Need a dedicated powder ski

[604Sean]

Looking for a new setup for Whistler - mostly for pow, but versatile enough to handle the steeps, crud, chop etc. So far I've been looking at the following

Head Kore 117
Atomic Backland FR 117
Volkl Confession
Blizzard Rustler

Any opinions/ advice on these? I should demo before buying, but I thought I would reduce my options??

 

[ski otter 2]

I've skied all but the Backland 117 (own and still love the Atomic Auto 117).

I loved the 18/19 Rustler 11 180, 188, 19x. The 180 worked as playful; kind of like the 184 Bibby. Surprisingly good in crud/chop.
The 19x was a surprise to me: I loved it (me 5'10", 150). It was more stable in crud, noticeably more stable at all speeds fore-aft, very easy and not really too burly from length. After both those skis, liked the 188 least: not that much more stable than the 180, not as playful. Big difference in stability with the 193, without being harder to turn or control. But great skis all three! 5 stars, 4 stars, 5 stars.

I owned the first year 186 Confession. Sold it quickly, for me a mistake at that length. I tried later year's (19/20) 186 version also, to see if it has changed enough. Nope, not for me.
From what I can gather, only the longest version, 190+, seems to be stable enough in crud, to me. (Yellow Gentian/Craig review agreed with me on this.) And the Confession gets hung up in drifts, edge won't release, unpredictably, just enough to have to ski more defensively, in my case. (Blistergear agreed about release.)
Man, but it's tops skiing groomers! 3 stars at 186.

The 19/20 Kore 117 I just finished demoing in 2-5", then crud. Liked it. Good in mild crud. At that amount of fresh, did everything well. (Not as good on groomers as the Confession, but light and good there still.) I'd like to try it in deeper to tell about real powder and crud, but it seemed like it would be fine there, dunno. 5 star so far.

 

[Ken_R]

First, I want to thank pugski.com forum people for pushing me to buy ski boots from a boot fitter. It ended up working out pretty darn well. I still need a few tweaks, but I'm super impressed with the results.

I currently ski on 2014 Volkl Mantra's. I <3 these skis. I have almost 200 days on them so far, and they just rock.......except on powder days. I watch everyone else blow past me, while I seem to slog through. I've tried adjusting my stance (lean way back, lean way forward, try to stay balanced), and it doesn't matter.

A few years ago I demo'd a pair of Ramp Peace Pipes on a powder day and made it to Park City for some runs down McConkey's. It was GLORIOUS. Those 125mm underfoot boats turned and floated in a way that I could barely understand. They ski'd great on groomers too! Of course, I'm an idiot and didn't buy them, and now they are out of business and impossible to find on ebay and whatnot.

Sooo.. I want a pair of DEDICATED powder skis (my mantra's are perfectly fine for a daily driver). And I want the BEST powder skis, I don't care how much they cost. I want a ski that makes ME better, not some thing that I have to be a badass to take advantage of. DPS Lotus? J-Ski "The Friend"?

What do ya'll think?

There are plenty of really good fat powder skis out there. I own a pair of Black Crows Nocta 185cm skis and they are awesome in powder and handle heavier powder very well also. Easy to ski and the width and design allows you to really enjoy even lower angle runs. I owned a pair of Moment Deathwish in 190cm and they were fantastic as well and handled a wide range of conditions. The Moment Wildcat should perform great in Powder as well. All these skis have a nice flex to them. Im about your size / weight so you should get a similar feel.

So, think wide, not super heavy, full rocker or rocker-camber-rocker, longish sidecut and a nice even flex.

 

[Ryan Dietrich]

Phew.. got back from a work trip + a trip to brian head (back seat skiing in 9 + 6 inches of powder in my mantras) over the last week. I went up to Alta yesterday and plopped down $40 to try some demo skis out for the day.

1. I demo'd the DPS Foundation Wailer 112 @ 184. I felt like I had two sticks of butter on my feet. I couldn't manage a clean set of linked turns to save my life. I got them off my boots after a single run. I felt like the contact point was basically an inch in front of my toe at best. I mentioned this to the demo shop when I brought them back, and they said I needed to go bigger. Ok, time to put on my big boy pants.

2. I demo'd the DPS Alchemist Lotus 124 @ 191cm. These skis are lighter than my 170cm volkl mantra's. I fell in love with these skis almost instantly. I took them in frozen top'd powder, regular powder, chopped up powder, crud, groomers, it didn't matter. I couldn't believe how great these things felt on every single surface I threw at them. I could not believe how awesome they skied on a groomer, freaking 124 under foot and they felt like a normal all-mountain ski, I was shocked. They floated in powder, and I could lean forward! I did 5-6 runs all over the mountain, and I was freaking out, they looked like water skis, but didn't feel like it! They were a lot more damp than what I would have expected for a ski that doesn't have any metal.

