Ski Demo event at Loveland this Saturday

[mikel]

Nope. I stopped in. Skied the the VMT 92

 

[Ken_R]

You guys passed the Liberty tent? Tisk tisk.

Yep, it was next to the Kestle tent I think. I kept taking out Kestles, hard not to, too tempting

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

Yep, it was next to the Kestle tent I think. I kept taking out Kestles, hard not to, too tempting

Next time stop at Liberty. I wasn’t on a ski of theirs last season that didn’t leave a smile on my face. The VMT series is smooth, stable, secure and fast all over the mountain. Can’t say they same for the K skis.

 

[Mike King]

My test fleet:

Kastle RX12 GS -- This is a nice ski, but as it was the first two runs of my season, I spent my time basically trying to find the center of the ski. So not a fair test.
Kastle MX89 180 -- This is a very good ski. Very versatile. I love the fact that it is a traditional full cambered ski -- very predictable, stable, and rewards working the ski from tip to tail.
Kastle MX99 176 -- This is a lot of ski and it showed me how slow these wider skis are edge to edge. I don't think the conditions at Loveland were suited to the width of the ski, and, frankly, I don't really like early rise in a ski on groomed slopes. That being said, I thought there was a fair amount of potential here, but this is a ski for someone who is going to drive it -- it isn't a finesse ski.
Rossignol Hero Elite Plus TI 167 -- this was a great ski and very suited to the terrain and snow conditions. It is a 78 underfoot slalom cut ski. Tip it and rip it! Very impressed. But not the best ski of the pack.
Rossignol Hero Elite ST Ti 167 -- I absolutely loved this ski. It is incredibly easy to ski. Tip it, bend it, and it will redirect you in a flash. 68 under foot. While I already have a slalom ski, this one has me thinking about buying another.
Head Supershape i.Rally 170 -- nice ski, but I liked the Rossi Hero Elite Plus better.

Fun day!

 

[Noodler]

You guys passed the Liberty tent? Tisk tisk.

Not enough hours in the day or strength in my legs (at this point). Not only did I miss Liberty, but also Blizzard, Atomic, and Volkl (skis I really wanted to get on also).

 

[Ron]

you need to ski a VMT. There's a reason why they are getting a lot of attention, everything @Drahtguy Kevin (aka gold bond boy) said AND at half the price of Kastle, The 82VMT is a poor skiers Laser AX.

 

[Ken_R]

you need to ski a VMT. There's a reason why they are getting a lot of attention, everything @Drahtguy Kevin (aka gold bond boy) said AND at half the price of Kastle, The 82VMT is a poor skiers Laser AX.

Next demo I am going to test about 5 of their skis for sure.

 

[Tricia]

You guys passed the Liberty tent? Tisk tisk.

X2

Nope. I stopped in. Skied the the VMT 92

And???

Next time stop at Liberty. I wasn’t on a ski of theirs last season that didn’t leave a smile on my face. The VMT series is smooth, stable, secure and fast all over the mountain. Can’t say they same for the K skis.

X2

you need to ski a VMT. There's a reason why they are getting a lot of attention, everything @Drahtguy Kevin (aka gold bond boy) said AND at half the price of Kastle, The 82VMT is a poor skiers Laser AX.

X3

For more info...

 

[cantunamunch]

Kastle RX12 GS -- This is a nice ski, but as it was the first two runs of my season, I spent my time basically trying to find the center of the ski. So not a fair test.

IMO, on a GS ski, this statement is a review in itself.

Still, you're right to note the importance of normalizing to a known ski before jumping to the unknown.

 

[Mike King]

IMO, on a GS ski, this statement is a review in itself.

Still, you're right to note the importance of normalizing to a known ski before jumping to the unknown.

@cantunamunch, The fault lay in my own skiing, not the ski's performance, I think. Perhaps the ski highlighted those issues. I have the previous iteration of this ski and ski it somewhat regularly. The two runs I took on this ski, however, were the very first turns I've taken this season. I found that I had reverted to some of my previous predilections, such as being to far forward on the ski and attempting to bend the ski by levering off of the front of the boot. I was also dumping inside and failing to direct sufficient pressure to the outside ski. It's not surprising that 6 months away from skiing caused issues with duration, intensity, rate, and timing of my movements. That's why I said it was an unfair test of the ski.

When I went to the MX89, a far less demanding ski, I was able to progress my movement patterns and get more performance out of the ski. I continued to work on those and by the time I came back to a much higher performance ski, the movement patterns were far more consistent and appropriate and why the narrow slalom ski was so much fun. While I love skiing deep powder in steep terrain, there's nothing like arc to arc skiing in medium and short radius turns.

Mike

 

[mikel]

And???

Well I didn't get on them until later in the day so my early season legs were already beat. I chose the 92 to compare against my Z90s. I wish the sizing was a bit different for the Origin and the VMT. I would have preferred the Origin in a 179 and the VMT in a 176. But that's just me. I skied the VMT 92 in a 179. My Z90s are 174s. I had a few moments where we didn't get along. In some of my slower short turns they didn't like my input and pushed back so I tried to force the issue and they pushed back even harder. I was definitely about to go for a ride if I didn't relax. It seemed like they wanted to go fast and they wanted to be on edge. This was later confirmed when I brought the ski back and I went thru the debrief on how I liked the skis. I'm not so sure the VMT would be the best choice if you slarve, skid, or heel push your turns a lot. As noted by others, the conditions changed as the day progressed and some runs became scraped off. Get the VMT's on edge and they just hold right thru the turn without issue regardless of the snow conditions. They definitely have energy coming out of the turn. They can rail. I didn't take them off piste. Too tired to risk the trees.

Overall I liked them. Liberty has been in Copper's demo fleet for a couple of seasons now. I'm not sure if the VMT 92 was added but if it is I would be willing to spend a day getting a better feeling for their performance.