Crosscountry skis for hunting

[ElkElkGoose]

Looks like there will be a significant amount of snow for my 4th season elk hunt. Anybody run cross country skis for hunting? What works? Most Ive seen seem to be too narrow to float with alot weight on your back.

 

[gustafsj]

Depends... How much terrain are you looking at? How deep of snow? How heavy of pack? Would you pull the meat out on a sled or in your back? Google Andrew Skurka backcountry skis, he did a major trek in Yukon and Alaska with a pack. Gear List || Backcountry Nordic Touring Ski System

If you are not an experienced skier, I would recommend bringing snowshoes or check into a hybrid ski/snowshoe call Altai Hok; these would both work with your regular boots.



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[steve s]

Never tried it but would not hesitate if you have the right gear (wider skis) and are comfortable with it. Pulling a sled would be way easier than carrying a pack...


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[Yellowknife]

I've used skis for caribou hunting several times last year. I'm still learning, and obviously I'm not in elk country, so my experience may or may not translate.

Between myself and a few friends, we tried a variety of skis, from light XC "touring" stuff to full on skinned tele gear. Also messed around with some Hoks for a bit. What worked the best thus far was heavy "backcountry" skis with aggressive scales, steel edges and the ability to add a kicker skin for pulling and climbing. It's a good combination of 4x4 for rough terrain, and ability to still cover reasonable ground. My current pair (and the thus best so far) are Fischer Excursion 88's.

Excursion 88 Crown/Skin | Fischer Sports

Others in the same vein would be Fischer Traverse and E109's in longer lengths and Madshus Eons. Asnes supposedly makes some really good ones, but we can't get them in Alaska. Rossignols were only fair, with pretty poor climbing scales for our dry northern snow. Probably work a lot better in different conditions.

For bindings, the NNN BC and old school 75mm 3-pin both seemed to work. The plastic tele boots were pretty hard on the feet, and the regular NNN XC bindings were prone to freezing and seemed weakish.

Hoks were fun but strictly a timber ski in my mind. They were pretty lousy for covering distance, with essentially no glide. Faster than a snowshoe, but not by a bunch.

If your hunting area is flatter and doesn't have really deep snow, then a moderate BC ski with a 60 - 75mm tip width would let you cover ground faster. Everything is a trade off.

 

[LongWayAround]

I bought some altai hok skis last year from a fellow on here. They're a fun little piece of gear but they wouldn't be my first choice to hunt off of.

 

[CrzyTrekker]

I ski the backcountry with 75mm 3-pin bindings. The boots/bindings/skis are very similar to modern tele gear, but better suited for touring the backcountry. Less stiff than tele gear. Still, the boots are beefier than NNN BC boots and thus are warmer and you have better control with a load on your back. You can purchase insulated or non-insulated ski boots, just like hiking boots.

I do one or two ski "backpacking" trips most years and some day outings.

 

[Yellowknife]

Bootwise, the biggest difference I noticed locally is that NNN BC boot options outnumber 75mm by a factor of about 10:1. The BC boots came in all varieties from heavy insulated expedition types to light local touring. 3 pin was extremely limited, and we sell a lot of ski gear in this town. I was bummed, as I suspect that’s the better of the systems.

Looking on-line opened up more options, but I also noted bad reviews re: broken soles for many of them so caveat emptor.


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[GLB]

My preference for going over snow is with Skis as long as the terrain will allow. I like to ski and do a lot of small game hunting during the winter months using them. You want a touring type Ski that is wide for floatation.I use a Telemark setup with leather boots.

 

[Kootenay Hunter]

Although I haven't used them for hunting, a good set of backcountry skis and skins is the way to go.

If you wanted to go lighter, you could get scaled xc backcountry skis with metal edges, and you could run skins on those too.

Nice, flat land and good snow conditions, you could probably run classic xc skis.

If you really wanted to research, see what overland expeditions use, they're pulling sleds on skis....don't need to re-invent the wheel for hunting...

 

[CrzyTrekker]

Bootwise, the biggest difference I noticed locally is that NNN BC boot options outnumber 75mm by a factor of about 10:1. The BC boots came in all varieties from heavy insulated expedition types to light local touring. 3 pin was extremely limited, and we sell a lot of ski gear in this town. I was bummed, as I suspect that’s the better of the systems.

Looking on-line opened up more options, but I also noted bad reviews re: broken soles for many of them so caveat emptor.


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If I was looking for a new setup, I wouldn't hesitate to go NNN BC or 75mm 3-Pin. Either way, those bindings are purpose made for BC skis. You want BC skis because they have the correct camber and length to float and turn on deep snow.