My search is over!!! (And it was the ski I read about and posted a question about in my very first post in this thread).

The demo shop at Alta offered to sell my the demo skis that were in nearly new condition. The only problem was the demo bindings, which I wasn't a fan of, and the fact that I could get new skis (minus the cost of the bindings) for the same price, so I passed. So now I'm hunting for the best deal for the most expensive ski DPS makes (of course I had to fall in love with their most expensive ski, in the most expensive configuration). I also could use a suggestion on bindings. I have a strong preference for Marker (Jester? Griffin?), but if there is something specific that I should consider, I'd appreciate a pointer!

 

[Noodler]

If you can wait, usually the best DPS deals are provided by them in their Summer Dreamtime pre-order event (I think it's in July). Glad you found something that you love. I think you also found out why I ski the 112RP in 190cm.

 

[Ryan Dietrich]

If you can wait, usually the best DPS deals are provided by them in their Summer Dreamtime pre-order event (I think it's in July). Glad you found something that you love. I think you also found out why I ski the 112RP in 190cm.

I wish I could have tried the Wailer @190, it seemed like a good ski, it just rises so dang much, that you need a longer ski to compensate!

Yeah, dreamtime is like $200 off.. I can get those deals now. If I buy the exact ski I tried (2017-2018) I can get it for $999 new (no binding). If I want the 2018-2019, the cheapest I have seen is $1199, which is very close to what dreamtime will be, if the ski is even available. I read my old emails from last year and the price didn't drop much past what I'm seeing now.

 

[BC.]

Phew.. got back from a work trip + a trip to brian head (back seat skiing in 9 + 6 inches of powder in my mantras) over the last week. I went up to Alta yesterday and plopped down $40 to try some demo skis out for the day.

1. I demo'd the DPS Foundation Wailer 112 @ 184. I felt like I had two sticks of butter on my feet. I couldn't manage a clean set of linked turns to save my life. I got them off my boots after a single run. I felt like the contact point was basically an inch in front of my toe at best. I mentioned this to the demo shop when I brought them back, and they said I needed to go bigger. Ok, time to put on my big boy pants.

2. I demo'd the DPS Alchemist Lotus 124 @ 191cm. These skis are lighter than my 170cm volkl mantra's. I fell in love with these skis almost instantly. I took them in frozen top'd powder, regular powder, chopped up powder, crud, groomers, it didn't matter. I couldn't believe how great these things felt on every single surface I threw at them. I could not believe how awesome they skied on a groomer, freaking 124 under foot and they felt like a normal all-mountain ski, I was shocked. They floated in powder, and I could lean forward! I did 5-6 runs all over the mountain, and I was freaking out, they looked like water skis, but didn't feel like it! They were a lot more damp than what I would have expected for a ski that doesn't have any metal.

My search is over!!! (And it was the ski I read about and posted a question about in my very first post in this thread).

The demo shop at Alta offered to sell my the demo skis that were in nearly new condition. The only problem was the demo bindings, which I wasn't a fan of, and the fact that I could get new skis (minus the cost of the bindings) for the same price, so I passed. So now I'm hunting for the best deal for the most expensive ski DPS makes (of course I had to fall in love with their most expensive ski, in the most expensive configuration). I also could use a suggestion on bindings. I have a strong preference for Marker (Jester? Griffin?), but if there is something specific that I should consider, I'd appreciate a pointer!

FWIW...I've got 2019 BNIB Jesters for sale in Gear Swap if you eventually need bindings.....They are ready to ship...lol

 

[AngryAnalyst]

Phew.. got back from a work trip + a trip to brian head (back seat skiing in 9 + 6 inches of powder in my mantras) over the last week. I went up to Alta yesterday and plopped down $40 to try some demo skis out for the day.

1. I demo'd the DPS Foundation Wailer 112 @ 184. I felt like I had two sticks of butter on my feet. I couldn't manage a clean set of linked turns to save my life. I got them off my boots after a single run. I felt like the contact point was basically an inch in front of my toe at best. I mentioned this to the demo shop when I brought them back, and they said I needed to go bigger. Ok, time to put on my big boy pants.

