridge integrity and a quicker and more defined transition is better in higher levels of transformation and at higher speeds, both above and below freezing (yes, in the same pair of skis).

The Putney boys tested Gunnar’s fleet of 2.0 skis at the New England BKL Festival. Reviews were positive.

There are two models available – the F2 (“R”, or Regular Conditions) and F3 (“SC” or Soft Conditions). The tricky thing is that we’ve found lots of examples of both of these camber concepts in both models. In fact, the camber thing is more of a continuum than two distinct different cambers, and while this is a good thing for a broad range of selection, it doesn’t make it easy to recommend a model or design without some qualification.

Over the course of the season the F2 (Regular) model has stood out as the more frequent favorite, and the ski that gets picked most often in colder snow. Amy has a clear preference for the F2 skis because they simply feel faster to her. Gunnar worked with little miniature 172cm versions this year, and he also really liked his F2 skis in cold snow. The F2 has a somewhat higher resting camber, and longer bridge than the F3 model.

David Northcott on his way to third place in the 5-6 boys, on Gunnar’s F2s. Amazing skis for the under 90 lb crowd!

My own feelings were a bit more complex. The F3 has a really “gathered” feeling under foot, and as a platform it’s easy for me to stand on in a really productive and powerful position. Because of my busted-up knee, I struggle more than I used to when it comes to comfort and stability finding a good position for power application. On the F2 I feel like my forefoot carries tension, and I’m sort of clawing along by my toes. It’s not that it’s hard to edge the ski, and it’s plenty fast and active. But I just can’t easily get myself up into the position where I can move forward on a relaxed foot, and utilize my glutes for power development. On the F3, I feel like superman; it’s just really easy and comfortable for me to find the sweet spot on the ski. But, sometimes it’s a bit like superman on less slippery and less active skis.

Over the course of the winter we had chance to try quite a few different iterations, and when I traveled to Norway in December to select additional material (we sold out early), I found some F3 production with really smooth front end cambers, and considerably higher resting camber. These were sort of hybrid skis – the camber height and action of F2, the smooth front end of a cold ski, and the shorter bridge length of the F3. At the same time, we saw some of the F2 production come through with the front end bridge contact point shortened a bit. And these were also quite good. In general, the F2 and F3 models that I liked best were finding some common ground around a real sweet spot. And the performance was among the best we’ve ever seen. So remind me of that when you come looking for great cold skis for next year!

Overall, we have to be pleased with the way things went this year. We put a lot of 2.0 skate skis out into the world, and they’ve been very well received. If we made any mistakes, it was in taking some softer inventory than we needed – in the past we’ve had really good luck with quite soft values in some of the Madshus models, and this year those skis had a more limited range. We’re also not 100% satisfied with the skis in really sucky wet snow. The new base material is very versatile and broad range, but it’s not competitive with the very best dedicated wet clear bases in the industry, and the super wet cambers aren’t making it to the top of the heap for us yet. This is really not an issue at all in faster wet conditions – we can make outstanding skis there. It’s in the really sucky and slow stuff that we’re continuing to struggle a bit.

Other notes – a lot of people made mention of the very, very low tip profile of the 2.0 skis. As it turned out, some of the skis came through with considerably lower than intended tip profiles, due to some issues with the way the material was releasing from the mold (I don’t know the specifics). That has been adjusted moving forward, and the new stuff will all have a bit more up-turn in the tip than the lower tip skis we saw last year.

Summary notes: Great snow-touch, great dynamic action and “Madshus feeling”, great edge security, great skis. And a few things to grumble about, which we’re taking the liberty to describe.

Classic Models

Ida Sargent, celebrating a national championship. These skis are pre-production (old cosmetic) 2.0 materials.

This was a surprise, and it exposed a weakness in our classic testing. The weakness is that we have a lot of really excellent classic skis, and we have a good idea of which ones to use and how to wax them for a given day. And when we head out skiing, we often have multiple pairs for testing, and end up putting in the kms on the skis we like best. What we don’t do is spend the whole season trying to make a single pair of skis work well in a really wide range of conditions.

The 2.0 classic models were finalized earlier than the skate models, and we had a whole extra season of testing on them. We found them to be very good, but perhaps a smaller departure from the previous standard than what we saw in the skate ski development. Excellent skis, but nothing revolutionary.

