how to choose all-mountain skis?

On 2004-12-20, MattB penned:

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.

This is key for me. I'm working on bumps, and my husband adores bumps (at
least as compared to groomers, which he hates), so I probably spend most of my
ski day in the bumps.

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.

Hey, Matt, could you enumerate some of those tradeoffs?

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.

This is very much why I'm asking the question I'm asking. I don't want to
have a quiver full of skis, or even more than one pair. I just want to step
into my bindings in the morning and be able to do whichever runs look
tastiest, which could be anything from a nice steep groomer to (widely spaced
right now) trees to a nice long mogul run .... or even powder, although it
still confounds me and I've yet to get into a lesson on a powder day before
all the runs were already tracked out.

Lately, some of the "most fun" runs to me have been the type with a bit of
fluff not quite covering the tops of baby trees and other vegetation. The
visible plants keep a lot of skiers away, so the snow's pretty nice.

--
monique
Longmont, CO