Ski climbing skins

Recently I purchased a pair of modern climbing skins for my backcountry skis. I hate to use my old strap on Voile' plastic "Snake Skins". They climb just great but forget ANY glide whatsoever. Thus the new skins.

I wanted to get some Black Diamond skins but they didn't have any long enough for my Asnes Combi Combat 210 cm skis.

So... I found some G3 skins in 80mm width that did have the requisite length. They are a bit heavier than the BD lightweight skins and may or may not have glue as effective as BD's proprietary glue. But everything else about them is top notch.

Anybody have experience with G3 skins?

Any brand preference for waterproofing skin spray?

Eric

(Tom D? You out there in the ether?)

Eric, yep (as you already know). I have the BD Glidelite skins-no tails, just glue. They work great, but I am only used them a couple of times. If you go to TelemarkTips.com and ask there in the teletalk forum, I am sure you can find something on them.

Tom,

I'm a "belt and suspenders" kind guy when it comes to attatching ski skins. I need that extra confidnce that comes with having tail straps on my skins.

However my 1st choice was the lightweight type of BD skins (and BD glue) that you have. Lighter to carry & less bulk under your parka, staying warm for the next use.

Eric

Eric, I got mine on eBay and they came without tails. Only used them a bit, but they seem to stay on fine since they are new. I will look into getting tails if they start to act up.

why are you using 210cm ski

Dunno about 300, but in my case - because it's what I have, and I don't ski well enough to blow a big wad of cash on trendy modern waxless ones, now that short and fat is in so of course nobody ever skiied anywhere on classic tele's.

phat i was a long ski fanatic,until 6 years ago the only skis i owned were 210 to 240 range i vowed i would never ski on anything if it did not start with a 2 then i demo'd some short ones (180) at the ski hill what a mistake i can not describe the differences it made skiing ,up and down way easier , better in tight places, easier to pack, better flotation. lighter, the list goes on it gives you everything you want and leaves you less tired at days end. the prices have come way down and the swap meets are full of 180 cm ski's because most people now regard these as to long. being used to 210's and going down to a shorter ski of this newfangled syle will really impress you . you may even ski with friends again and show them some tricks.

My skis are fairly narrow 170 Atomic Rainiers. I bought mine for a specific purpose (ski camping in Yosemite) and got a great deal on them from STP. Short and fat tele skis are the new style for tele, but for BC touring, they aren't the best, from what I have read. I only know how mine work for me and they are fine for my purposes.

There are some other threads here on who has what, so if you want to know more, look through the archives.

I have a pair of Asnes skis, and they have the possibility of clipping into them short skins. The skins are fastened under the middle of the ski, and really that is amazing. Gives you hold in the uphill climbs and glide both on flat ground and downhill. Long skins is only for steep hills or extremely icy conditions. I agree that there is no glide using them.

On my latest long distance skitrip I used these short skins on two of the five days. Btw you may see pictures of the trip on the tread Far North winter trip report. Picture 5 shows the short skin on my ski.

/Otto

Winny
Theres new skins? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />You mean I don't have to keep oiling my old seal skins - real ones? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> My skins arefull length clip and glue type and Swiss, I forgot the brand. They're some red nylon stuff I bought around 20 years ago. They don't glide too well, which was considered a feature - you went slower downhill wearing a heavy pack.
Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I and a number of my friends use the G3 skins for backcountry stuff. What others have said is generally true from my experience. They make you feel like spider man on very steep uphills, and they definitely slow you down on downhills and limit glide on more level terrain--not necessarily a bad thing if the conditions are very icy. For most of my friends, they've worked fine. I will say though that for me, I had a problem with the glue losing its adhesion after a trip where they came loose several times (because the rear wasn't quite clipped on right) and got wet from wet snow and lost their adhesion. The G3 people were very good about sending me free adhesive sheets to reapply, but it's a very messy and tricky job, at least as far as my experience. So far I've not been successful getting the new stuff to adhere evenly and fully using an iron to apply it. One other friend, who skies a really lot, has had a gradual deterioration of his glue surface too. For most though, they seem to work fine.
Hope that's helpful.
Gerry Magnes
Schenectady, NY

One thing to remember with skins, which I learned the hard way: once you have them glued together like they tell you to, if you aren't using cheat sheets, try to keep them warm, otherwise you will have a heck of a time separating them.

I havent had difficulties with that myself. Maybe its tricky if you try to seperate them and THEN adhere them to the skis. I just fasten the ski in the snow. Then I take the end that goes on the top of the ski and hook it on. With one hand holding the tip of the ski and the fastened skin, I pull down the part that ends up behind on the ski with the other hand. Thus I reveal more and more until I'm half way down, then I have just to fasten the last bit. (hope this was understandable)

Otto. Mine were new and so the glue was really sticky. It took all the pulling I could muster to get them apart.