I love my job. Summer does go a bit slow sometimes, but come October and November my perspective shifts. Little things that seemed like nothing a few weeks ago loom in my mind as big as our sled loads last spring on Denali. Speaking of which, after the life changing experience of live blogging an Alaskan expedition, I’ll admit my mundane office and workshop have been a bit hard to transition back to.
But I feel the sap rising. Emails are going out to gear companies. Boot fitting equipment mods are in the works. Ski bindings are on order for review. Shoot, we even went skiing the other day!
The climbing skin pile is like a nest of rattle snakes. Mostly old, tired, and worn. G3 gets the prize for the best logo, eh? New Dynafit Speedskins still in box on top.
Dynafit skins, for example. The glue on my old pair of Speedskins (the ones for my Manaslus) is worn out, and the fur isn’t doing much better than the before photo in a Rogain report. That’s after a ton of use, so no fault of Dynafit. But new fur was required.
A shiny new pair of Speedskins arrived yesterday, pre-cut to width and length for my trusty ‘Slus, and sporting Dynafit’s latest tip and tail attachments. Check ’em out.
Dynafit Speedskin attachment comparo. It's basically been the same system for about five years -- harkening to the type of attachment used by most rando racers, Dynafit skis have a slot in the tip that receives the rubber tab. The steel clasp fits on the ski tail. Note how the latest clasp has a wider stance. That's important as it pulls the skins more evenly rather than point loading them. My nice new ones are on the right.
All skin attachment systems have their pros and cons. Black Diamond, G3 and K2 (among others) allow for tightening of the tip/tail attachment. That helps absorb skin stretch and solidifies your attachment if your glue is wet or old. Dynafit’s system is super easy to remove, you just kneel down and pull the front tab, but it doesn’t allow for any length adjustment. I find the Dynafit system to be super fast on and off, and rarely need a length tweak; but once in a while I miss being able to tighten up the length.
Dynafit speed skins rear attachment clasp.
Latest tip fix system, on right, allows for replacement of the rubber tip with a slick 'snap out' system. On the left, the older system was held by a velcro fold. Older velcro tip fix was not as elegant, but did allow you to shorten the skin attachment by about a centimeter.
I’ll do a glide test on these things in a few days. They’re probably made by Pomoca in Switzerland (or Coltex as Dynafit says they are) and appear to be mohair or a nylon/mohair mix that’s mostly mohair (I used the Bic lighter test to be sure). Pomoca’s mix is 70% mohair; I’d guess that’s what these are. Euros like skins that glide, so I figure Dynafit Speedskins probably slide just fine but it’ll be interesting to compare to the older ones. Dynafit says these skins have unprecedented icing resistance. That’ll be interesting to check out as well. Words are one thing, iced up skins quite another.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
