The recent Military Mountaineering Work Shop coverage sparked some real debate which I was quite happy to see. One of our readers, David Leaning of Magnetic North Travel put this article together which I hope will both inform and spark further discussion on the top of military skiing.
Military Over The Snow Mobility – Skis by solsys
Great article David. As you point out the technology available today is far superior; however, as we all know too well the military is slow to internalize change and it’s much more than just inertia. I learned on bear traps and its damned near impossible to get out of the skies. I would be hesitant to use full skins on the flats or downhill regardless of the resistance. My concern is getting those wire loops on the skins caught on underbrush, etc. They loop up over the ski tips.
Great piece. I’d love to see more of what’s available for combat skiing.
Thanks for the positive comment Sal
Reference the full-skins; agreed, personally I’d never use full skins on flats or down-hills either but some prefer it so that they don’t slide too much. A useful trick when taking a pulk downhill is to loop a rope under it once or twice – the friction this causes means that it wont be pushing you from behind or swing around in front.
Saw these pics while I was looking for images for this article, one of them shows US SF training with rigid plastic boots.
http://goo.gl/zul0e
It’s a little disturbing to see that someone thinks that this is a good idea, both tactically and financially.
The only possible reason I can see for someone to do this is that it gives you a rigid sole to attach a crampon if you are going to do some climbing but the many disadvantages of this type of ski boot are not enough to justify that one single utility – I’d far rather carry a separate set of climbing boots.
If anyone can justify this or if I’m overlooking a valid reason for their use I’d be interested to hear about it.
Norway has some Åsnes skis. While not as a general issue ski, there still is quite a large quantity being bought by units that need proper skis.
There was/is a project about “mobility”, which basically consists of skis, snowshoes etc., but I haven’t be able to find a lot about it.