Ski Builders Forum

I have talked to little Kam a couple times out at squaw, and was super stoked due to myself and a couple heli guides want to make a ski which we can work in all snow conditions on , would like to talk to others and see imput the must is that it be at least 100 mm under foot since squaw and AK get shat on with snow .

thanx

hey Svpropatrol, welcome.

in terms of design, i think adequate width underfoot is good, and you might want to consider a nice even flex. the flex will be determined by the shape of the core, be it wood or whatever material you decide to use. have you skied Shane Mcconkey's Spatula style ski? it works pretty well in deep, soft snow. you might want to consider that particular design, or some variation of it. but for the soft and deep, something wide with a smooth, even flex should do the trick.

just my thoughts.

I believed spatula style skis was for serious powder conditions only. Definately not for all snow conditions?

I've never met anyone who suggested spats for hard conditions, but a good stiff GS shape with width underfoot seems the most likely candiidate for an all around work ski. Works fine on ice, floats on pow.

i've been riding our Doink the Klowns in the backcountry lately, and so far they work pretty well. the Spatula-like sidecut isn't strictly for powder, i think. as long as the snow is somewhat forgiving, they work. i've had a lot of fun on them over the past few weeks. i'm experiencing that they don't shine on hard snow, but stuff like soft corn or deep mank (super saturated, wet, granulated snow), for example, is no problem. this past weekend i skied the Doinks on the Fryingpan Glacier on Mt. Rainier. the weather was nice. we skied about 4000 vf., where the upper 500 ft. was tricky suncrust. the Doinks handled the crust okay, but they required a little finesse. i noticed that my friends on regular skis were experiencing some problems on the crust too. anyway, the crust turned to soft 1-2" of perfect corn on top of a well supportive layer. it was some of the sweetest corn i've skied! the last 1000 ft. or so was somewhat deep (4") saturated, granulated snow, but still fun and the skis were easy to manuever. overall, the Doinks handled well, but there is some issue with width. i'll write something up about this later, but basically, on steeper terrain (40+ degrees) where there's a supportive layer of snow that is less than 4" deep, wide skis tend to chatter during the middle, or final arcing phase, of the turn. i think it has something to do with the increase leverage of width at the waist. anyway, the Doinks were great still. Allyson Spacek shot a photo of me skiing. i'm making some fast turns on the Doinks on the lower portion of the Fryingpan Glacier.



she also made a short video of me skiing on the upper portion of the Fryingpan -- Little Tahoma and Mt. Rainier are in the background. it was a beautiful day! click here to download movie.

Now that looks nice..........