So the surprise was that the Madshus 2.0 classic skis were the biggest success of our season, eliciting the most effusive customer comments. They’re just really, really good skis.

The funny thing about these classic skis is that they tend to provide really easy access to kick, and for a lot of racers that feels too good to be true – as though the skis must be slow. But they’re not. They provide outstanding speed, both in striding and in double-poling. Double pole speed is a big concern in high level racing, and the 2.0 models have outstanding acceleration in double-pole, combined with really predictable kick access and sensation.

In general I think the K2 “Plus” model is the more versatile ski. The K2 has more residual camber and pocket shape that the K1 (“cold” model). It still provides great access to kick, and because of the pocket shape it can be selected with a very low camber. The K1 has a flatter pocket profile, and needs a bit more carrying capacity to provide assured speed. I would select a K1 for a dedicated cold and hard track ski, but a K2 for softer tracks and/or softer waxes. And for klister – particularly hard-track ice klisters, a somewhat stronger K2 is the ticket. For breaking wet snow and spring klisters conditions, the race department has a K3 model that has also been excellent, but is more specialized, and not stocked in regular inventory.

If I have any complaint about the Madshus classic skis it’s really aimed at high-end racing more than our core customer base. The material strength in the pocket could be a bit higher. This has the potential to create skis that are a bit harder to define in terms of pocket length and action. The world really wants wax pockets that “close flat”, but I don’t think that’s the best thing in most conditions, and I wish the bridge materials were a bit stronger. But mostly just for top level racing. I don’t want them any stronger on my own skis, thank you very much.

I believe that the strength of the design is in the material and geometry – all the cambers offer good versatility, and are easy to work with. That’s the biggest change from the past – we’ve often had great success with Madshus classic skis, but you have to be a bit of a waxing savant to get the best performance out of them in tricky conditions. The 2.0 models are really straight-forward and easy to work with.

Summary notes: Best response we’ve ever had to a classic model. Don’t be afraid to pick a slightly higher end-flex value than you’ve seen in the past on other models and from other brands. These skis are easy to kick. But be sure to select the length with the most appropriate material strength for optimal performance. We can help you with that.

Preview

So that’s it. The new skis for 2019 arrived for us last season, and we’ve just reviewed them. So what do we have to look forward to? Well… since you asked…

The development process never stops. When Madshus brought Svein-Ivar Moen on board to lead the development project, the first objective was to get the 2.0 models defined. That has been a pretty long journey, but the objective there was to define a base level that was really quite good – a platform for refinement and development. And that’s what this whole project has been about so far. We’re seeing the success of that objective in racing. While Madshus isn’t at the forefront of World Cup racing, they’re enjoying tremendous success in domestic competition with the new skis, which shows that they have brought the base level of the 2.0 line directly to a high standard. Over the course of the past season, the R&D and development testing has moved past the process of inventing a new platform, toward getting the most out of that platform. And the results have been promising. At World Champs in Seefeld they had a couple of very notable results. Alexander Bessmertnykh had a silver medal in very tricky klister conditions on very fast skis. And the real triumph was the amazing performance of Hans Christer Holund with is 30km solo effort off the front to win the 50K, holding off a charging Bolshunov over the final ten kilometers. On notably fantastic skis, in wet, transformed snow.

When we visited Madshus in early March, Per Wiik already had this posted in his office window.

As a side note: in the modern era, HC Holund’s performance in Seefeld can only be compared to Johan Olsson’s 2013 50km win in Val di Fiemme. The introduction of mass start racing has turned these 50km races into boring processional events – races of attrition with a sprint finish for the survivors (most of whom haven’t put their noses into the wind). Mass start racing on the World Cup has changed the sport into something different, and the break-through of a hard-man like HC Holund is a rare treat, and a truly astonishing feat, dependent on nerve, luck, and of course some teammates willing to not close the gap! And it’s worth a further note that Holund is reputed to be among the most deserving champions ever. That’s a race to feel good about.

Anyway – both of these outstanding Madshus performances in Seefeld were on new skis, supplied for the championships. The classic skis were “ordinary”, according to Per Wiik’s text message, but had a new wet grind from the Madshus Tazzari RP-23 machine. But the skate skis were a bit of something different.

