Bumpsis
Well-known member
I rented a "performance" pair at Cannon yesterday. I was wondering what's it like to ski on those fat skis that I see fairly often. They seem to be set as the a great tool for pwoder and lots of loose snow. Given the spring mush that was on the mountain, I though I give these a try.
On recommendation of the guy at the rental place, I got a pair of Volk Kedno (127-88-109). Although not a "true" fat, still, it's the widest ski I ever had (with exception of one rental out west on a great powder day) on my feet skiing in the east. I'm about 5' 7", about 165 lb. The ski was 170cm.
Overall, I don't see what the big hoopla about these wide skis is all about. Yes, they carved nicely and they held really well at higher speeds, slicing some big arcs through the heavy mung, but thet felt heavy and less than inspiring. It was real work to get them to do short radius turns and not much rebound.
It was like drivig a truck. They also had a fairly narrow zone where I really had be to stay on top of them, otherwise, I'd find myself in the back seat and a bit out of control. I took a surprisng face plant once when I crossed my tips going pretty fast. It's kind of rare for me to make a mistake like that.
I could not do anything in moguls with those skis. Too heavy to swivel and I just could not stay in a picked line. OK, I'm far from being really good in moguls to begin with, but my own K2 Raiders can get me through some moguls just fine.
I do think that the wider waist of the ski really does compromise the ability to quickly change edges. It's very good ski for GS type turns but far from what the ski is billed as: an all mountain ski. Probably out west with plenty of powder.
Out here, I'm sticking with skis that don't exceed 78mm in their waist.
On recommendation of the guy at the rental place, I got a pair of Volk Kedno (127-88-109). Although not a "true" fat, still, it's the widest ski I ever had (with exception of one rental out west on a great powder day) on my feet skiing in the east. I'm about 5' 7", about 165 lb. The ski was 170cm.
Overall, I don't see what the big hoopla about these wide skis is all about. Yes, they carved nicely and they held really well at higher speeds, slicing some big arcs through the heavy mung, but thet felt heavy and less than inspiring. It was real work to get them to do short radius turns and not much rebound.
It was like drivig a truck. They also had a fairly narrow zone where I really had be to stay on top of them, otherwise, I'd find myself in the back seat and a bit out of control. I took a surprisng face plant once when I crossed my tips going pretty fast. It's kind of rare for me to make a mistake like that.
I could not do anything in moguls with those skis. Too heavy to swivel and I just could not stay in a picked line. OK, I'm far from being really good in moguls to begin with, but my own K2 Raiders can get me through some moguls just fine.
I do think that the wider waist of the ski really does compromise the ability to quickly change edges. It's very good ski for GS type turns but far from what the ski is billed as: an all mountain ski. Probably out west with plenty of powder.
Out here, I'm sticking with skis that don't exceed 78mm in their waist.