2. I demo'd the DPS Alchemist Lotus 124 @ 191cm. These skis are lighter than my 170cm volkl mantra's. I fell in love with these skis almost instantly. I took them in frozen top'd powder, regular powder, chopped up powder, crud, groomers, it didn't matter. I couldn't believe how great these things felt on every single surface I threw at them. I could not believe how awesome they skied on a groomer, freaking 124 under foot and they felt like a normal all-mountain ski, I was shocked. They floated in powder, and I could lean forward! I did 5-6 runs all over the mountain, and I was freaking out, they looked like water skis, but didn't feel like it! They were a lot more damp than what I would have expected for a ski that doesn't have any metal.

My search is over!!! (And it was the ski I read about and posted a question about in my very first post in this thread).

The demo shop at Alta offered to sell my the demo skis that were in nearly new condition. The only problem was the demo bindings, which I wasn't a fan of, and the fact that I could get new skis (minus the cost of the bindings) for the same price, so I passed. So now I'm hunting for the best deal for the most expensive ski DPS makes (of course I had to fall in love with their most expensive ski, in the most expensive configuration). I also could use a suggestion on bindings. I have a strong preference for Marker (Jester? Griffin?), but if there is something specific that I should consider, I'd appreciate a pointer!

Your experience on the Wailer 112 mirrors mine (but it wasn’t fixed by going longer) and is one of many reasons I tend not to trust DPS as a brand to blind buy but I have yet to hear anyone say the 124s suck. May have to scrape together the cash.

On the rest - I am not you, but I don’t like Marker bindings in general and I HATE them on powder skis. My experience has been they sometimes pop off from upward pressure when I would rather they didn’t (eg skiing through a snow bank), though if you don’t get that on Mantras it may not matter to you. Much more important is that stepping into them in powder sucks. I find the mechanism traps snow and is a bit fiddly.

Look Pivot is a better design IMO, especially for powder but I know bindings are a bit of a religious preference.

 

[ski otter 2]

Yes, like a religion. I know that pros and most folks in the business rave about the Pivots, a consensus of sorts. Well-earned, I gather. But there are two types of Look/Rossi Pivots, very different designs and parts - the 18 DIN versions the pros and some racers use, retail around $475; and the 11-14 DIN versions most would probably be using, retail, say, $250 - $375. Ah, well. At the shops I've been around, the cheaper Pivot designs are regarded as not so great, in terms of durability and repairs/parts, while the 18 Pros are considered superior but rarely seen except for with professionals. (I'd love to try an 18 pair, myself.)

The ones I like currently for powder are Marker Griffon Schizos (which are lower in height than many non-Marker demos). The Schizos are adjustable on the fly for both boot size and for mount point. In my experience, mount point choice really matters. But also, many good powder skis have multiple points that are neat to ski, different but good depending. This adjustability comes in handy for dialing in a ski for an individual, for different skiing styles, and for particular conditions: for example, most recently, in extra wet, heavy and drifted snow (like this year's), moving back 3/4 cm to 2 cm., depending on the powder ski.

A few times this year, this kind of mount point moving really transformed things into success from semi-flounder, for me (on Katana 191, Bibby Pro 190, Pettitor 191). It's been a record year of really heavy, wet snow here, so first time I've moved things back so far for such a reason.

 

[James]

There's tons of Pivot 18's around. Every park kid wants one. You do need at least a Din of 8 to use them.
Look for whatever bad reason refuses to make the same toe with a lower Din spring. Like they used to. Same with tbe race binding.

 

[Tom K.]

If I buy the exact ski I tried (2017-2018) I can get it for $999 new (no binding).

For gosh sakes, buy the EXACT ski you tried and loved if at all possible. Don't get sucked into what model year it happens to be, esp for a pow ski!

You've been on a fairly involved quest. Don't second guess yourself right at the end of it....

 

[James]

For gosh sakes, buy the EXACT ski you tried and loved if at all possible. Don't get sucked into what model year it happens to be, esp for a pow ski!

You've been on a fairly involved quest. Don't second guess yourself right at the end of it....

Hah, agree.
Well it had a demo binding on it. I'm sure they could have mounted whatever. Let's hope he took note of where the boot midsole mark was on the demo.

 

[ski otter 2]

Man, I'd want it with the exact same binding even, on that exact same ski (from experience).
Maybe lightening can strike twice on the same spot, but.......

 

[Ryan Dietrich]

Skis are bought and paid for!!! They are installing the bindings right now.

Lotus Alchemist 124 / 191cm length
I went with Marker Griffon bindings (every pair of skis I have owned in the last 20 years have had marker, not gonna tempt fate with something I don't understand).
I got the bindings mounted in the same position as the demos.

IT IS DONE! Thank you all for your help! Now let's hope that storm that I keep hearing about for this weekend actually comes through! (it is 55 degrees at my house right now, can't believe they're talking snow again!)