December testing, under the lights, with Connor Green

This is where we need to introduce a new character. We’ve often focused on the people involved in the development of skis at Madshus. Last fall they hired a new engineer, and Bjorn Ivar Austrem – the head of engineering – put him directly into the ski development project. And the new guy? His name is Connor Green. He comes from Rochester New York, and he graduated from Harvard with an engineering degree just under a year ago. He was on the ski team at Harvard, and was a customer of ours when he was racing (Madshus skis, of course).

So how does a young engineer land a job developing high-end race skis in Norway? I guess you’ll have to ask Connor. But he’s apparently very well suited to the position; he has very high level nerd credentials, and is good enough at his job to be brought right into the thick of race ski development very quickly.

When I visited Madshus in December, Connor and I went out on snow to test some new material layups that he had been playing with. I had asked him about the differences between altering carbon laminations and altering the thickness profile in changing the stiffness profile of the ski, and I had some specific ideas about adjusting the material. “Funny you should mention that”, he said. And we went out and tested some of his ideas that were already well ahead of my question. Those ideas seemed to prove out through repeated production cycles and prototype test series, and I’m pretty sure that the first pairs they made with standard production graphics instead of their test/prototype graphics were the skis that they have to HC Holund to test in Seefeld. They were good. The material adjustments that Connor started working with early in the winter, helped to deliver a medal at World Champs. I’ve talked with Connor and handful of times, and I think it’s OK for me to say that he’s got a long list of projects in the queue for testing.

Ole Martin Storlien and Martin Galleberg, the Madshus race service guys, unpacking, repacking, and heading back out onto the road. Again.

In the past we’ve been really satisfied and impressed with the way the Madshus racing team has been able to work with Bjorn Ivar, the engineer, and Vidar, the camber wizard, to create a really tight development feedback loop. But the ability to push an aggressive testing agenda has been limited by the need for the racing guys to provide a stable and consistent level of product for racers, and by Bjorn Ivar’s need to wear a lot of hats in a small company. Now they’ve got Connor and Svein Ivar – development engineer and development testing director – working directly together to identify objectives and test concepts full time. The racing guys don’t test hare-brained ideas, they test proven concepts, and if they’re good enough, they offer them to racers. This is how development needs to work, and it’s the process that Madshus now has in place.

I think it will be a few years before we see an altogether new model from Madshus. But there will continual refinements “under the hood”, and those will come into the regular production as soon as they’re well enough proven. In the meantime, I’ve got reason to be excited by the ideas that Connor has been given the resources to chase, and I think it’s super cool to have a young American involved in the industry at this level.

We do a really good job making ski selection, grinding, and waxing very complex. That’s what happens when you try for the highest possible performance. But we also know that many of you prefer a simpler process. We have put together this “easy guide” to ordering skis to help you navigate the decision making process when it comes to new skis. There is still a lot of information here, but it should help you gain some clarity.

You’re always welcome to contact us directly by phone or email to initiate the ski ordering process. But we also have a handy ski request form which does a better job gathering all the necessary information in one place than I do on the phone. The ski request form (linked here or on the image to the right) is organized to gather information about you, and about the ski you want. Since you may not know exactly what skis you want, below are some guidelines to help you fill the blanks on the form.

Brand & Model Choices

Do you already know what brand and model you want? Excellent – this should be an easy process for you. You can skip ahead to the “Grinds” header.  If you’re unsure, then you’ve got a big decision to make. “Every brand makes great skis”. You’ve heard that, right? It’s true, but it’s equally true that every brand makes different skis, and one of the most frequent conversations we have is matching ski and skier characteristics for the highest satisfaction. It’s a great idea to try a bunch of different brands and models at an on-snow demo (something we’re always happy to try to facilitate in person), but opportunity isn’t always available.

The best skiers in the world can make any brand work well for them. The best skiers also have a service staff to take care of waxing and ski care. But we’re not the best skiers in the world, and it can be really useful to acknowledge our challenges in order to select materials that best support our needs.

Classic Skis

The trade-off between kick and glide more or less defines the design parameters of classic skis, leaving relatively little room for unique solutions. The difference in feeling between classic models from different brands is considerable because the material all responds differently, but the difference in functional performance is relatively small. In this sense, we can find a ski that will work well for you from any of our brands.

Do you stomp, or tip-toe?

