Sunday 1/21

[C1erArt]

One of those days I wished I switched over to Blue. Conditions were good, but there was a race on Challenge, so it and the glade was closed. Got to east mountain right at eight and found

Already closed for the race team practice.

 

Skied River Shot until they started the second lift about 9:30, then with both lifts feeding one slope it became downright dangerous. The only other black slope, t-bolt, was packed too. Decided to call it a day.

 

On a brighter note, my new Bluetooth tunes controller seems to work better than my old Square Jellyfish. Had to put some gel epoxy on the buttons so it would work with my gloves.

 

[RidgeRacer]

How did they think that was a good idea?

[toast21602]

Razors was closed all weekend for a race. I know how you feel. At least the rest of Blue was open.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Aren't you closer to Blue than JF???  You should switch to blue!!!  

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

 

How was Floyds?

[C1erArt]

 
How was Floyds?

The race team seemed to be having fun on it.

[JFskiDan]

4 hours ago, C1erArt said:

 

One of those days I wished I switched over to Blue. Conditions were good, but there was a race on Challenge, so it and the glade was closed. Got to east mountain right at eight and found

Already closed for the race team practice.

This is what ended my years of being a season pass holder there. At first they closed telstar and solitude with floyds, and also challange. Frost is too small to close all that terrain at once.

[eaf]

Well, that was our initial WTF feeling when we found at 8am that the lodge was almost full with racers and their families. That combined with the Subaru event was a solid sign that during the day the crowds would be unbearable. But luckily things turned out to be way brighter.

The snow was fine all day long except for perhaps 12pm-1:30pm timeframe when it suddenly became sticky. It was so noticeable to us because we stopped for a lunch at about 12pm, and after we came out all of our skis had trouble going. At about 1:30pm things started to get better, but we really had to pack and leave at 2pm, so never really got a chance of skiing that late afternoon snow.

Demo program was great. We've been a group of three, all having boots with the same BSL, so in the morning we just grabbed three pairs that we were most interested in and kept swapping them with each other. There were mostly Navigators and Enforcers of different sizes available, and a lonely GT 80 TI. We were able to change our set once at about 11am, but later at noon there were no skis left so "early bird gets the worm" couldn't describe the situation any better. Granted, at 2pm everything was back in stock again.

I've started on Enforcers 185/100 after having heard at Shawnee the stories of a guy who loved them so much that he had two sets of them. Well, to me they skied as if my feet just lost all sensitivity. Like a cruiser when you can't feel the road at all. Is this as hard as I can push them? Are they about to skid? I never had any idea of what was going on or was about to happen. Yeah, they held and felt safe, but I just didn't like the sensation of a complete isolation from the snow.

My daughter was on Navigator 172/85, and she hated them. That was quite unexpected because she liked 172/80 on BM a lot. Then my friend got on 172/85 as well and didn't like them either, again after having tried 172/80 at JF. Bewildered we repeatedly swapped 172/80 and 172/85, trying them back to back a few times, checked their flex and edges and eventually blamed the difference on sharpening issues. 172/85 edges were extremely sharp end to end. The skis just wouldn't allow you to ski them flat, they'd continuously catch an edge - something that my daughter hated. And once on the edge they'd take you for a ride on a curve they wanted to go on - that's what my friend wasn't fond of. Both of them were pleased with a 172/80 variant that had its ends detuned. And that just shows how unreliable demoing can be. You think you're testing the ski, but in reality you're testing their tuning job.

The racing was going on all this time on Challenge and farther east. It never bothered us. We kept on looping T-Bolt and the adjacent blues on Nordicas. I didn't even get a chance to ride my SLs once. In the end we've each tried Navigators 172/80, 172/85, 179/90, Enforcers 168/93, 185/100, and GT 80 TI 168/80... My daughter was impossible to sway from her own Elan Insomnias, she found Navigators 172/80 marginally better, but really didn't like the rest a lot. My favorites were definitely Navigator 179/90. They could ride through the afternoon crud effortlessly, and yet did not feel so dead as Enforcers 185/100. I can easily see how they could be my daily skis, fun to carve, reliable feedback, hold well. Alas, the weather wasn't really the best, no ice anywhere, so I have no idea how they'd behave on ice. The friend somehow liked GT 80 TI. I was already tired by the time when we got on them, and remember the feeling of good carving skis, but perhaps it was their shorter length or stiffer construction, I just felt the crud more on them, and so for me the Navigators 185/90 provided a better balance of performance and comfort.

