By Teemu Virtanen
When a Pro Team athlete or an elite skier picks his or her pair of skis for a long distance ski race, there is always a question whether to take specially designed double-poling skis or traditional classic skis. When are classic skis better than double-poling skis? Let’s take a look at the characteristics of double-poling skis vs. classic skis.
First, many Pro Team athletes started to use skating skis for double-poling due to their firm structure and suitable length that made them easier to handle on downhills and in curves. Since this move proved to be successful, specialized double-poling skis came about, which are often manufactured in the same rigid format as skating skis. These skis look similar to skating skis and their length is often 191-193 cm, but the profile or the camber of the skis is designed for double-poling rather than for skating.
As double-poling differs from diagonal striding, and skating for that matter, the classic skis are not always the perfect choice when going without kick wax. The basic principle of classic skis is that the ski is flattened to the snow and stopped for each kick, before accelerating into a new glide phase. In double-poling, the skis are never stopped, and you glide on both skis as you propel yourself forward by pushing down on both of your poles at the same time. Thus, your poling movement becomes more aggressive than in diagonal striding and your center of balance changes compared to classic skiing.
So, double-poling skis need to get up to speed much quicker and maintain that momentum without a kick. Due to these facts, the camber on your double-poling skis is often different from your classic skis. In general, it is much smaller with larger areas touching the snow than in classic or skating skis. For cold snow, you would need longer areas, pressure points, and for wet much shorter.
Naturally, the snow conditions are critical. Depending on the track and snow type, you choose your double-poling skis according to the pressure points needed for each particular condition. Among the top athletes, it is not common to see them using double poling skies in wet conditions. Then, you would like to have a large camber, which you find in classic skies for wet conditions. In colder conditions, double poling skies are often preferred.
Even if specialized double-poling skis are becoming more popular, longer classic skis are still used for certain conditions where more friction, thus longer pressure points, is needed between skis and snow, such as cold conditions. Additionally, some elite skiers still prefer classic skis over shorter double-poling or skating skis.
Øyvind Moen Fjeld, a retired Pro Team athlete with a podium place at Ylläs-Levi and many top-10 positions in the Pro Tour, says that there is not that much difference in glide when double poling skis are compared to classic ones.
“Last year, I used almost only double poling skies. The glide is often not a big factor. Many times, the classic skies are winning the glide tests on downhills, but the feeling of double poling skis, when standing on the skies on climbs and flats, is often quite remarkable. It has to do with the camber, how the skies are built and in the way the skies are distributing the weight of the skier on the snow. In wet conditions, you want skies with a high camber, then classic skies for wet conditions are often chosen.”
Double-poling as a technique will develop much further, and the equipment will naturally follow the development. Skis, poles and booths will be even more specifically designed for this technique, and ski manufacturers are paying a close attention to the changing times and are reacting accordingly. Only time will tell how far we can go in the evolution of double-poling, and the new generation of skiers will adopt the technique from the beginning and take it to a new frontier.