If you tend to initiate the kick with an emphasis on downward impulse, then it’s likely that you’re standing fairly upright, and kicking through a flat-foot position. You’ll end up wanting a ski with strength in the back of the pocket, the high point back near the toe, and a moderately high carrying capacity. This gives you access to the kick from a variety of positions, and provides a great platform for a forceful kick. If, on the other hand, you initiate the kick by moving quickly onto the ball of the foot, then you’ll appreciate a softer and lower pocket with a more forward-positioned high point. These are distinctions we can help with, and since we’re going to have our hands on your skis, we’ll want to get some information from you. Tell us what you can on the form, and we’ll connect on the phone or email for additional insight.

What about skin skis? 

Duh. I forgot to put those on the form. But you can specify what you’re looking for in the comment fields, and we’ll connect to figure it out.

Skate Skis

There is more room for interpretation and unique material expression in skate skis than in classic, and the differences between brands create more opportunities to select brands and models that support the best possible experience. As time has passed, the whole industry has come much closer together in their skate ski designs, and the overall performance has been elevated. A decade ago there were some skier/brand combinations that just didn’t work, while these days it’s generally possible to make every skier happy with skis from any of the brands.

Speed at all cost?

Every racer we’ve ever worked with will prioritize ski speed over skiability every time they pick a ski. But when we run demos, we see clearly that ski feel and handling make a far bigger impression on most skiers than straight-ahead speed. What’s really interesting to me is that since he retired from full time racing, Kris Freeman has made very different decisions about his skis. In the races he did this year, Kris prioritized edge stability and skiability over speed – even asking me to move his bindings forward to enhance the edging on his skis. He also asked me for a pair of skis to use in icy conditions, so I sent him an older pair of Ski Trabs, which he skied on pretty much anytime he wasn’t racing because of the very strong edge security. They weren’t “fast”, but he preferred them for the ease of use.

Finding Skiability

It would be nice if stability just had one meaning, or people experienced it the same way. But the performance of skis depends a lot on how you stand on them (your loading position) and where in the stride you need stability, not to mention the prevailing conditions.

Long Gliders

Skiers who like to glide on one ski for a long time and ski with a low tempo, tend to prioritize flat-ski stability in their ski selection. The same skiers often tend to load the foot in a neutral position, rather than through the forefoot. Flat ski stability and directional control tend to be enhanced in ski configurations that carry more load on the rear of the ski, and offer relatively long pressure distribution through the tail of the ski. It used to be common to find skis with a distinct “rudder” in the tail, but modern racing techniques and ski design trends have moved away from this. Still – some skis work better than others for these skiers.

Salomon – This is where the Salomon design really shines – particularly for skiers who push through a flat foot, with a centered or rearward body position as opposed to an aggressively forward position. When the Salomon skis are loaded through a flat foot they provide excellent stability and speed – both on a flat ski and on edge.

Fischer – Over the past decade Fischer has moved away from a long rudder in their ski design, and the flat-ski directional stability inherent in the design now depends on some more forebody loading than it used to. But the bridge position and camber configuration in the design make this pretty automatic, and the skis are tolerant of a wide range of loading positions. The overall low camber and strong finish of the Fischer design provides excellent flat-ski gliding performance.

Madshus – When we first started working closely with Madshus their skis were notably fastest on edge, and didn’t do a great job supporting flat-ski gliders. That has changed quite a lot over time, and the current Madshus skis do well when they’re flat on the snow. What hasn’t changed is that the skis still respond very well to edging, and tend to feel like they accelerate when they’re on edge. Long gliding skiers don’t need to be afraid of Madshus, but the real benefit here might be for those who find the edge of the ski early, and have a long push phase.

Active High-Temp Skiers

Skiers who are constantly in motion, moving from edge to edge, often with a higher tempo, tend to favor skis with good edge efficiency and speed. Edge stability and edge efficiency are two different things, and both are valuable to these skiers. These high tempo skiers often tend to carry a more forward-position, and to load the ski through the forefoot.

Madshus – While the Madshus skis do glide well when they’re flat on the snow, they really shine on edge, and when they are loaded through the front of the foot. Madshus are the only brand where playing with binding position sometimes points us toward a position forward of neutral on the NIS plate. The skis do very well on edge, both in terms of stability and efficiency. They edge security is very good, and the skis also seem to accelerate naturally on edge.

