What is special about Åsnes skis?

About Åsnes

First and foremost, it is worth mentioning that all our skis are designed, drawn and developed at Voss. We are a small team that works closely and where everyone is involved in the development process, including all our ambassadors. Our production manager is the third generation Åsnes, so the history, knowledge, and experience have been going on for generations.
The small ski brand Åsnes is the world leader in making mountain BC skis and is the preferred supplier of skis for polar expeditions worldwide. Over 95 years of experience, knowledge, tradition, and skiing are still part of our blood and something we are proud of. Since we have contributed to so many expeditions and delivered skis to most of the NATO countries and their forces over the years, we like to say that our test arena is at the North Pole, South Pole and generally in Arctic regions. All our skis have been thoroughly tested to withstand years of hard use in arctic regions.

The structure of our skis

All our skis have some similarities that we pride our selves to say is common examples of quality in all our models. First, all skis are produced in Europe, designed, prototyped and tested at Voss, Norway. Besides producing some skis without steel edges and some skis with a waxless sole, all our skis are manufactured with the following:

X-Skin Skinlock 
The safest most tried and tested skinlock system on the market. Really tested in an extensive way, withstanding hard use on countless expeditions and long trips. It does not simply ice up and is very easy to use. Our SkinProtector © ®, our patented protector, our X-Skins © short skins/kicker skins and our skinlock are completely self-developed and unique only for Åsnes skis. We are proud to say that we have the best short skin system on the market and that we lead the way in the development of new innovative solutions both for Alpine Touring – and BC skis.

Full wood core
All our skis have a full wooden core of either Poplar Paulowniania wood, some with additional reinforcements. This provides a good hold for mounting bindings, a solid ski and a ski with a lot of natural life and response in it. Tensioned wood cores are also much better to ski on than cores made with other materials. All the wood materials we use is specifically chosen by hand to be of the highest quality to meet our strict standards. As an example, our Poplar wood dries for two(!) full years outdoors before we move it indoors to dry to the perfect moisture balance. Most of the wood cores are naturally and manually processed for about two and a half year before they meet our standards and is used in production.

Intentionally over-dimensioned steel edges (2.1 x 1.9 mm)
All our skis made with steel edges are produced with a solid 2.1 x 1.9mm steel edge. This kind of edge is of the same quality and strength that you can find on almost all alpine touring skis, and most of the alpine skis on the market. The steel edges we now use in our skis have been chosen because the alloy and the properties of this particular steel work best for harsh Nordic conditions we pride ourselves to make suitable skis for. No other steel edges we have tested work as well as the steel edges we use now.

Solid Nylon Cap
The top sheet or “cap” as it is called, on all our skis, is made of a very solid Nylon. This makes us the best in the class with regard to durability. You can find the nylon cap on all our skis, but they have slightly different textures, even though the strength is the same. This nylon cap is extremely strong and developed to withstand a lot of beating from steel edges.

Sinter sole
If you disregard the waxless skis, we manufacture all of our skis with a waxable sintered sole of higher quality than often found in BC and alpine touring skis. This gives good wax absorption, better waxing properties, good gliding, and a long-lasting sole. All of our skis come with soles and grinding specifically chosen to function optimally in Nordic and polar conditions.

Reinforcement materials:
Some of our skis also have reinforcements with materials to provide better stability and better handling. This can be carbon, rubber, titanal, fiberglass or other materials. If you read about some of our models, we have stated what materials we have used in that specific ski.
The reason we use materials this way is to shave down weight and still get the characteristics we want in each model, even though we use less materials in the ski. Some skis even have a combination of woods in the core, reinforced tips and a reinforced mounting sone for the bindings- like the Åsnes Combat ski.

ABS Sidewalls:
All ski we make with SemiCap constructions have ABS side walls. This material has gradually become the standard in good skis and is needed to provide good stability, secure against water penetration and protect the sidewalls against wear and tear from steel edges. ABS and rubber have proved to have the best vibration dampening effect of all suitable materials on the market. Apart from our lightest alpine touring ski, all our alpine skis have such a construction.

Produced in Europe (Czech Republic):

All of our skis are manufactured in Europe to save unnecessary pollution, transportation and to ensure good quality control of production. As well as to be sure that all the factory workers have the best possible conditions and terms. The factory is top modern, regularly visited by us in Åsnes and delivers high quality for more of top ski brands in the world. The choice of the ski factory we are now using is based on our uncompromising efforts to maintain sustainability and quality at all levels. It is worth mentioning that our Product Manager, and third generation Åsnes, is a key contributor to solving problems at many of the factories producing the best skis on the market.
The machines, the technology and the production methods we use is market leading and of the highest quality existing in the skiing world.