i brought just one pair of skis with me, the Karbs. they were new and i made them one week before leaving. the Karbs were made with the heated press. we used a new mold with significantly less camber than before, but the skis still came out with lots of camber, around 20mm. it was ridiculous. i think we should have let them cooled in the mold like Kelvin's most recent two pairs that seem to work well.
anyway, i skied the Karbs in Austria for three days in the backcountry. the snow was so, so good:
but the Karbs were NOT so good. first of all they were too stiff. i used a small piece of carbon fiber that Kelvin bought off Ebay. i should have made the cores thinner. second, the camber made the skis really difficult to maneuver. there was just too much camber and they wouldn't turn. i struggled to make the tele turn. most of the time i was doing a lot of this kind of skiing:
but overall it was a good lesson to learned, for the second time (the Kaffeines also have a lot of camber).
while in Chamonix, i rented the Ross B3s, Atomic R-9, and the Head Monsters. they were great and a lot easier to maneuver compared to the Karbs. i know what needs to be changed for the next pairs i make.
more photos from my Europe trip can be found here
http://www.leang.com/kam/mountains/Alps0506/