Can anyone give me the rundown on XCD skis?

I am possibly looking for a better option for my backyard backcountry skis. I have a mountain behind my house that is usually skiiable for 2-4 weeks a year. It has tons of 5-15deg bike/hiking trails that wind up it. Currently, when conditions permit, I have a pair of altai hoks with voile cable bindings that I use to noodle around. I usually find a little 100-200 vert section and just lap it a bunch without skins. Downhill slope angles are usually between 10-30 degrees. The hoks are great on the uphill but slog pretty bad on the downhill, even though it is still fun. Would scaled skis be able to climb those trails? Anyone try the new altai tao skis? Usually walking my dogs is the main goal but downhill performance would be the 2nd.

Get some Altai Koms. They’re really fun in hippie pow.

Agree on the KOMs for that purpose, also the Rossi BC120 Positrack looks similar (not the waxbase). I've enjoyed the discontinued Marquette backcountry ski for similar purposes on low cover MTB trails, but they don't really move downhill any better than Hoks which I've also skied. I have some Rossi BC80s that I use to get a few turns over very low angle grass slopes to make xc ski more fun, think KOMs or similar would be a bit better.

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Originally Posted by toastybroski

I am possibly looking for a better option for my backyard backcountry skis. I have a mountain behind my house that is usually skiiable for 2-4 weeks a year. It has tons of 5-15deg bike/hiking trails that wind up it. Currently, when conditions permit, I have a pair of altai hoks with voile cable bindings that I use to noodle around. I usually find a little 100-200 vert section and just lap it a bunch without skins. Downhill slope angles are usually between 10-30 degrees. The hoks are great on the uphill but slog pretty bad on the downhill, even though it is still fun. Would scaled skis be able to climb those trails? Anyone try the new altai tao skis? Usually walking my dogs is the main goal but downhill performance would be the 2nd.

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Funny you mentioned those I actually just picked up some mint BC120 but waxbase because they had a pair of voile cable bindings I wanted and they were cheaper than I could find the bindings anywhere for. The positracks seem ideal though. That's what kind of spurred this on.

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Originally Posted by toastybroski

I am possibly looking for a better option for my backyard backcountry skis. I have a mountain behind my house that is usually skiiable for 2-4 weeks a year. It has tons of 5-15deg bike/hiking trails that wind up it. Currently, when conditions permit, I have a pair of altai hoks with voile cable bindings that I use to noodle around. I usually find a little 100-200 vert section and just lap it a bunch without skins. Downhill slope angles are usually between 10-30 degrees. The hoks are great on the uphill but slog pretty bad on the downhill, even though it is still fun. Would scaled skis be able to climb those trails? Anyone try the new altai tao skis? Usually walking my dogs is the main goal but downhill performance would be the 2nd.

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Funny you mentioned those I actually just picked up some mint BC120 but waxbase because they had a pair of voile cable bindings I wanted and they were cheaper than I could find the bindings anywhere for. The positracks seem ideal though. That's what kind of spurred this on.

I would recommend the Madshus Panorama line with the waist width of your choice - M62, M68, or M78. Match with some pin+cable tele bindings (or similar) and be on your way. The camber is so much more friendly than the Rossi.

The Kom is ideal for what you want, the Tao looks good but I haven’t skied them. Koms climb reasonably well anything I would want to ski down with them I can climb without skins. I wish they made a one eighty four. I asked Nils and he said there wasn’t enough demand

There used to be a lot more information on this class of ski on telemarktips, but that site is gone for many years (RIP Mitch).

There are "XCD" waxless skis flat, or with a lot of camber. I have a pair of cambered Fischer Outtabounds that have given me a lot of good walks in the woods, but they don't turn well at all except maybe for an XCD/tele genius (not me).

Fischer and Voile have recessed fishscale bases, I believe Rossignol Positrack is the opposite (protrudes), which climbs a little better and skis down a little worse, but I would expect to be still much faster than a Hok. I don't know anything about the camber of the Rossignol waxless skis.

I cut grooves in the bases of an older ski, it will climb gentle slopes - 5 deg, but not 15 deg. I should try this again with a dremel tool, there are a lot of decent used alpine/tele skis to mess around with.

If you're lapping the up/down of a hill, rather than rolling terrain, maybe kicker skins?

https://skinbased.com/?

Kinda like hoks. Can buy them flat and put whatever binding you want on them

Looks almost exactly like Hoks

Agree on the Kom. Perfect for what OP is looking to do. Voile V6 BC would also be good, but a lot more $$$$.
With skis this wide though, a T4 type of boot is likely better than leather, easy to find cheap on

https://harvestskis.com/

The website says all fishscales are currently sold out, but the fb page indicates that dude will make special orders. I’ve been on the Harvest model for a few years now, ski them hard, and love ‘em. Alpinas and Karhu s for [emoji638][emoji[emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]][emoji640][emoji6[emoji640][emoji638]]] years before these. Never tried any of the Marquette/Altai/etc shorties as I want a real ski for real skiing, and XCD can definitely be “real” skiing.

