themayor from United States, WA Public Profile

Been snowshoeing for the last 5 years, snow hikes and ocassionally overnight. Tried these out for a 5 mile day hike and they are great. They do glide up fire roads, first mile was kind of wet, snowshoe packed, worked ok, slid out a little on icy patches, mile in we were not really stepping, we were gliding, grade was 5 to 10%, snow about 6 to 8 inches deep. Grade increased to about 15% after 1 1/2 miles, Skins worked great, snow about 15 inches deep, ski sinking about 6 inches, no need to lift foot, just glide forward, tip raises ski on top of snow, push down, skins grabs, repeat, less effort to climb than snowshoeing. Skiing back down was an adventure, it was a bit challenging for me not having skied in 40 years but my better half (on 127s) did better having skied until 10 years ago, it was fun, we are anxious to get back up to try again, will update if opinion changes...