Fischer – The most notable evolution in Fischer’s skate ski design since about 2010 has been its increasing reward for active skiing. The 610 model is incredibly smooth in transition from flat to edge, and the efficiency on edge is excellent. Edge security in squirrely conditions is the one are where Fischer isn’t at the front of the pack, but it’s worth noting that the new 3D Gliding Sidewall design seems to provide a sharper edge feel. While the Fischer design supports high tempo, active skiing, the dynamic properties of the camber and material design don’t beg for it. The tendency on Fischer is toward more balanced and glide-oriented skiing.

Salomon – The S-LAB carbon models provide outstanding edge support and are easy to roll-over provided the load doesn’t get too for forward on the skis. Our experience has been that aggressive forward loading really takes these skis out of their optimal performance window. There are lots of really good skiers who thrive on these skis – it’s not a question of the skis being unsuitable for high level skiers and aggressive positions. But switching between brands requires some adjustment, and when we put these on the snow at demos, we find that the people who drive the ski from a neutral to flat foot position are the ones who gravitate toward these skis.

Control and Downhill Cornering

Sometimes we’ll hear a customer talk about how they can “carve” corners on downhills on a given pair of skis. I don’t think that really happens – these skis don’t have the kind of sidecut or reversible camber that would let you truly carve turns on them. In general, we can boil descending technique into two strategies – you can step your corners, or you can slide them. Sooner or later, everybody is going to end up sliding a corner. In general, lower camber skis with shorter bridges and less edge security are easier to slide through corners – steering with the ankles. Skis with notably strong edge security and directional stability sometimes don’t want to skid around a corner, and really need to be stepped. Higher resting cambers can sometimes make it feel that you need to “high-step” the skis – especially in soft or slushy snow – in order to get them clear of the snow for cornering. If downhill control is important to you, make sure to let us know how you want to steer the skis! These comments apply to both skate and classic skis.

Ski Length

It’s worth remembering that ski length is actually core thickness. Longer skis have thicker profiles, and stiffness is strongly dependent on thickness. So, longer skis are materially stiffer than shorter skis. The “flex” of the ski depends on a combination of the material strength and the camber, which governs the amount of deformation that the skis will be subject to under your load. Matching the material characteristics to your weight and your performance demands is important. Skis that are too short have insufficient material strength, and their dependence on camber makes them unpredictable and reduces the operating range. Skis that are too long have too much material strength, and they tend to be unforgiving, and inaccessible. The right length depends on your weight, and also your strength and movement patterns. In general, full size adult males in the normal to large range (call it 165 lbs and up) should be on full length skis (206-207 classic and 191-192 skate). The exceptions would be older or less aggressive skiers. Smaller men and larger women should be on the next length down (201-202 classic and 186-187 skate). And normal to small women would end up on the third size down (196-197 classic and 181-182 skate). At a World Cup level that’s as short as any company goes. For especially small people, and growing kids, we take even shorter skis.

Grinds

Factory grinds continue to improve – slowly – as the factories invest in their finishing lines. But we still see improvements in performance and predictability with our grinds on new skis. When it comes to selecting grinds, the simplest thing is to ask us to choose a structure for you according to the performance objectives that you’ve outlined for the skis. We’ve added that options to the drop-down menu under grinds selection, so you can bypass that whole conversation by simply putting the decision in our hands. We take a lot of factors into consideration, and general make good decisions. However, if you want something specific, or would like to discuss options, just let us know. Pro-tip: you can write-in structure names in that slot on the ski request form. We’ll do what you want, and if you have something you know you like, we’re happy to produce it for you. All grinds are $50 on new skis.

Boots & Bindings

What boot binding system are you on? If you still use SNS (Pilot or Propulse) boots, then your ski options are limited to skis compatible with those bindings. Fischer has removed the binding retention material from the core of their skis, and we will not be able to mount screw-on bindings onto Fischer Speedmax skis starting with the 2019 production. We also won’t mount screw-on bindings onto the Rottefella NIS 2.0 plate currently used by Madshus on their classic skis. For use with screw-on bindings, we can offer all Salomon model skis, along with Madshus skate skis. Here’s a helpful chart that you can use to make an appropriate binding selection.

Heatbox and Race Hardening

Skis need to be waxed after grinding, and there is all kinds of terrible information floating around about how much waxing is required to bring the skis up to speed after they’re freshly ground. In our experience there are two very important steps.

