Tails of a nice pair
Posted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:13 pm
OK, I got my new skis back from the shop the other day and took them out Friday to the local resort. We received ~10 inches of new snow. Nice dry freshy… oh yaa. We started out doing some car shuttles before the area opened, and made 4 runs on the backside with my Blizzard Titan XXLs (181, 122-82-102) just to see how the snow was. Steep, too many trees and the coverage on that side of the mountain was still a bit scary… especially down by the road. There was a bit of sun baked crud under the fresh snow on that side also.
When the lifts started up Korki, Doug, and I stopped at the car to drive to the top and ski the area where the wind deposition and hill aspect are much better. I pulled out the new Big Labowski Doods (Doods for short), adjusted the hammerheads to fit my boots and took off for the trees between the runs. The skis are 188 cm 128-87-108, ~8lb and pretty soft. So soft that I was not sure how they were going to do on the packed powder runs. The ski shop flattened/structured the bottoms and set the edges. No wax and I have not detuned the tip edges at all. They were a bit slow on the flats, but it was a bit weird because I would pass my ski partners with a bit of incline but they seemed to have no glide across some of the traverses we do at this area. I think that will clear up after I scrape off the fuzzies and restructure them if that doesn’t happen as I ski them.
The ride was awesome… as good as the Blizzards. I was a bit hesitant to let them cut loose at first, but I found that they wanted to be opened up and skied hard. I had to stay on top of them and keep forward pressure on the boots in most cases. I did have to make some tail turns to keep the tips out of the tree tops still exposed above the snow. I was very impressed with my first pair. For the conditions that day they skied well and handled the short amount of packed runs I did that day very well. Going down hill they are fast and nimble for the length. I was out pacing my friends in the trees and steeper slopes… even during the times when we were skiing by Braille. There were a couple of open slopes that we had no visual clues. It was difficult to tell if you were moving at times. They floated beautifully in the powder. Both tele and parallel turns are dreamy creamy.
Sunday I went out for a half day with my 12 year old daughter, so I stayed on or near the packed runs. The Doods are fast. The stickiness of the previous ski day was gone. The wind had come up the previous day and the snow had moved all over the mountain. I had hard pack, wind pack and powder all with in a few turns. The viability was good Sunday so I was really able to let the Doods run. I was able to transition from hard pack to wind pack to powder with impunity. Control at speed on hard pack (packed powder not ice… it never is here) was not the issue that I thought it might be. So far the Doods seem to be a great all mountain ski for this area.
I can’t want to get the Big Labowski Heavies done. They should be real hardpack screamers. I’ll post specs on a TR when I get them done. They still need a bit of work to the side walls and a trip to the shop for tuning.
Its supposed to snow here Wednesday night and Thursday. Time to take another day off.
Hafte
When the lifts started up Korki, Doug, and I stopped at the car to drive to the top and ski the area where the wind deposition and hill aspect are much better. I pulled out the new Big Labowski Doods (Doods for short), adjusted the hammerheads to fit my boots and took off for the trees between the runs. The skis are 188 cm 128-87-108, ~8lb and pretty soft. So soft that I was not sure how they were going to do on the packed powder runs. The ski shop flattened/structured the bottoms and set the edges. No wax and I have not detuned the tip edges at all. They were a bit slow on the flats, but it was a bit weird because I would pass my ski partners with a bit of incline but they seemed to have no glide across some of the traverses we do at this area. I think that will clear up after I scrape off the fuzzies and restructure them if that doesn’t happen as I ski them.
The ride was awesome… as good as the Blizzards. I was a bit hesitant to let them cut loose at first, but I found that they wanted to be opened up and skied hard. I had to stay on top of them and keep forward pressure on the boots in most cases. I did have to make some tail turns to keep the tips out of the tree tops still exposed above the snow. I was very impressed with my first pair. For the conditions that day they skied well and handled the short amount of packed runs I did that day very well. Going down hill they are fast and nimble for the length. I was out pacing my friends in the trees and steeper slopes… even during the times when we were skiing by Braille. There were a couple of open slopes that we had no visual clues. It was difficult to tell if you were moving at times. They floated beautifully in the powder. Both tele and parallel turns are dreamy creamy.
Sunday I went out for a half day with my 12 year old daughter, so I stayed on or near the packed runs. The Doods are fast. The stickiness of the previous ski day was gone. The wind had come up the previous day and the snow had moved all over the mountain. I had hard pack, wind pack and powder all with in a few turns. The viability was good Sunday so I was really able to let the Doods run. I was able to transition from hard pack to wind pack to powder with impunity. Control at speed on hard pack (packed powder not ice… it never is here) was not the issue that I thought it might be. So far the Doods seem to be a great all mountain ski for this area.
I can’t want to get the Big Labowski Heavies done. They should be real hardpack screamers. I’ll post specs on a TR when I get them done. They still need a bit of work to the side walls and a trip to the shop for tuning.
Its supposed to snow here Wednesday night and Thursday. Time to take another day off.
Hafte