UPDATE Feb.12: A New Secret Weapon? A Sneak Peek at the Marquette Backcountry Ski
by Brian Mohr
David Olilla, who calls the playful mountains of Michgan’s Upper Peninsula home, is onto something revolutionary. He’s now producing a ski that many of us here in the northeast have been dreaming about for years. It thrives in thin-cover/ice-free conditions common in the very early or very late season, and in many ways, is the ultimate rock ski. It also does many other things well.
The Marquette Backcountry Ski is short, fat, without metal edges, has a waxless base (no need for kick wax or skins when climbing low-medium angle terrain)… and it’s affordable! The ski features a raised and highly functional tip, inserts for basic 3-pin telemark bindings (although any binding can be mounted) and a stiff flex capable of handling high speeds and aggressive manuevers. A must-have ski for the quiver, it also has great potential to make the adventure of skiing accessible to so many who have been turned off by the costs and challenges associated with the modern, mainstream approach to skiing.
Since November 2010, we’ve been testing this ski in the variety of conditions common to Vermont’s Green Mountains. From frost-coated grass and moss to thigh-deep powder to peel-away corn, the Marquette Backcountry Ski, has performed beyond all expectations. And while it promises to be a great tool for learning to ski off-piste and for exploratory off-piste adventures above town or out the back door, it has already proven itself as an incredibly high-performing quiver ski for advanced skiers, too – a ski that thrives in relatively ice-free, technical and thin-cover conditions on moderately pitched to steep terrain.
The pluses: They are incredibly easy to ski, turn and manuever. Their big tip keeps you out of trouble. They are virtually indestructable, and b/c they lack metal edges, they are less prone to grabbing and throwing you out of rhythm when you encounter an occasional rock, stick or frozen lump of soil. They are also quite stiff, and have just a bit of sidecut and camber, and when you feel like opening the throttle, these skis can handle speed surprisingly well. When climbing, too, and the scales aren’t offering the traction you need, side-stepping and herring-boning up hill to overcome steeper sections of your climb is a breeze, due to their short length. (Along these lines, our most common approach to climbing with the Marquettes involves strapping our skis to our packs and hiking the mountain, b/c when the snowpack is thin, post-holing is a non-issue and hiking various up-routes is a nice change of pace from the usual skin track.)
The minuses: They don’t glide like a ski with a ptex base, and thus they are quite slow in low-medium angle terrain, unless the snow condition is especially fast. (However, waxing them up with glide wax does help a little, as does silicon spray. We have also belt-sanded the scales off a pair to improve glide and waxability. (We have outfitted those skis with fat skins for climbing by stitching two short lengths of old-school skinny skins together side by side.) They have no metal edges, so they offer little control on very hard pack snow, frozen turf and of course, ice.
The skis are now retailing for under $200 and shipping from Michigan, USA, where they are made in a factory that also produces snowmobile skis. Hmmm… See, snowmobilers are our friends, after all. You can place an order through the Marquette Backcountry Ski website directly, or acquire them through your favorite local northeast skiing retailer (after encouraging them to order some up!)
Check out some of the video footage we captured below, featuring the Marquette skis in action here in Vermont. Don’t miss the grass skiing at approx. 2:05 in the last video below. You can see more photos of the Marquettes in action below, and here, here, here, too.
The Marquettes in their element…
A few quick clips from a fun November day with dust-on-very-edgable-crust conditions…
Be sure to catch the grass skiing action, too, starting at 2:05…
And this backyard classic, parts of which feature the Marquettes…
The Zero Approach Ski Tour from AdventureSkier on Vimeo.
Follow this LINK to “Like” AdventureSkier.com on Facebook. Thanks!
14 Responses for “UPDATE Feb.12: A New Secret Weapon? A Sneak Peek at the Marquette Backcountry Ski”
Leave a Reply
Support AdventureSkier.com
Featured Supporter
PHOTOS of the WEEK
Will Rossignol BC-X11′s and 3 pins work with these? I use system bindings and Alpina trackers,but,have been intrested in picking a pair of these up. Would they be not enough for a 7-10 mile tour in for turns and tour back out? or a second back up to a differet ski?
Jack