Saturation
HB ($20)

The second most important step is also the first step that we do after grinding, and that is saturating the base with soft paraffin. Wax goes into solution (like sugar dissolving into tea) in the amorphous material in the base, and it helps with performance by supporting the desired bulk properties, and by providing a lubricating layer at the surface. The purpose of saturating the base is analogous to wetting a new sponge before doing dishes. The low-melt point wax dissolves into the base easily, and helps to carry and bond subsequent layers securely into the base. You can saturate new or freshly ground bases with five or six repetitions of basic waxing procedure. Or else you can put them in the heatbox, which is what we do. We charge $20 for a basic saturation in the heatbox.

Hardening
HB+RH ($45)

The most important part of the process, by far, is hardening the base. This is where we bring the amorphous materials up into the glass transition range of 130+ degrees Celsius, using a special wax as a vehicle for the heat. This process is essentially the same as “burning” the base, but it’s done in a controlled process that results in a harder, more resilient, and faster base. The process only needs to be done once after a ski is ground, and it ensures that the base is hardened evenly and well, providing a long life of good performance.

Effective hardening requires iron temperatures between 145 and 150C, and a wax with appropriate thermal stability at that temperature. Most waxes with lower melt points will damage the base if they are ironed at temperatures that high, so using the right wax is important. You can use most any “green” paraffin, but those high melt point waxes do tend to block softer waxes, and it can take a few waxings to recondition the base. We use a proprietary hardening wax called “H10” from Star, which they designed at our request to have high thermal stability (no risk of base damage at high iron temps) and a low melt point (below 115). That means that our hardening process is both safe for the base, and easy to work with subsequent wax of the day preparation. We provide the Race Hardening process for $45 (including heatbox saturation), or we can sell you the H10 so you can harden the skis yourself.

Super Secret Liquid Paraffin Promotion

If you order a full-price pair of skis, we will offer you a Star liquid HF paraffin kit. We have been working with these waxes for two years now, and have had outstanding success. Last season we used these waxes (along with Vauhti’s liquid paraffins) for 100% of our daily skiing sessions, and the overall performance was excellent. We also use the liquid paraffins in racing, under pure fluoro layers.

We set-up a handful of our best customers with a liquid waxing system as a test this past season, and they were very enthusiastic. The system is based on a relatively long “service interval” between hot-wax applications with the iron to keep the base well conditioned and the bulk properties appropriately tuned to support optimal glide. And then we use liquid paraffin for daily skiing. And it’s fast.

There are three products in the Star line; HF40 for cold, HF30 for mid, and HF20 for wet conditions. Each container will provide 15-20 applications of very high performance race paraffin, with sufficient durability for an awesome 60km day (in March in Sjusjoen – that’s the longest I’ve gone on this stuff). The normal cost for each is $39, and we’ll include all three for $58.50 with the order of a new pair of skis. We’ll also include more detailed instructions on service intervals, and how to most effectively use the wax.

If you want to get-in on this, just make a note of it in one of the comment fields on the form, or let us know by email. We’re a small shop – we’ll sort it out!

We’re off to Quebec this weekend for a last-blast of summer fun, watching mountain bike World Champs. But fall is upon us; we’ve already cranked up the grinding apparatus in the shop, and in a week we’re headed back to Europe to wrap up our ski selection for the season. So this is a reminder to anybody who wants to get on our list to have skis selected from the widest inventory selection possible… now is the time to get in touch!

As a reminder, please review our springtime review/preview articles here:

http://www.caldwellsport.com/2019/03/fischer-reviewpreview-speedmax-3d/

http://www.caldwellsport.com/2019/04/salomon-reviewpreview-new-classic-design/

http://www.caldwellsport.com/2019/04/madshus-redline-2-0-review-preview/

And finally, if you haven’t already studied it, please take a look at our E-Z buyer’s guide to skis. It’s our attempt to relate specific brands and models to the type of on-snow characteristics that really matter to you. Our friend Marshall Peterson has told us that he thinks it’s the “best article you’ve ever written”. So there’s that…

http://www.caldwellsport.com/2019/05/e-z-buyers-guide/

The buyer’s guide has a link to a ski request form. But you’re also welcome to simply email us. For a long-winded explanation of everything, send a note to zc@caldwellsport.com. And for many fewer words, and more understandable information, contact ac@caldwellsport.com.

