New Favorite Toy in My Toybox: Karhu Army Skis + Fritschi AT Bindings = Permagrin

I posted this at ADK High Peaks too, but thought my 2 cents might do someone some good (I know I've gotten a lot out of searching old threads on backcountry ski equipment), so --

I've been tinkering around with various ski setups put together with used or otherwise cheaply-gotten equipment, ranging from nnn-BC touring to heavy tele stuff ... but this rig is just top-notch.

190 cm x 87/71/78 mm white metal-edged cambered waxable Karhu army skis (new on ebay, $50 with shipping)

~ 1982 era Fritschi FT88 releasable AT binding, swiss army surplus, also from ebay -- $40 or so, shipped

Did my own mounts & adjusted them to my double Koflachs ...

I took these out for their inaugural run this afternoon and skied about four miles of steeply hilly local trails -- stuff that gets gone over by an XC groomer about every three weeks but right now is icy nasty hardpack.

They glide a little clumsily compared to real touring equipment ... and the turns are a little wiggly compared to bomber alpine or tele equipment ... but they can go up, down, and sideways, no skins needed, and I did it all in my double mountaineering boots (hello, backcountry switch to snowshoes, crampons, etc.) and when it comes down to it I was stitching together decent parallel turns, totally in control, down a 7-foot-wide pipeline of boilerplate when I locked down the heels. And the whole setup cost me 90 bucks.

It's not exactly state-of-the-art or anything, but winter is looking really good ...

OK ... here are pics





A little heavy, a little primitive ... if you're coming at things from a skier's angle, you'll just shake your head, but as a hiker this expands my possibilities in all sorts of interesting ways.

Coming from my angle, you're a freaking genius. Very nicely done!

Lou Dawson on Fritschi FT88 bindings:
http://www.wildsnow.com/backcountry-ski-museum/fritschi-ft88/fritschi-ft88-binding.html
Summary from the above:
"In all the FT88 was a durable and somewhat effective alpine touring binding, but due to excessive weight and the kludgy nature of switching modes it was never widely popular. Many are available, as the market was recently flooded with used product (military version)."


Discussion of the above:
http://www.wildsnow.com/324/fritschi-ft-88-vintage-backcountry-skiing-binding/

Doug

mirabela said:

... but they can go up, down, and sideways, no skins needed,

...

Click to expand...

are they waxless/fish scale on the bottoms or are you waxing them ? congrats, by the way, I think it's great.

Wax! I've got skins, should it come to that, but I was able to go up some slippery stuff pretty well with just special green ... I sanded the base and waxed a pretty big zone, about equivalent to the fishscale zone on a Guide or 10th Mountain.

freakin nice, dude. that's just what i'm looking for. $50 skis that get the job done with mountaineering boots? right on. thanks for posting.

mirabela said:

Wax! I've got skins, should it come to that, but I was able to go up some slippery stuff pretty well with just special green ... I sanded the base and waxed a pretty big zone, about equivalent to the fishscale zone on a Guide or 10th Mountain.

Click to expand...

FWIW, it is often preferable to grip wax the entire ski for climbing in the hills (or off smooth pathways). Makes it much easier to get past a dip where the kicker zone may be off the snow. A properly chosen wax will both grip and glide.

My guess is that you don't need to sand the bases--XC waxes will work fine without. Obviously there is a limit to how much base one can remove.

(FWIW, I was using a single wax on the entire ski while XC skiing in Estabrook Woods (Concord+Carlisle, MA). Both grip and glide were
fine (except when hitting rocks...). )


Looks like a reasonable rig for the price. A bit of searching around on the web shows that a number of people are doing something similar.

Doug

You the bomb dude!....Rube Goldberg has got nothing on you!...Have fun

Very nice! Perfect for the unemployed cheapo's like me.... thanks for posting.

J.Dub said:

Short+fat ...

Click to expand...

Hey...I resemble that remark !

EDIT: sent you a PM, too much drift...

First easy, mellow powder run this morning: started at dawn up the Underhill State Park road from the snowplow turnaround (~1400') and skinned up to around 2700' at the height of land between the Halfway House and Maple Ridge trails (this is the west side of Mt. Mansfield) on the CCC road; turned around and enjoyed the ride down.

What have I been doing on snowshoes for so many years?

Thanks for the posts/pics

That's something I have been looking for for a while-- How to use mountaineering/climbing boots with skis -- haven't had much luck asking in shops.
Just the thing for getting into Chimney pond.
How tall are you to go with 190s ?

EP

Thanks for the posts/pics

That's something I have been looking for for a while-- How to use mountaineering/climbing boots with skis -- haven't had much luck asking in shops.
Just the thing for getting into Chimney pond.
How tall are you to go with 190s ?

EP

I'm 5'10 and 195 pounds w/o a pack. Out of the various ways to determine where to place bindings, I mounted them at the forewardmost point -- sacrificing a bit of glide for better turning and a shorter feel sticking out front.

For what it's worth, I think this guy just posted more of these skis on ebay, and last I checked there were some of the bindings listed too.

Plenty of people have bad things to say about this particular ski, but from a strictly utilitarian standpoint it seems to get the job done just fine. I don't think I'd want to go hucking cliffs or skiing any no-fall couloirs on them ...

Skis for VFTTers

Thanks-
I am about same height but a few lbs less(40 something) but I assume you size skiis by height, right?
anyway, utilitarian sounds good, as it seems to quite a few others. Thanks for the feedback.
EP

Yesterday morning was ski day #20 for me. These have been really fun.

I don't know why I didn't do this years ago.

Good heavens, these were fun for me last winter. I got out about 35 days. I am ready for the snow to start falling again.