All in all, extremely fun and busy day, snow was just OK and borderline bad around noon, but that didn't spoil demoing a little bit.

[toast21602]

Omg.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[saltyant]

50 minutes ago, eaf said:

Well, that was our initial WTF feeling when we found at 8am that the lodge was almost full with racers and their families. That combined with the Subaru event was a solid sign that during the day the crowds would be unbearable. But luckily things turned out to be way brighter.

The snow was fine all day long except for perhaps 12pm-1:30pm timeframe when it suddenly became sticky. It was so noticeable to us because we stopped for a lunch at about 12pm, and after we came out all of our skis had trouble going. At about 1:30pm things started to get better, but we really had to pack and leave at 2pm, so never really got a chance of skiing that late afternoon snow.

Demo program was great. We've been a group of three, all having boots with the same BSL, so in the morning we just grabbed three pairs that we were most interested in and kept swapping them with each other. There were mostly Navigators and Enforcers of different sizes available, and a lonely GT 80 TI. We were able to change our set once at about 11am, but later at noon there were no skis left so "early bird gets the worm" couldn't describe the situation any better. Granted, at 2pm everything was back in stock again.

I've started on Enforcers 185/100 after having heard at Shawnee the stories of a guy who loved them so much that he had two sets of them. Well, to me they skied as if my feet just lost all sensitivity. Like a cruiser when you can't feel the road at all. Is this as hard as I can push them? Are they about to skid? I never had any idea of what was going on or was about to happen. Yeah, they held and felt safe, but I just didn't like the sensation of a complete isolation from the snow.

My daughter was on Navigator 172/85, and she hated them. That was quite unexpected because she liked 172/80 on BM a lot. Then my friend got on 172/85 as well and didn't like them either, again after having tried 172/80 at JF. Bewildered we repeatedly swapped 172/80 and 172/85, trying them back to back a few times, checked their flex and edges and eventually blamed the difference on sharpening issues. 172/85 edges were extremely sharp end to end. The skis just wouldn't allow you to ski them flat, they'd continuously catch an edge - something that my daughter hated. And once on the edge they'd take you for a ride on a curve they wanted to go on - that's what my friend wasn't fond of. Both of them were pleased with a 172/80 variant that had its ends detuned. And that just shows how unreliable demoing can be. You think you're testing the ski, but in reality you're testing their tuning job.

The racing was going on all this time on Challenge and farther east. It never bothered us. We kept on looping T-Bolt and the adjacent blues on Nordicas. I didn't even get a chance to ride my SLs once. In the end we've each tried Navigators 172/80, 172/85, 179/90, Enforcers 168/93, 185/100, and GT 80 TI 168/80... My daughter was impossible to sway from her own Elan Insomnias, she found Navigators 172/80 marginally better, but really didn't like the rest a lot. My favorites were definitely Navigator 179/90. They could ride through the afternoon crud effortlessly, and yet did not feel so dead as Enforcers 185/100. I can easily see how they could be my daily skis, fun to carve, reliable feedback, hold well. Alas, the weather wasn't really the best, no ice anywhere, so I have no idea how they'd behave on ice. The friend somehow liked GT 80 TI. I was already tired by the time when we got on them, and remember the feeling of good carving skis, but perhaps it was their shorter length or stiffer construction, I just felt the crud more on them, and so for me the Navigators 185/90 provided a better balance of performance and comfort.

All in all, extremely fun and busy day, snow was just OK and borderline bad around noon, but that didn't spoil demoing a little bit.

RTMs are also a good option.

[eaf]

48 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

Omg

What's that?

Yeah, I was trying to organize my thoughts while I was typing. The process was kind of chaotic, and in no way scientific. It was fun comparing notes all the time and seeing how different people were viewing the same ski differently. Take that weird 172/85 for instance. I personally liked it, but neither my daughter nor friend were fond of it. And IDK why. They're both lighter than me, so perhaps the extra grip was working against them.

But anyway, I'm done with trying new Nordicas now, and perhaps will indeed get on the controversial RTMs at CB next month.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

1 hour ago, eaf said:

Well, that was our initial WTF feeling when we found at 8am that the lodge was almost full with racers and their families. That combined with the Subaru event was a solid sign that during the day the crowds would be unbearable. But luckily things turned out to be way brighter.

