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Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis

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Venture out into the wilderness and make some turns in the soft snow with the Rossignol BC 90 Positrack backcountry skis.

Wood core with air channels creates a skier-friendly flex and keeps the ski light and maneuverable
Full-length steel edges cut into the slope for excellent stability
AR waxless bases, with cut-in patterns, prevent backsliding and optimize kick and glide

Sizing charts are a general guideline designed for the average skier. When selecting a size, please keep in mind that there could be additional factors that can affect which size would best suit your needs. If you have any additional questions or concerns regarding ski sizing, please contact us at 1-800-426-4840.

Please note: Rossignol products can only be shipped to U.S. addresses.

Imported.

Item 790819

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Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis Customer Reviews

REVIEW SNAPSHOT®

by PowerReviews

Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis

2.9

(based on 11 reviews)

55%

of respondents would recommend this to a friend.

Pros

Glide well (7)
Lightweight (6)
Stable (5)
Turns easily (5)

Cons

Best Uses

Backcountry touring (7)

- Reviewer Profile:
- Intermediate (6), Advanced (4)
- Was this a gift?:
- No (10)

Reviewed by 11 customers

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Displaying reviews 1-10

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Mar

2012

4.0

A Special Arrow in your quiver!

By Philatouren

from Philadelphia,PA

About Me Advanced

See all my reviews

Pros

Lateral stability
Trail breakers

Cons

Best Uses

Backcountry Touring
Breaking trail
Multi-day Tours

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

I have several lengths and width x/c skis. I can tell what skis that I should be on while on the first climb based on the snow quality. Obviously you wouldn't wear these for icey hard-packed established trails with lots of side hilling, you will be miserable both up and down this texture of terrain. I like using these lightweight well made skis and have many fond memories of figuring them out and testing their limits while doing 10th mt hut day trips wearing a 22 litre pack with snow shoes attached for the steeps. I am 6ft, 180lbs and was advised to chose the 179's. I use the nnn bc bindings and two stage adjustable rossignol poles. At the current [$] price I would recommend this set to have for the enhancement of your x/c ski powder days and for breaking trail on the non crusting stuff! Have fun!!!

Comment on this review

Feb

2012

3.0

Uphill a problem

By Rocketman45

from Fort Collins, CO

About Me Advanced

See all my reviews

Pros

Glide Well
Lightweight
Turns Easily

Cons

Uphill can be a struggle

Best Uses

Backcountry Touring

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

I purchased these in the 189 length to replace a pair of Atomic 170 backcountry skis with the idea that I would get a better float with the longer skis. I feel that this goal was achieved. However, I must agree with other reviewers comments about difficulty with uphill travel and how slippery they are. I probably made matters worse by applying glide wax. I especially found it exhausting when steepness required using herringbone steps. I concur that the fish scale bottoms have relatively poor grip and also noted that when traversing where there is the slightest slope the sideways slippage was a constant aggravation. Because of how slippery they are, when skiing downhill on a narrow trail without much fresh snow turning and controlling speed can be challenging. If there are a few inches of fresh snow then they becomes much more manageable. I believe these skis will have their best utility in deeper snow off trail. I also believe that once I become more accustomed to them my impression will become more favorable.

Comment on this review

Jan

2012

2.0

Rented these skis this weekend

By bdw

from san diego

About Me Beginner

See all my reviews

Pros

Cons

Terrible on climbs

Best Uses

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

I am new to backcountry skiing and I thought it was my technique that made me slip back on every climb. When I swapped skis with another skier I was in heaven! No slipping. Then I read these reviews to confirm that these skis do, in fact, have almost no grip on even the smallest hill. Made for a rough weekend for me.

I will say they were screaming fast on the downhills!

Comment on this review

Aug

2011

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

4.0

Across Yellowstone with these

By AaronL

from Carlsbad, CA

About Me Intermediate

See all my reviews

Pros

Glide Well
Lightweight
Stable
Turns Easily

Cons

Best Uses

Backcountry Touring

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

The BC-90s ended up being a great ski for me on my second expedition across Yellowstone in January 2011. In Jan 2010, I had the 189 skis with no skins and could not tow my sled at all with those skis. Originally, the thought was that I needed maximum floatation when traveling through the back country with those skis. They did have great float, virtually as good at my ultra-light snow shoes. However, my complete inability to get good grip to pull anything outweighed the float advantage. As I thought I was going to weigh 180+ lbs loaded with gear, the 189 skis seemed to be the right option. I was wrong.This past year, I bought the 179 size skis and had a completely different experience. All of the sudden, I was able to stick to the snow, push off and had a grand time. I did find that on groomed, icy track, the skis did require an aggressive step and kick but that forced me to use better technique.At first I was using full-length BD skins to tow my sled uphill on the ground up snow on Yellowstone's roads. However, the complete loss of glide with those skins was really troublesome. After a few days, I was able to pull myself and my 100 lb sled uphill without putting skins on at all with the BC-90 179 size skis. Once I got it down, I really had to be going up a steep hill before I started losing traction. In fact, as my sled was on skis, if I let go of my sled, it would start sliding downhill. That's how steep I could go with the BC-90's before being forced to put on skins.Perhaps the other reviewers didn't have the right size ski for their weight?If you're in groomed track, the scale pattern may not be aggressive enough - I did have rare slipping on tracked courses with the 179 size but that's more technique. These skis choose glide and float over traction but drag. That's why they're BC skis and not track skis, right?The reason I didn't give the skis 5 stars is the tails are very easy to chip. On both skis, I chipped off the top layer of laminate. Once was with the skis bouncing in the steel cage on the back of a snow wagon. That was a duh moment. But when I stuffed my skis into the snow tail first and didn't hit anything, then pulled them up and found the tail had chipped, I was bummed. Bring a little stick epoxy for repairs if you're going to be in the field for a long time. The damage area was about the total area of a dime. It's something to note.I used Rotefella 3-pin 75mm bindings with these skis and had no problems. [...] I used 3-pin with the Rosignol BC boot. The boots were too narrow for my feet, even at 2 sizes bigger. But that's another review. The whole system worked like a charm and once I had the right size skis, I had a great time and could pull a 100 pound sled up many hills with no trouble.