Since we wrote all of those articles this spring, we’ve had a chance to get our hands on some of the new material for next season. In fact, we’ve already started unpacking the new Fischer material from our spring ski selection. So we can update you on some of the specifics of what we’re seeing.

Fischer

As I explained at length in the spring preview article, the big changes to Fischer skis this year are material changes to the sidewall and the removal of the screw-retention material from the core. We normally have a really good idea of what material changes we’re going to see when we start working with new Fischer models, and indeed, the new skis are as advertised, and discussed. More specifically, we don’t consider this to be a “new model” or “new construction” in the way that Carbonlite was a change from RCS, and Speedmax was a change from Carbonlite. The 3D skis are a more incremental adjustment to the same basic construction. The larger question is always the subtlety of the camber in the specific production that we’re working with. So far we’re very satisfied that the new production will work like we’ve come to expect.

Skate

The pre-production 3D skate skis that we started testing last winter were notably higher in their resting camber than what we’re accustomed to working with from the past several seasons, and I had some concern that we’d need to be looking at these skis in a different way. I didn’t make a big deal out of it in our preview, because the early production samples are not a reliable guide. As it turns out, the skis we saw in the broader production this spring were very familiar looking. For reference, during last winter we tested early production skate skis with resting cambers in the range of 23-25mm, while the skis we selected in the spring for the coming season were in the familiar range of 16-17mm at the low end, and 20-22mm at the high end.

This is reassuring for us, since it reinforces our confidence in what we already know about how to work with Fischer skis. So we’re happy about that, and are looking forward to continuing to build-out our inventory and fill requests according to our normal procedures.

Classic

There weren’t many classic skis produced when we reviewed inventory this spring, so we’ve got a fair amount of work do on that front. Our current pick list has 52.5% classic skis on it, which I find interesting. I’m quite confident that far more Speedmax skate skis are sold in the US market than classic skis. Maybe this ordering pattern is a reflection of our customer base – which has a lot of dedicated racers who split time between classic and skate pretty evenly. Or maybe people just realize that we’re amazing at picking classic skis. Come to think of, it’s probably that second one. Seems likely.

At any rate, we continue to have a lot of confidence in the 9Q2 camber for all-around use as well as klister. In the past several seasons the finishing hardness on the 9Q2 has crept upward, nudging that model toward a slightly more specific range that includes higher moisture and thicker wax jobs. At the same time, the 8Q2 has evolved to carry enough residual camber to be reliably fast in most hardwax conditions, and we’ve been slowly starting to favor that a bit more in dedicated cold conditions. We still like the camber shape under the foot in the 9Q2, which provides a quicker and more digital feeling access to the kick. The 8Q2 skis persist in having a somewhat higher resting camber and more continuous positive camber behind the foot. So we’re still generally in the 9Q2 hardwax ski camp by personal preference. But the 8Q2 models are really good, and should absolutely be considered for multi-pair fleets.

Madshus

I covered our experience with the new Redline 2.0 skis last year at great length in our spring review/preview article. Anytime a brand-new construction comes out we expect to go through a learning period and break-in period. My spring review was both very positive, and quite plainly critical of the areas where we see room for improvement. When we visited Norway in May we grabbed a day up in Sognefjell with Bjorn Ivar and Connor – the development guys – testing some really new ideas that may find their way to production eventually. But we also got a chance to experience the new production of 2.0 skis, and there are some adjustments.

Skate

One of the comments I made in the spring was that we might have aimed a bit low with some of the end-flex values on the skis that we selected. This underscores a really big issue with skate ski flex measurements in general: end-flex values (or FA from Fischer, or MF from Salomon) are generally a terrible guide for “ski fit”. None of these skate skis are designed to ever close all the way, and generally they’re so stiff in the final few tenths of a mm (where they’re not designed to be loaded by a skier) that the measured “flex” value can vary wildly with a small camber or layup adjustment. For last year, as always, we picked skis using our hands, and our experience on prototype materials, but also leaning a bit on our previous experience with Madshus products and some familiar numeric values. Our winter testing experience on-snow indicated that we could have asked for more from some of the skis that we picked on the soft end of the spectrum.

