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Advice on skis wanted.



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 5th 03, 09:12 PM
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Default Advice on skis wanted.

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In article ,
Chocolate Moose wrote:
I'm pretty much an expert alpine skier and am putting together my first
AT setup. I've only been backcountry skiing once a long time ago and seem
to remember that weight was my biggest problem.

Anyway, I bought a pair of Scarpa Lasers so that part's done.

Now I'm looking at skis and I don't want to sink a lot of money into
something I may not use a lot. (I have a good resort setup.) Shopping
around, I've found the following "deals" and want to know what folks here
think of these choices:

K2 Ascent 8611 (2003) - $199 -- Can't find much about these

Atomic Tour Guide Superlight (2003) - $169


_ Both of these are reasonable skis, a bit on the light side
though, but that may be just fine if you don't want to
"huck". They will get thrown around in heavy crud, but
are good spring corn skis. The Ascent gets better reviews
as a turner.



Atomic Tour Carv Alpin (2002) - $119 -- leaning toward these because of
weight & $$


_ You should check out the reviews on all 3 of theses skis
at Couloir magazine[1]. These skis sacrifice quite a bit of
performance to be light. Depending on exactly what you
want to do these might be appropriate, and at that price
you don't really loose out much if you decide they aren't right.
That's only 3 days rental...

_ However, light skis are always a sacrifice in performance, but
generally I find that the ablity to climb quicker and faster
(ie. still have some gas in the legs to use on the ski down )
compensates for this. The one caveat to this is that there is no
substitute for width underfoot in difficult conditions. If you're
going to ski in a lot of windblown crud and crust, I'd look for
something at least 75mm underfoot. You can always save weight by
getting the skis shorter. Get your BC skis at least 10 cm shorter
than what you use at the resort, you'll be even happier if you
can talk yourself into getting 15 or 20cm shorter skis.


Fisher Big Stix 69 (2003) - $199 -- Can't find much about these


- - HEAVY, these are pretty nice standard alpine skis. They ski
pretty well although I like the Big Stix 75 better, but they
are heavy. If you want to go with a standard alpine ski you
can find lighter ones than these.


I'm planning (right now at least) to use these with Dynafit bindings.


_ A pretty good choice. You should check out Lou Dawson's web
site, lot's of good info about AT gear and Dynafit bindings
in particular

http://www.wildsnow.com/

_ We could probably give you better advice if you tell us
where you ski and what kind of skiing you want to do.

_ Booker C.Bense


[1]- http://www.couloirmag.com/gear/revie...skis_nov01.asp


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  #2  
Old November 6th 03, 05:03 PM
Greg
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Default



Chocolate Moose wrote:

Yikes. 10cm?? I'm 150lbs, 5-8 and skiing on 170cm skis (Elan Mantis 10
midfat all-mountain). Seriously?? 160cm?

I'm 5'11', 200 lbs and am skiing on 178s. I'm considering going to 170s
Don't be afraid of short skis, unless you need to go really, really
fast. Short skis are lighter and are more maneuverable in tight spots.

I know that it's hard to consider really short skis if you are
indoctrinated with the long ski dogma. Over the last twenty years
my ski length has gone:

160-185-195-204-190-178-(170??)

This was a progression from beginner on short skis to competent skier in
the long ski school of thought then to backcountry skiing.

160 cm should be fine for you. Don't be afraid. You should see if you
can try a pair.

-Greg

  #3  
Old November 6th 03, 07:55 PM
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In article ,
Chocolate Moose wrote:
bbense+rec.skiing.backcountry.Nov.05.03@telemark .slac.stanford.edu wrote
in :

Get your BC skis at least 10 cm shorter
than what you use at the resort, you'll be even happier if you
can talk yourself into getting 15 or 20cm shorter skis.


Yikes. 10cm?? I'm 150lbs, 5-8 and skiing on 170cm skis (Elan Mantis 10
midfat all-mountain). Seriously?? 160cm?


_ Well, modern skis care about what you weigh, not your height.
At 150 lbs you're going to have problems bending
longer skis in crud unless you ski very fast. The KEY to skiing
crud and powder is having skis that bend laterally, but not
torsionally. If you're truly going to be doing only BC skiing on
these boards get 160's if at all possible. I'd only get longer if
you plan on carrying a heavy pack. I weigh 35lbs more than you do
and regularly carry a 20lb pack BC skiing and I ski on 150s
sometimes and would never pick a BC ski longer than 175 or so.

_ My resort alpine skis are 185cm and 190cm. I do resort telemark
on 180's. For sane people BC skiing is much more about control than
speed. Save falling for area skiing.


_ We could probably give you better advice if you tell us
where you ski and what kind of skiing you want to do.


Probably end up getting most use in the Sierras and Utah. Pretty different
conditions. G Again, this is kind of a flyer for me to see if I like the
whole idea or not.


_ The light skis you listed will be GREAT for Sierra spring corn
and "perfect" Utah powder. They will perform less well when
conditions get worse ( and they always do if you're BC skiing.)
For the skis you listed I would definitely consider getting 160cm
at your weight, probably not any shorter though, 170 would
probably be okay as well. However, a ski you should look
seriously at is the 162cm Mira, this is a great allround ski that
isn't too heavy. You can get them fairly cheap right now at
sierratradingpost.com.

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/pro...?base_no=72024

_ The price is a bit more than the other skis you were looking
at, but I think you will really like these skis much better
in western conditions, particularly if you're interested in
turns rather than tours. You'd better hurry though, every time
I look at that web page, I'm tempted to get a pair...

_ The big advantage of going shorter is that you can get a wider
ski for the same weight that will work in more conditions.
Especially if your just starting out, shorter skis will be more
fun and you won't "outgrow" them since they'll always be perfect
for spring skiing and extending the season. If you've got skis
that are light and easy to carry, you're much more tempted to
hike for that late season corn. Later on you can decide to
go longer and beefier if that makes more sense. IMHO, the only
drawback to having skis too short is that they have a slower
top end speed[1]. Too long and you'll be cursing them and having
no fun. The downsides to getting skis "too short" are so minimal
for BC skiing compared to having them "too long" that I would
always err on the side of "too short".

_ Lastly, pop over to the Life-Link site and look at the pictures
of the guys that ski Himalayan peaks. Either they are really tall
or their skis are pretty short.

http://www.life-link.com/

_ Booker C. Bense

[1]- The one place when "top end speed" can be a problem is in
really deep powder ( like 3-4 feet ), but at least in the "low"
Sierra most BC skiing is not of the bottomless powder variety
unless you ski during storms. IMHO, that's the time to hit
the resorts.

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