The snow was fine all day long except for perhaps 12pm-1:30pm timeframe when it suddenly became sticky. It was so noticeable to us because we stopped for a lunch at about 12pm, and after we came out all of our skis had trouble going. At about 1:30pm things started to get better, but we really had to pack and leave at 2pm, so never really got a chance of skiing that late afternoon snow.

Demo program was great. We've been a group of three, all having boots with the same BSL, so in the morning we just grabbed three pairs that we were most interested in and kept swapping them with each other. There were mostly Navigators and Enforcers of different sizes available, and a lonely GT 80 TI. We were able to change our set once at about 11am, but later at noon there were no skis left so "early bird gets the worm" couldn't describe the situation any better. Granted, at 2pm everything was back in stock again.

I've started on Enforcers 185/100 after having heard at Shawnee the stories of a guy who loved them so much that he had two sets of them. Well, to me they skied as if my feet just lost all sensitivity. Like a cruiser when you can't feel the road at all. Is this as hard as I can push them? Are they about to skid? I never had any idea of what was going on or was about to happen. Yeah, they held and felt safe, but I just didn't like the sensation of a complete isolation from the snow.

My daughter was on Navigator 172/85, and she hated them. That was quite unexpected because she liked 172/80 on BM a lot. Then my friend got on 172/85 as well and didn't like them either, again after having tried 172/80 at JF. Bewildered we repeatedly swapped 172/80 and 172/85, trying them back to back a few times, checked their flex and edges and eventually blamed the difference on sharpening issues. 172/85 edges were extremely sharp end to end. The skis just wouldn't allow you to ski them flat, they'd continuously catch an edge - something that my daughter hated. And once on the edge they'd take you for a ride on a curve they wanted to go on - that's what my friend wasn't fond of. Both of them were pleased with a 172/80 variant that had its ends detuned. And that just shows how unreliable demoing can be. You think you're testing the ski, but in reality you're testing their tuning job.

The racing was going on all this time on Challenge and farther east. It never bothered us. We kept on looping T-Bolt and the adjacent blues on Nordicas. I didn't even get a chance to ride my SLs once. In the end we've each tried Navigators 172/80, 172/85, 179/90, Enforcers 168/93, 185/100, and GT 80 TI 168/80... My daughter was impossible to sway from her own Elan Insomnias, she found Navigators 172/80 marginally better, but really didn't like the rest a lot. My favorites were definitely Navigator 179/90. They could ride through the afternoon crud effortlessly, and yet did not feel so dead as Enforcers 185/100. I can easily see how they could be my daily skis, fun to carve, reliable feedback, hold well. Alas, the weather wasn't really the best, no ice anywhere, so I have no idea how they'd behave on ice. The friend somehow liked GT 80 TI. I was already tired by the time when we got on them, and remember the feeling of good carving skis, but perhaps it was their shorter length or stiffer construction, I just felt the crud more on them, and so for me the Navigators 185/90 provided a better balance of performance and comfort.

All in all, extremely fun and busy day, snow was just OK and borderline bad around noon, but that didn't spoil demoing a little bit.

Nice report.  How old is your daughter??  Maybe fix her up with Salty!!!  

[eaf]

9 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Nice report.  How old is your daughter??  Maybe fix her up with Salty!!!  

Nah, she'll be a poor company for him anyway. I fear she's gonna quit skiing, as her mind is getting more and more obsessed with horses. And that's just too bad because she's quite good at it.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

15 minutes ago, eaf said:

Nah, she'll be a poor company for him anyway. I fear she's gonna quit skiing, as her mind is getting more and more obsessed with horses. And that's just too bad because she's quite good at it.

White girls love horses..they're a money pit..I'd buy her a train set instead..

[C1erArt]

On ‎1‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 3:51 PM, eaf said:

checked their flex and edges and eventually blamed the difference on sharpening issues. 172/85 edges were extremely sharp end to end. The skis just wouldn't allow you to ski them flat, they'd continuously catch an edge

So much depends when demoing on the tune.  If they sharpen the side edge, and don't polish the bottom edge, they can develop a hanging burr that will tend to have the ski rail (get stuck going straight or catch an edge). Also, if you are used to a ski with a detuned tip and tail they can also be hard to initiate a turn and tend to catch edges. If they don't have the right wax, the skis can feel like slugs.

My daughter would ski with us, but got into soccer, and that got to be an all year thing.

Edited January 22, 2018 by C1erArt