Erik Mundahl was visiting last week, and worked a whole bunch of hours on the grinder. By the time he got back to Alaska there was groomed skiing up at Hatcher’s Pass, and he called this afternoon with a report on his first testing session of the year.
This is exciting for a couple of reasons. One is that we’ve got no experience with the new Fischer Speedmax production skis on-snow. We’ve seen them on the World Cup since 2010, and we’ve got some of the World Cup versions in our personal fleets. But Mundahl is the first guy I’m aware of to put the new Speedmax skis on the snow. Even better, he’s got a whole test fleet from the 2010 week-12 production of 192 carbonlites, which has been one of the best production series of skate skis ever made. And we ground the whole test fleet and the new Speedmax skis in the same batch last week. Which means that we’ve got a direct comparison of the 2013-14 Speedmax against a series that we KNOW is among the best ever.
The testing is also exciting because Mundahl is the first guy to put a new grind on the snow. We’ve worked with the Tazzari “blue” stone for two full seasons now, and have had really good success with the LS0B in cold conditions and with the 258B in “red” conditions. But we’ve made a compound-structure modification of the 258B, adding a layer of structure on top, that has been looking really good in the shop. This is the first multi-layer compound structure that I’ve been really happy with from the blue stone. We’ve also modified the water system on the grinder for using the blue stone. So today was the first on-snow test of the new structure, and of the new water system.
Erik was excited when he called because both the new structure and the Speedmax skis were really good in testing. In fact, he said that the Speedmax red conditions ski blew everything else out of the water. This is, to put it mildy, very encouraging. We’ve been really happy with what we saw from the Speedmax production, but I will now be selling those skis with a lot more confidence, since they’ve straight up beaten 192 skis from 2010 week 12!
I asked Erik to write up a few notes. He did one better and issued a full press-release in the third person. Sweet! I haven’t edited a word!
Hatcher Pass, Alaska – Fresh off the stonegrinder, Erik Mundahl returned to Alaska with new skis and some prototype grinds to find early season snow and grooming by the Mat-Su Ski Club allowing for an opportunity to test the new gear.
Air temperatures were just above freezing with light rain/snow mix falling. Snow conditions were at -1° C and had high moisture content with glazing as ski traffic increased.
Erik left the shop with two brand new pairs of Fischer Speedmax skate skis, one with a 258B and the other with an S1-0X grind. In addition to the new skis, we put new grinds on two other pairs of Fischer 61Q Carbonlites. One of these pair got a new test grind, a modification of the 258B, the 258B-40B. Erik was able to put all of the skis on the snow at Hatcher Pass with identical wax jobs (Star HA4).
The new Speedmax ski with the 258B was excellent in the testing conditions. Erik stated the skis had a very supple feeling and they climbed exceptionally well with the 258B breaking free of the moisture laden snow. Despite having the incorrect grind for the conditions the pair of Fischer Speedmax skis with the S1-0X also skied very well, better than another pair of Fischer 61Q Carbonlite with the same grind.
Erik was most curious to test the new 258B-40B against the 258B. A direct comparison of the grinds was difficult due to numerous variables at play. Different ski construction, flex, as well as a difference in binding system made for challenging testing. The 258B-40B was testing by feel against the 258B, several different pairs with S1-0X and several other grinds. The new grind was found to excel in these conditions. It was much faster than the S1-0X, as expected. The 258B-40B was as good, if not better in these conditions than the 258B. Climbing breaking speed appeared to be very similar among the two, but the 258B-40B had a greater top end speed.
The new grind showed promise and we look forward to continued testing in different snow conditions.