Alpina X Terrain Backcountry Skis – About: This is our model X Terrain. It’s an updated model that we’ve been building on for some time. One of the things that’s happened in Nordic skiing is people are pushing the limits a little bit and skiing more out of bounds and trying to get a combination of going pretty good and making some turns, going downhill, but also have the ability to get up to the place that they want to be able to come down, and the X Terrain has been a favorite of quite a few people. What they’ve noticed is they have a really good surface, a very strong surface and long, non-waxed molded pattern; in a combination with the flex of this type of ski, it really creates a good balance. You have a really good grip, but yet, it doesn’t hold your back too much when you want to come down the hill and make some long alpine turns, giant slalom turns, telemark turns, you can do very easily on this ski. It’s over 100 mm in the front and 70 in the front, so you’ve got 30 mm of side cuts. So it simulates quite closely to what a downhill ski is, very similar in the shape itself, and it just makes for a much more positive experience going up and coming down the hill. On this type of ski, it’s definitely advisable to look at the heaviest duty BC boots or even going to something in a lighter telemark boot which happens to be all plastic at this point, but something that flexes in the front with a proper binding. You’ll really have a very positive experience on the cross terrain.
