Stuart wrote:
I am 55 185 lbs been skiing 50 yrs. I really prefer an all mountain ski for
the kind of skiing you describe. Rossignol are good. My favorite bar none
Atomic Metrons..easy turing pretty good in the slow bumps and good in powder
also. And do they carve carve carve....at medium speeds, a real treat and
easy....

Be careful.

I own and heart my Metrons completely. However the
'flavor' Metrons I have are M11-B5 from two years ago.
These are heavy (the worst part is carrying them to
the lift) and some say unforgiving. I tend to go for
skis which are stiff. This is probably due to my size
and weight. I'm 6' tall and weigh 215 and am 66
years old(quiet Horvie).

A few years ago I had Volkl 6 Stars and thought they
were wimpy when others thought they were a handful.

Metrons are a full line of All Mountain Skis. You
will probably like some of them and dislike others.

There are other skis which are outstanding and will
do nicely what you desire. Salomon X-wing line comes
to mind.

Now, I occasionally (not nearly enough) ski your western
mountains. By my handle, you can see I generally ski
eastern ice (scratch that) hardpack. When I get out
to your high mountains and 'real' snow, it seems to
matter little what is on my feet. At Mt Baker, I stop
at the Glacier Ski Shop and rent high end Salomons and
love them (I've quit lugging my skis across the country).

At Tahoe, I rent junk ($9.95 per day) rental slabs and
find those quite adequate except when going gets 'firm'.

Length? I use 170's most of the time. I have a pair of
159's for spring conditions. For your size and weight,
I wouldn't get anything bigger than 165.


"Jack O" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for advice on skis to demo this year for the kind of
skiing that I do. I'm 53 years old and started skiing 5 years ago. I
ski about 20 days per year, mostly in Utah - Alta, Snowbird, Brighton
& Solitude.

I ski with some buddies from my ski club, who are mostly better skiers
than I am. I ski almost exclusively on single-black ungroomed runs.
While I do encounter some deep snow, I spend a lot of time in tracked
bumps with at least some powder component. I skis relatively slowly
through the bumps, picking my way, not blasting through them. This is
what I like to do.

I own a pair of 170cm Rossignol Bandit B1's that I bought when I began
skiing 5 years ago, and have been on them since. I would like to buy
a new pair of skis this year that will enhance my experience in this
type of snow, and perhaps help me to advance a bit.

Can you suggest some skis that I might demo on my first trip out this
year? Something like a K2 Apache Xplorer seems to fit in some ways -
mid-fat and reasonable turn radius, but I have heard that I should be
looking at a "softer" ski. Should I be looking more at "front-side"
skis because I spend much time in the bumps? What length? Any advice
will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jack