On 2004-12-20, lal_truckee penned:
Monique Y. Mudama wrote:

Well, powder and crud/slop are my two biggest problem areas, so ... getting
a ski that's more work in those conditions might not be my best move. I
see that once again, I haven't been detailed enough in describing my
question =)

Like I said - it's not difficult. If you run gates, you know how to carve -
slop and crud are easier than hardback because edge-set is trivial.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I participated in one recreational
race in which I had to ski around flags. My goal was to get a finishing
time, which I did. I wouldn't go assuming that I know how to run gates
or how to carve well =P


Just hold the arc and don't try to skid. Slop and crud will not
forgive a skidder. Wide skis try to help a skier by keeping them on
top of the crud and slop so they can skid a bit - IMO it doesn't work
- you sacrifice being able to power-care through the crud for bouncing
around on top of the crud.

We're back to the psychology of skiing. I've had some unpleasant experiences
with "mashed potatoes/cement" type snow grabbing my skis and messing up my
knee, so I'm afraid of crud, so I expect it to betray me, so I don't commit
enough and sure enough, it does ...

I'm not sure how to get over that psychological mess.

I'm not looking for very wide skis; but I'd like to try some that are wider at
the waist than what I have. It can't hurt to compare.

Powder is a completely different medium because it's three dimensional - for
powder you want a soft even flexing ski so you can be centered and not feel
as if you must be back to force the tips up. Soft even flex ski tips come up
on their own. Plus suitable powder skis, as I said, are dirt cheap if you
look around.

What you've said makes a lot of sense; I just don't like the idea of having
different skis for different conditions. If I were going heliskiing, sure,
but for lift ticket skiing, I want a single pair that I can use somewhat
effectively on everything, including powder.

So: A GS ski works fine and IMO better and easier than a wide waist ski in
crud and slop. A wide waist ski is crap on the hardpack and ridiculous in
the gates. You want one ski for most conditions that will still be usable in
gates and groomers - go GS. You want to pretend to solve your crud and slop
difficulties and sacrifice groomers and gates altogether, maybe a wide ski
will be OK. Maybe.

What do you consider to be a wide ski?

--
monique
Longmont, CO