patentcad
New member
I got to ski on my new gear Sunday for four hours at a very small local mountain in Warwick, NY (Mt. Peter). Very impressed with this small gem of a ski hill with its excellent grooming, great ski school/staff, friendly attitude and great programs for kids. Unfortunately it only has about 700 vertical feet to work with so a run takes all of 30 seconds or so, but at least it has some steep pitches for advanced skiers to enjoy, unlike some other tiny areas that don't.
First a little background on myself: I'm 48 years old and while I have been on skis since age 8, I didn't ski for 8 years until two weekends ago due to back problems (several operations). My chronic pain lifted somewhat over the past year, enough for me to try to go out on the slopes-while swearing to myself to avoid bumps in the interest of preserving my somewhat fragile lower back. I'm 5' 11" and somewhat overweight now @ 200lbs. I consider myself to be an advanced skier - I cringe at the term 'Expert' if only because I know what a true Expert is, and that I am not. But I love high speed (25-50mph) cruising with super GS and GS turns. I also like to ski steeper slopes (the ones with widely spaced or few bumps) right down the fall line with short swing turns.
The Volkl 5-Stars/integrated Marker bindings: I've skiied a ton of equipment over the years (skiing for 40 years) but NOTHING like these skis. They're only 175cm long, 30cm shorter than my last laminated skis, but that's considered longish for these new 'shaped' style skis that have swept the industry. I was laying out one Super GS turn after another on some serious hard pack at speeds of 30mph +, my inside ski off the snow and all my 200 lbs on the uphill edge of my outer ski, and those bad boys were carving turns like nothing I've ever skiied. No chatter or vibration no matter how hard I pushed them. When I went to short swing turns on steeper terrain, skiing straight down the fall line, they initiated turns instantly and effortlessly and never skidded out from under me. I even got into some gnarly junk snow and they plowed through it without a whimper. It was an incredible ski experience. I skiied so hard that my legs were rubber after 4 hours. I drove home with a big smile on my face.
Salomon Ellipse 9 Boots: Excllent ski-edge feel, superbly comfortable. Absolutely the most comfortable boots I've ever worn. 10 or 15 years ago you'd have to sacrifice performance to get this much comfort in a ski boot. Salomon has integrated innovative technologies from snowboard boots and created a high performing boot that won't beat up your lower legs and feet.
I've never had a new equipment experience quite this positive. I banged hard turns for 4+ hours, never fell (when I sat back or lost composure the boot/ski combo made it fairly easy to recover). The only time that I can remember being this juiced about gear was after a day of skiing deep powder in Grand Targhee Wyoming (1995) on a pair of 'fat' skis that they had lent us for the day when I went Snow Cat skiing there. That was a similarly revelatory experience. The difference is that I ski in the East on hard pack 99% of the time and I can use this gear every time I go out there. I had heard an awful lot about capped/shaped skis but the demos I had tried never quite lived up to that. I can honestly say that this ski/binding/boot combination elevates the level of gear excellence beyond anything I have ever experienced. I expected good things and had a gear revelation. That has only happened to me a couple of times in 40 years.
One final note about Ski Barn in Paramus where we bought the gear, and about purchasing ski gear in general. Ski Barn took a lot of time to LISTEN to me and reccommended what turned out to be the PERFECT gear for me. They also spent a good hour helping us to pick out boots for my wife - she tried on four different models before settling on a women's version of the same Salomon boot I chose. No, their prices aren't always the cheapest around. But they are thoroughly professional about fitting you to the gear, and if you save $50 on boots and they don't fit right, you'll be miserable for years every time you ski. Skiing is expensive - the gear is the cheapest part - and I'd rather spend a couple of hundred bucks more and get the kind of advice and guidance that we received at SB. And their pricing is relatively competitive if not the lowest. But their service is about the best that I've gotten in the North Jersey/Southern NY area where I've lived - and shopped for ski gear - for several decades.
