lal_truckee wrote:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

On 2004-12-20, Mike Treseler penned:

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

As the subject of "good skis" came up ...

What would you look for in a pair of all-mountain skis?


Demo a K2 Axis X.



Do you mean Apache X?


Forget these kinds of skis, from all brands.


http://www.k2skis.com/products/skis/ski.asp?ProductID=4


Gawd, that's an evil website. May a thousand snow-fleas infest your
boots for even posting a link to the site.

I was really looking more for general characteristics, though specific
products are good, too. What do you like about the X? Can you identify
certain characteristics?


Re all mountain skis - I think the whole wiiiiiide ski thing is way
overdone.


Agreed, but with many things overdone, there's often a happy medium out
there that isn't being hyped as much. Don't disregard something purely
because of hype, just realize that hype is, well, hype. Bad marketing
doesn't make a bad product (and of course the converse is also true).

Nothing has really changed on the mountain - the snow's the same, the
groomed's the same (if enlarged) the crud's the same, the slop's the
same, the steep's the same. What used to be said can still be said: (and
it answers you desire to race a bit as well) A solid GS race ski is the
closest thing to an all condition ski available.


Not to say it's can't be done, but I'd say that a GS race ski wouldn't
be all that great in the bumps. Now I know some people like them in all
conditions, but I really prefer a slightly softer ski in the bumps. I
used to ski my Atomic Red Sleds all over the mountain, but once after a
day in the bumps one ski stayed in a permanent turn. My current favorite
Alpine board is like a GS race ski in some respects, but has a wider
waist which I like for making shorter radius turns in steeps and bumps.
They also lack the metal that many GS skis would have, which makes them
less likely to bend.
In the end it's primarily personal preference. You like a race GS ski
the best, I like a more recreational (used to be a bad word to me BTW)
high performance all mountain, tradeoffs and all.

I think tradeoffs are a good thing, because a typical ski day (or even
run) for me isn't just one kind of skiing. I like to carve it up on the
groomers, hit some bumps, and also find some powder stashes in the trees
(if it's not a day when the stashes are everywhere). I like a ski that
can do all relatively well and not make me want to go and swap skis for
different runs.

Matt