Hemiboreal Skiing

Ski Review: Altai Hok 145cm- Work and Play All Day! The Hok is inspired by indigenous skis of Eurasia, that are relatively short and fat, with a permanently-fixed skin underfoot- designed for skiing on deep soft snow, through dense northern forests, and highly variable terrain. As a starting point- many people are referring to the Hok as a “ski-shoe”- a hybrid between a snowshoe and a ski.  Having now had a chance to put these skis through their paces- I am firmly of the perspective that these are skis- period.  And although they can be easily used by the novice skier on gentle terrain- they require skiing skills in order to effectively use them on steep terrain. Specs The Hok can currently be had in two different lengths: 125cm and 145cm.  There is also a children/youth’s version of the Hok- the “Balla Hok”.  I bought the 145cm.  Apparently Altai originally designed the 125cm, and was not planning on a longer version.  As I have yet to tes...

Speed and Grip! I finally bought the Madshus Eon with a waxable base.  I bought them on clearance back in September 2015.  I believe they are from the 2012-2013 production.  They do not have the current black-yellow top sheet- they are silver. My pair is 205cm (the longest you can get an Eon). The Eon is the slimmest of Madshus’ “xcountry-downhill” (XCD) series.  I would describe the Madshus XCDs as hybrid alpine touring/telemark-xcountry skis.  They do not offer the classic xcountry performance of a stiff, double-cambered backcountry-xcountry ski.  They are a less efficient xcountry ski than a Scandinavian backcountry ski (i.e. “fjellski”) as well.  They are designed to offer “modern” (i.e. Alpine) downhill performance- while still being light enough to xcountry ski with. (The Madshus XCD line is a carbon copy of the last generation Karhu XCDs: Eon= XCD GT; Epoch= XCD 10 th Mountain; Annum= Guide) Fischer’s S-Bound series is design...