Almost as if to underscore this point, I'm on the chairlift Sunday with this older gentleman who pointed out his new ski boots. "$80, great deal..." he says to me " but they hurt my shins right THERE -" pointing with his poll. I looked at him and I said - if they hurt you, how good of a deal WERE they? He looked puzzled at that question. My new boots by the way were like wearing a pair of friggin bedroom slippers - they didn't hurt anything.
First a little background on myself: I'm 48 years old and while I have been on skis since age 8, I didn't ski for 8 years until two weekends ago due to back problems (several operations). My chronic pain lifted somewhat over the past year, enough for me to try to go out on the slopes-while swearing to myself to avoid bumps in the interest of preserving my somewhat fragile lower back. I'm 5' 11" and somewhat overweight now @ 200lbs. I consider myself to be an advanced skier - I cringe at the term 'Expert' if only because I know what a true Expert is, and that I am not. But I love high speed (25-50mph) cruising with super GS and GS turns. I also like to ski steeper slopes (the ones with widely spaced or few bumps) right down the fall line with short swing turns.
The Volkl 5-Stars/integrated Marker bindings: I've skiied a ton of equipment over the years (skiing for 40 years) but NOTHING like these skis. They're only 175cm long, 30cm shorter than my last laminated skis, but that's considered longish for these new 'shaped' style skis that have swept the industry. I was laying out one Super GS turn after another on some serious hard pack at speeds of 30mph +, my inside ski off the snow and all my 200 lbs on the uphill edge of my outer ski, and those bad boys were carving turns like nothing I've ever skiied. No chatter or vibration no matter how hard I pushed them. When I went to short swing turns on steeper terrain, skiing straight down the fall line, they initiated turns instantly and effortlessly and never skidded out from under me. I even got into some gnarly junk snow and they plowed through it without a whimper. It was an incredible ski experience. I skiied so hard that my legs were rubber after 4 hours. I drove home with a big smile on my face.
Salomon Ellipse 9 Boots: Excllent ski-edge feel, superbly comfortable. Absolutely the most comfortable boots I've ever worn. 10 or 15 years ago you'd have to sacrifice performance to get this much comfort in a ski boot. Salomon has integrated innovative technologies from snowboard boots and created a high performing boot that won't beat up your lower legs and feet.
I've never had a new equipment experience quite this positive. I banged hard turns for 4+ hours, never fell (when I sat back or lost composure the boot/ski combo made it fairly easy to recover). The only time that I can remember being this juiced about gear was after a day of skiing deep powder in Grand Targhee Wyoming (1995) on a pair of 'fat' skis that they had lent us for the day when I went Snow Cat skiing there. That was a similarly revelatory experience. The difference is that I ski in the East on hard pack 99% of the time and I can use this gear every time I go out there. I had heard an awful lot about capped/shaped skis but the demos I had tried never quite lived up to that. I can honestly say that this ski/binding/boot combination elevates the level of gear excellence beyond anything I have ever experienced. I expected good things and had a gear revelation. That has only happened to me a couple of times in 40 years.
One final note about Ski Barn in Paramus where we bought the gear, and about purchasing ski gear in general. Ski Barn took a lot of time to LISTEN to me and reccommended what turned out to be the PERFECT gear for me. They also spent a good hour helping us to pick out boots for my wife - she tried on four different models before settling on a women's version of the same Salomon boot I chose. No, their prices aren't always the cheapest around. But they are thoroughly professional about fitting you to the gear, and if you save $50 on boots and they don't fit right, you'll be miserable for years every time you ski. Skiing is expensive - the gear is the cheapest part - and I'd rather spend a couple of hundred bucks more and get the kind of advice and guidance that we received at SB. And their pricing is relatively competitive if not the lowest. But their service is about the best that I've gotten in the North Jersey/Southern NY area where I've lived - and shopped for ski gear - for several decades.
Almost as if to underscore this point, I'm on the chairlift Sunday with this older gentleman who pointed out his new ski boots. "$80, great deal..." he says to me " but they hurt my shins right THERE -" pointing with his poll. I looked at him and I said - if they hurt you, how good of a deal WERE they? He looked puzzled at that question. My new boots by the way were like wearing a pair of friggin bedroom slippers - they didn't hurt anything.