Fat Skis, Hard Snow

[snoseek]

I really want to take some wide skis out during normal northeast conditions. I can see them being ok on groomers, but I cant imagine them being that good on anything firm.

Maybe it's a style thing. When i get a ski up on edge at a good clip, i expect it to hold. May some dont mind a little washout? (I was gonna say "skidding"' but a whole host of toilet hunor jokes came to mind)

It takes some getting used to. I hold an edge, no sliding, no problem. If I were to go on anything under an 80 It would feel wierd for at least half a day.

There are obvious advantages to skinnier skis on hardpack, I won't argue that. For me making a trnsition from a 110 to a 70 is not really something I feel like doing therefore I will go with the all mountain fatty that skis better in optimal conditions. If I was back east it would be more like 100. If you can't figure out a carve on 95-100 skis then you can adapt.

Hell just a few years ago people on this very forum were dismissing the idea of skiing 85 on hard packed snow. I hear nothing from them now.

 

[laxski]

I ski 108s Volkl Gotmas at Mt Snow this year 18 days not much powder no real woods which I love but the ski was better on groomers and hard pack in fact never brought out my skinny skis this year. Rocker and fat skis make sense and I love it

 

[bobbutts]

I ski 108s Volkl Gotmas at Mt Snow this year 18 days not much powder no real woods which I love but the ski was better on groomers and hard pack in fact never brought out my skinny skis this year. Rocker and fat skis make sense and I love it

It's good that you are happy with the skis, but I think you didn't compare them to other modern skis. Do they carve better in certain conditions vs. model x? There's no way to say if you would have been happier with something else.

 

[bobbutts]

Which skis should I bring...hint: one is for carving, the other is for owning trees tighter than you can imagine.

Can I bring my posse? 4 free tix and you've got yourself a deal. :wink:

I think my HS tolerance has finally run out after many years.

you ride the lifts at Killington and don't get paid for skiing.. there are thousands and thousands of better skiers at better resorts. I suggest you go to Chamonix and challenge some skiers there to a ski off

 

[BenedictGomez]

I think my HS tolerance has finally run out after many years.

you ride the lifts at Killington and don't get paid for skiing.. there are thousands and thousands of better skiers at better resorts.

 

[deadheadskier]

:lol:

 

[Cannonball]

I'm gonna jump right from the OP to the last page. Partly because I don't have time to read 17 pages, and partly because I see on this last page some of HighwayStar's gems so I REALLY don't want to read those 17 pgs.

At the start of the season I bought a pair of 185cm 140/115/130 Dynastar Big Troubles. But I've been snowboarding all year vs skiing due to an injury. Today wasn't the conditions I bought them for (50F & groomed). But the injury is recovering and the season seems to have suicidal intentions. So I busted 'em out. I seriously could not believe the carve-ability of these things. They just wanted to be driven. The harder I pushed them the more they bit. YET, they were surprisingly poppy at the same time. In the crud and bumps they just wanted to pop up out of everything. I saw a ton of potential in just a few hours and am fired up to get them back out there in any conditions.

 

[bigbog]

This. I don't think it can be seriously claimed that a fat ski is better at carving hardpack than a narrow ski.

My experience has been the opposite. This year I decided to buy a high end carver ski. 72 underfoot. Game changer. Much better on ice than any other ski I've tried. It's not that a fat ski can't perform well on ice, but saying that it performs better than frontside carvers and race skis on hardpack is just weird.

Think if we keep our ski-penetration weight on par....it all happens.
Some Intermediates do throw in a little banking their turns..using the additional width as a crutch...but lots of nice skis of all widths that can certainly do it all with the right driver. The longitudinal flexibility in combination with edgehold/torsional stiffness is the really nice aspect to ski design these days...

 

[Sum1]

Fat Skis, Hard Snow ... sidenote along the same lines:

Okemo Saturday March 10, there was a good dozen manufacturers doing demo day at the bottom of Jackson Gore. Says to self, "Shweet! It's my lucky day to try a Blizzard SuperSonic, a Nordica Fire Arrow EDT, a Kaestle MX-70," and on and on. My current sticks are 80 mm waist and I've been wondering what a stiffer ski with slim-er waist would do for me (and to me).

I went up and down the aisle to half the manufacturers and could not find a single dealer carrying gear less than 82 mm waist. The refrain became eerily singular, "Nah man, I'm not carrying anything that narrow" and "the wide skis are engineered so well that they run the groomers as good or better than the skinny stuff; but, drive pow and crud like a (insert name of favorite auto here)."

Right/wrong/better/worse; I'm a newb with too few days on a hill to know.
However, it's interesting to see how the industry is "educating" "training" and "selling" the wide-body to the average buyer. . . . even on hills where there's no more than 2 - 3 inches of fresh on top of 2 inches of re-freeze ice.