I have a pair of Voile hypercharger BCs with 3-pin cable bindings and T4s that are great for this. I spent three years looking for a used setup because new they’re prohibitively expensive, and they’re so popular that they rarely last more than a day on the used market. But it was worth it and I’ll never sell them—too much fun.

These replaced a pair of Fischer outbounds, which are fun BC Nordic skis, but way too cambered to have fun on the downhill.

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Originally Posted by toastybroski

I am possibly looking for a better option for my backyard backcountry skis. I have a mountain behind my house that is usually skiiable for 2-4 weeks a year. It has tons of 5-15deg bike/hiking trails that wind up it. Currently, when conditions permit, I have a pair of altai hoks with voile cable bindings that I use to noodle around. I usually find a little 100-200 vert section and just lap it a bunch without skins. Downhill slope angles are usually between 10-30 degrees. The hoks are great on the uphill but slog pretty bad on the downhill, even though it is still fun. Would scaled skis be able to climb those trails? Anyone try the new altai tao skis? Usually walking my dogs is the main goal but downhill performance would be the 2nd.

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I&#39;d love to have a Pow Cow with scales, but the amount f days it would get used doesn&#39;t even come close to computing.</p>

I was definitely pushing the hoks to their climbing limit today but they just sink so much in deep snow.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1323293e6c.jpg

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by toastybroski

I am possibly looking for a better option for my backyard backcountry skis. I have a mountain behind my house that is usually skiiable for 2-4 weeks a year. It has tons of 5-15deg bike/hiking trails that wind up it. Currently, when conditions permit, I have a pair of altai hoks with voile cable bindings that I use to noodle around. I usually find a little 100-200 vert section and just lap it a bunch without skins. Downhill slope angles are usually between 10-30 degrees. The hoks are great on the uphill but slog pretty bad on the downhill, even though it is still fun. Would scaled skis be able to climb those trails? Anyone try the new altai tao skis? Usually walking my dogs is the main goal but downhill performance would be the 2nd.

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Agree on the camber thing, look for the least amount/softest camber. Sure you will lose some glide, but for the kind of off trail skiiing you are doing, one mostly just shuffles along. &nbsp;Also less camber gives better climbing grip.</p>

V6 BC is the best for this IME.
There are used military Ultra Vector BC&#39;s w/ switchbacks on ebay right now for less than four hundred.

Those are tempting but some of the photos look beat to shit and others look pristine.

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Originally Posted by chicken feathers

V6 BC is the best for this IME.
There are used military Ultra Vector BC's w/ switchbacks on ebay right now for less than four hundred.

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Link?

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Originally Posted by toastybroski

Those are tempting but some of the photos look beat to shit and others look pristine.

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Does that matter for the intended use? Likely to get beat the setup anyway.</p>

here maybe?

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...023.m570.l1311

The mountain I ski at had the 10th mountain division training last year and their new skis are sick. They're a white camo dps wailer with dynafit rotations. Whenever those go to auction that would be sick.

@Toasty those turns on the west side of town look good!

toasty - when i was in japan last week we saw the japan army guys on their skis at the resort. The shittiest bindings with soft leather boots with a scale traction base. Didn't look easy to ski in. Sounds like the US skis had the advantage.

Did the dps have the traction base?

Altai Skis without question. Hok or Kom. You won't be sorry...

I continue to enjoy my alpinas with switchbacks and comfy leather 75mm boots. The camber-and-a-half makes downhill turns a challenge, but glide and grip really nice over rolling meadows.

I have an old pair of boomtwon peaksticks (176” bamboos from Nelson Boomtown) with a set of skins that I have been meaning to mount with a pair of fritshi ft-88 bindings and use with my koflach boots. We’ll see how those work.

No clue on the dps skis. I don&#39;t see any in their lineup with fishscales so unless it was a limited production I doubt it.

I also noticed with my hoks, the easiest way to get going with a little more speed is a tele turn where I weight the shovels and tails to stay off the skin part. Wonder if that would be even better with the new longer version.

We sell Hoks at our store. They’re kinda designed to be used with the Tiak or the stick/pole. You need to keep off the skin by leaning back or figuring out your own method. I would get the Kom, which is more like my old Karhu Kodiaks, or my Fisher S-Bounds, but better since they have a more modern side cut. I ski with a guy who uses them exclusively. He doesn’t tele-turn, but uses Scarpa T-2’s. He carries small skins for steep sections, but never uses them, and just takes a less steep skin track. I gotta say, I’m a little jealous of him on transitions. Guess which turns are his and which are mine with Praxis BC’s:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a589fdcb7b.jpg

More:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...12ef537a07.jpg

Don laying them down