Comment on this review

Jul

2011

(2 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

1.0

Good downhill but cannot go uphill!

By S the skier

from Melbourne, Australia

About Me Intermediate

See all my reviews

Pros

Turns Easily

Cons

Poor grip

Best Uses

Backcountry Touring

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

Look the real problem is that they do not grip going uphill. The slide backwards and sideways. Very disappointing. Good when you finally get up a hill by walking and then they go downhill very very well. However!!

Comment on this review

Apr

2011

(3 of 3 customers found this review helpful)

1.0

Not good uphill

By bearmagnet

from Albuquerque, NM

About Me Intermediate

See all my reviews

Pros

Cons

Poor uphill

Best Uses

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

Very disappointed with uphill performance, very little traction even on mild slopes and I have to resort to skins way too often.

Comment on this review

Mar

2011

4.0

Great skis once you figure them out.

By Vermont 55

from Vermont

About Me Advanced

See all my reviews

Pros

Glide Well
Lightweight
Stable
Turns Easily

Cons

Only acceptable grip

Best Uses

Backcountry Touring
Icy Conditions
Telemarking

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

I've skied 2000 foot backcountry descents and toured winter and spring backcountry and these skis are awesome. Make sure you've got a solid boot to turn them. And don't expect them to stick to the snow but they grip about as well as anybody else's skis that I tour with including Salomon XADV69 for example. My 10 year old Fischer E99s have better grip but are heavier and don't glide or turn as well.

Comment on this review

Mar

2011

4.0

Good for getting off the beaten path.

By worm

from Mass.

About Me Intermediate

See all my reviews

Pros

Glide Well
Lightweight
Turns Easily

Cons

Best Uses

Backcountry Touring

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

Other reviewers have said that this ski is too slippery/doesn't grip well. That was my experience too on groomed or packed hard conditions, but on ungroomed trails and/or where there was even just a little powder or soft snow, these have done great. They aren't much heavier than my narrower metal edged skis, so I consider them to be pretty light weight. My other skis are Madshus Voss, which I really like (especially for the price), but they are too fast and long (for me at least) for exploring in the woods like I like to do and don't deal with deep snow well at all. I don't do serious backcountry skiing, but I've had a blast with the BC90's on local trails and dirt roads when the conditions have been right.

Comment on this review

Feb

2011

(4 of 4 customers found this review helpful)

2.0

kicking not so great

By dan in portland

from portland, or

About Me Intermediate

See all my reviews

Pros

Glide Well
Lightweight
Stable

Cons

Climbing ability
Omnitrack pattern
Poor Construction

Best Uses

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

I've looked for reviews online and can't really find any mentioning the problem I'm having.

I purchased this year's bc90 and have been less than impressed by it's omnitrack pattern / climbing ability. tested side by side with an older Alpina lite terrain, a ski with much less pattern area, the bc90 simply didn't kick very well at all. So poorly, in fact, that I returned to the store to check the pattern on other bc90s in hopes that I had gotten a bum pair, but they all had seriously light pattern definition. I was later able to compare this ski to a previous year's bc90, made in Czech Republic (not Ukraine, as mine were), and the older ski had a different bottom sheet material with a pattern that seemed much more aggressive. I think the new bottom sheet is simply inadequate for any serious touring, unless you plan on using skins at anything over the mildest of inclines.

for the record, I chose the proper ski length, per Rossi's recommendations base on my weight.

Comment on this review

Feb

2011

(0 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

3.0

Great downhill. SLIPPERY uphill

By Moarla

from Boulder, CO

About Me Advanced

See all my reviews

Pros

Glide Well
Stable

Cons

Slippery

Best Uses

Comments about Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Backcountry Skis:

I was so excited to try these skies with my new Alpina NNNBC boots and was disappointed. I kept slipping backwards and sidewards on the slightest inclines. I was clipped in to my dogs for skijoring and even with their pulling power I lost control and started slipping on light inclines. I have a cheap pair of skinnier cross country skies with metal edges by Trak/LL Bean and this has never happened to me on them. I was hoping for a step up from my beat up, cheap pair, but it was a big step (or should I say slide) down from that. I'll give the skies a couple of more tries, and really hope I improve on them. If somebody has any suggestions for me, please post a comment/review. It seems other reviews are positive only, so I'm wondering if it's me and not the ski!?