Contour Skins

Hybrid Pure 135 Climbing Skins

Extremely Nice Climbing Skins

Familiarity:

I've put it through the wringer

For what it's worth, this review is the result of skiing with these skins for the past 3 years. Grip is excellent, I would say its almost as good if not as good as any other skins I've used, nylon, mohair or blended. In my opinion there is no tradeoff with grip. Glide is as good as you could hope for. I do a lot of low angle skinning (for those in the Wasatch, up Millcreek road with the dog for example) and these glide almost like a classic nordic ski. When skiing with others I frequently notice that my step cadence is far slower than theirs when going the same speed. The glide is just really excellent. No complaints with the glue whatsoever. After 3 years it still seems quite sticky, but not to the point that you have to hit the gym for a few months in the fall to build up the strength to rip them apart. Equally as important, I have no issues getting these to stick for multiple laps when packed away in my jacket pockets to warm them back up. It doesn't get very cold here very often, but a few weeks ago I went for a few uphill laps at PCMR and temps were about 0 Fahrenheit, skins had no issue sticking to the ski base. Packability is also quite good. The backing material is definitely not as thin as others out there, but I have these cut to width on a 108mm width ski in the longest length sold, and they still easily pack into my softshell chest pockets.