Black Diamond Ascension STS Review

The Ascension Nylon may be the most popular backcountry ski climbing skin in the United States. This popularity is not without reason. The product is reliable, durable, affordable, and widely available.

Performance Comparison

Performance of these skins is reliable and solid, but other products are simply more sophisticated. For instance, for just a few dollars more one can get better glide from the Black Diamond GlideLite Mix skins. For this greater performance at a still-reasonable price, the Glidelite Mix skins earn our Best Buy award. For maximum durability and improved grip, though, the Ascension Nylon still has its place. There is likely no better rental or beginner climbing skin on the market, for instance.

Jed Porter stripping the Ascension Nylon skins from the Voile V6 skis at the Glacier Circle Cabin, British Columbia.

Glide

With durability and lower cost comes a decrease in glide. As compared to every one of the skins we tested with at least a little mohair in the mix, the Black Diamond Ascension glides more poorly. Or, to put it another way, skins with at least some mohair woven in climb more efficiently than any of the nylon ones. If, with each step, your ski and skin glides forward and up more easily, you will save energy. We find this generalization, that mohair enhances glide and decreases energy expenditure, to be true in all snow conditions. However, in any snow that has undergone melt/freeze metamorphosis, whether it is in its melted or in its frozen state, the difference is less.

On corn snow, mohair glides better than nylon. On powder snow mohair (and mohair blends) glides better than nylon. However, the difference between the two on corn snow is far less. Some will not even notice the difference. If you ski a great deal of corn snow, and less powder, first of all, get narrow skis. Secondly, you can probably get away with skins like the Ascension Nylon from Black Diamond.

Legendary Tetons backcountry skier and avalanche instructor Nancy Bockino with the Ascension Nylon skins. For someone that skis literally every day of a very long season, like Nancy, these durable skins make a great deal of sense. They're heavier, and don't glide as well as other options, but fit skiers may not notice.

Grip

We use skins to increase the traction of our inherently slippery ski bottoms. The skins need to grip. This doesn't mean, however, that more grip is better. More grip means less glide, all else equal. And, as shown above, more glide means less energy spent skinning uphill. Energy saved going uphill can be used to make the downhill more fun. Yes!

Full nylon skins grip slightly better than the blended kind, and full nylon can be built to provide a great deal more grip. The Ascension Nylon strikes a good balance, gripping slightly better than most of the field, but not nearly as much as the purpose-built G3 High Traction. The Ascension has as much grip as almost anyone would need, in our opinion. Only those seeking out the steepest skin tracks will find they need more grip than the Black Diamond Ascension provides.

Skinning Esha Peak in the Eastern Sierra, California. G3 High Traction in the lead, with Ascension Nylon just behind. This is also the line up that led our grip scores.

Glue Integrity

Black Diamond equips all of their skins with excellent glue. It is reliable, long-lasting, and is the perfect balance of reliable stick and easy release. We ask a great deal of the glue on our skins. It needs to stay on the skis under sometimes fairly intense use, and then release from the skis when we're done. Further, we store skins by folding them in half base to base (forget the mesh skin savers… those are just a hassle). Deploying them from this stored state requires that the glue disengage from itself. The Ascension glue does all this very well. Further enhancing the integrity of the glue is the stiffness of the backing fabric. Stiff fabric resists rolling. Rolling the edges of the skin fabric is the first step in wedging snow between ski and skin. If the skin rolls out of the way a little bit, and snow gets in there, it will continue to penetrate until the entire skin disengages. The fabric of the Ascension Nylon is the stiffest in our test and therefore resists that initial rolling far better than any others.

The one weakness in the Black Diamond glue integrity triumvirate is the tip connection. Other tip connections, basically all the other tip connections we tried, are more secure and better guard the vulnerable ski tip interface. The simple cable loop keeps the skin on all but the most widely rounded tips but allows little bits of snow to work in between ski and glue. Overall, this one weakness wasn't enough to break the bond maintained by excellent glue and stiff fabric, but it is worth keeping an eye on. The other Black Diamond skins, including the Best Buy Black Diamond Glidelite Mix STS feature the same glue and tip loop, but softer fabric. These with softer fabric do not resist snow penetration as well as the fully nylon.

Detail view of the tip attachment on the Black Diamond Ascension Nylon.

Icing/Glopping Resistance

All skins ice up. For the most part, it is challenging to distinguish between fabric skins in their resistance to icing. In the right conditions, usually warm and sunny, some liquid water is bound to get into the fabric of your skins. In another subset of conditions, you will then step into colder snow that will freeze that water into an icy, snowy amalgamation. There is no way to avoid this, and no skin design has yet been able to totally prevent it. Every skin requires treatment and care to remove and prevent glopping. Basically, this means scraping and waxing your skins.

We did find some fundamental differences between skins and icing resistance. As compared to its closest competitor, the Ascension Nylon resists icing slightly better than the G3 Alpinist High Traction. In overall scoring, this is the most significant difference between the two. The absolute most ice resistant product we assessed is the fast-gliding, all plastic Top Pick Fischer Profoil.

G3 Alpinist and Ascension Nylon, side by side. These two products, both being full nylon and fully universal, are close competitors. The Black Diamond is less expensive, ices up less, and grips at least a little better, but the G3 has a more elegant tip and tail attachment and is a little lighter.

Packability and Weight

As compared to the Editors' Choice, the Contour Hybrid Mix, the Ascension Nylon is quite a bit bulkier. In fact, even though we tested them on relatively narrow skis in our test, these skins are the overall heaviest.

The cousin Black Diamond GlideLite Ultralight skins are indeed much, much lighter, but introduce durability and glue integrity issues. A great balance of weight and performance is found with our Editors' Choice Contour Hybrid Mix or the unique, glueless Top Pick Kohla Vacuum.

Compatibility

Close up view of the tail attachment on the Black Diamond Ascension Nylon skins.

We tested two main types of skins in this review. Most are universally compatible, requiring the user to adjust and cut them for your skis. The other type, represented by the Dynafit SpeedSkins is pre-configured to a specific make, model, and size of ski. The Black Diamond Ascension is a universal fit skin, available for virtually any ski on the market.

Best Applications

This is an excellent tool for ski touring and mountaineering, particularly in spring-like conditions. If you are on a budget, it is even better. As the least expensive in our test, and often available at a further discount, it is definitely among the best values in our review.

Value

The Ascension is the least expensive product we tested. It is available in a minimalistic, stripped down form for even further savings. Finally, it performs well for a long, long time. The nylon fabric will last a long time, and the glue side can be refurbished every few seasons. These skins will long outlast ski size and shape trends.

Close up of the fabric side of the Black Diamond Ascension Nylon skins.

Conclusion

All of our testing team, at one point or another, has owned a pair of Ascension Nylon skins. Whether it was the original purple ones back in the nineties or one of the more contemporary versions, we chose them at least once. This alone, not to mention the success in comparative testing, should serve as an endorsement. If you are looking, however, to upgrade for just a few bucks to greater overall performance, we can unequivocally recommend the Best Buy Black Diamond Glidelite Mix STS or the Cadillac Editors' Choice Contour Hybrid Mix.