Good skins are invisible on a tour. Easy on, stays on, easy off. Hopefully, you’re not thinking about them too much. But a “set it and forget it” attitude often leaves some performance on the table. And there’s a lot of performance you can get from a skin. Can a boy have it all? I kind of think so.
As I have been dabbling more in skimo the last few years, I have begun to dive deeper into skin performance. My old powder skis have a pair of Black Diamond Mo-mix skins (the grey and black ones) that I’ve reglued three or four times over the last eight seasons. A few now-sewn tears in the plush, but otherwise going pretty strong. I always thought they were the best-performing durable skin I could get. I’ve rocked a few pairs of the Guide Pure 1.0s as well, but I always treated them like the fancy European car I don’t own: gently.
These skins are all mohair, which means a prioritization of glide over grip and durability, supposedly. I won’t sit here and say, “With these skins you can have it all.” But damn, these are great skins. Most race-y skins like the pink Pomocas tend to be fragile in the plush and backing. (Jason’s pinks are comically thrashed.) The tip-and-tail hardware often feels single-use. These skins, durability-wise, exceed what I have seen from every other mohair skin (Black Diamond, Contour’s Guide Pure 1.0, Pomoca, etc.) in all aspects. After a season of abuse (has anyone mentioned how rocky this season has been???), I have only one or two patches of alopecia on the tails. Compare that to the BD mohair skins I have that look like an old chihuahua after 20 days. And has the tip basket or tail clip ripped off like everyone else’s Pomocas? The tailclips are hypersonically welded on, not stitched, so no. Have I had to re-glue them like a Pomoca? No. So no durability/sports-car-type concerns with these.
The performance doesn’t disappoint either. From the box, Contour sells the skin with an amazing tip taper, i.e., long. No one needs wall-to-wall carpet in the shovel for grip purposes, and it only further reduces glide and allows for more snow-creep. The gentle taper also allows for professional-ish looking skin trimming (again, reducing the risk of those little corners that can allow for snow creep). I usually install a Ski Trab tip clip on my skins to allow for a tip rip vs. a tail rip, but I restrained myself given the amazing factory taper.
The glide is what you’d expect. Fricken fast. It feels anecdotal, but they do seem faster than my 1.0s, but maybe it’s because the color pattern is faster. I’ve also had fewer problems with glopping than some friends. This may be because Contour ships each skin with a block of skin wax, which I find also superior to BD’s gummy globstopper, along with waxing care instructions. Crayoning it on during a tour is great, but hot waxing your skins is a skimo revolution for the masses. Check it out. It properly takes two minutes. But I’ve also noticed that I don’t slip any more than any of the folks I ski with on other skins. Maybe I’m trying to be a bit more careful to prove to myself that mohair skins are great, but they are.
The glue has also been interesting to me. When I got them, I was worried I had accidentally agreed to review a hybrid glue skin based on how easy it was to rip them off the ski. I have not enjoyed hybrid glue skins. A few emails allayed my fears, but the season has made me think the folks at Contour have put unobtainium in the glue. They continue to stick remarkably well to the skis, even after half a dozen transitions, but rip off single-handed with the skis on my feet, even compared to my friend with brand new Guide Pure 1.0s. Magic sauce or something. And unlike every other skin I’ve owned, I’ve been able to keep the tail clip tension at basically zero all winter without ever popping the tail clip off. Good for durability and ease of use. Skins that need a lot of tail clip tension to stay on the skis don’t last very long.
The hardware itself has also been splendid. The squared toe bail is easy to center without having to manually adjust it. And the tailclip is super low profile and unfiddly. A+. On the skis I used these with, some other tail clips noticeably dragged in the snow.
Contour also claims the backing is thinner than with the 1.0s. Beyond the fact that they appear frightfully skinny, it’s hard to assess on the scale. Even compared to another skin I have for the same ski, differences in hardware and skin length make comparison tricky. But these skins, approximately 7cm longer than a pair of BD mohairs, are about 15% lighter.
It doesn’t surprise me, but it may surprise you: every ski deserves a mohair skin. For almost all applications, they are superior. These in particular. It is a race skin in workhorse clothing. Day after day, these have performed remarkably. Invisible, apart from their gorgeous pattern, I anticipate many seasons of joy ahead on these guys. If you think mohair is for lycra-dweebs, you’re right. But it’s for you too.
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