The challenge here is that in most cases (in all brands) skis that are way too stiff are worse than skis that are way too soft. When the camber is under-expressed, it puts too much load and tension on thin material that is poorly suited to handle the task, and the skis tend to be quite bitey in their snow-touch, as well as being prone to drain energy out of your legs. So there is good reason to be a bit gun-shy regarding end-flex values. The interesting thing about these Madshus Redline 2.0 skis is that the chassis seems very accessible, even at very high end-flex values. I never got on a pair of these skis last year that felt “too stiff”, or where I felt that the camber was difficult to express. There were times when I felt that my gimpy leg had me hanging off the back of the F2 camber, while the F3 felt really good. But that was a bridge position and load distribution issue – not a factor of end flex strength.

So it was interesting, come May, to find a bunch of considerably higher flex values in the new production. The Madshus development guys have been working hard on a variety of ideas, and learning a lot of interesting things for the future. But they also suggested that there has been an inline adjustment to support more elastic response. When we got on the new skis in Sognefjell we found that the snow-touch and accessibility was about the same as before, but the new skis seemed to “levitate” under peak loading, and the high-end acceleration was remarkable.

Madshus has also taken the step of removing the measured end-flex from the NIS plate, where they have printed it for the past couple of seasons. This is in order to encourage shops and customers to test the skis based on the prescribed weight ranges rather than based on measured end flex. Of course, people can still measure the end flex of the skis, and they might be surprised by the high values. But they should ski them on snow before they make up their minds about anything. My feeling is that these skis are both well mannered under passive loading, and very fast and rewarding under dynamic loading.

Back around 2011-12, I put our good friend and longtime testing collaborator Mike Wynn on a pair of 190cm Madshus 118 model skis from the race department HUC construction. It was a strong pair with a high resting camber, very much like the ski that Noah Hoffman had used with really good success in the 2011 World Championship 50km (and also the 2013 World Championship 15km). Since then it’s been nearly impossible to find a similar level of dynamic response and elasticity out of any model from any brand, and Mike has made sure to let us know, every year, that “this new stuff is pretty good, but not like my old HUC blue skis “. Wynnie had better brace himself. These new 2.0s are going to blow his mind.

One other change worth mentioning is confirmation that the extremely low tip that we saw on some of last year’s production has been adjusted toward a more normal level of curvature. It’s still a low-profile tip with quite a pronounced javelin profile. But it looks a bit less like a weapon than some of last year’s skis did.

Classic

Unlike the skate material, the classic skis we saw and selected in May are very much the same as what we worked with and really loved last winter. I’ve documented the evolution of this model extensively in the past. The classic 2.0 skis were actually developed before the skate skis, and have been a “finished” product for two full winter seasons of testing and racing. If there is any problem with these skis, it’s the same problem that almost every brand faces – how to balance the pocket camber that actually works best with the pocket camber that everybody wants to see when they measure the skis.

I’m talking about cold skis here, and the problem is that even though the racing world has embraced some residual camber shape in the pocket under full weight for at least 15 years, the traditional concept of a cold classic skis includes a flat finish on the pocket. A flat finish is slow. It just is. You have to work with residual camber shape (a section of pocket that stays open in front of the foot when the pocket is fully compressed under the ball of the foot) to find fast skis. And what’s even crazier is that, for a variety of relatively simple reasons, the flat pockets don’t even kick well in most conditions. We have found quite a few cold model Madshus skis that have much too flat a finish in the pocket. But we know what we’re looking for, and we’re really good with classic skis (I might have mentioned that). So don’t worry.

Thermal Issues?

Madshus has a long-time (and well earned) reputation for being thermally delicate, and for ending up with base deformation very easily. We’ve addressed this a number of times in the past, and are careful to brief all of our Madshus customers with good supporting information on appropriate care and waxing practice. In general, we don’t see this as an issue that should prevent anybody from considering Madshus. Now that we’re into year-two with the Redline 2.0 models, we’re starting to regrind last year’s skis that have been out in the trenches for a full season. What we’re finding is that the year-old skis are holding up well, with very little deformation. We still see issues with older skis. Any older Nanosonic, or first generation Redline, will absolutely require metal scraping in order to get it flat. The same is true of any Carbonlite or RCS model. But the newer models from all brands are showing really good stability.

Salomon

Salomon is the one brand we didn’t get our hands on for selection this spring. We’ll be heading there the week after next, and I will plan to hit hard and fast with our impressions of those skis as soon as we have them in front of us. So keep tuned!