That 105 is amazingly adaptive. It almost seemed to morph to the conditions I was skiing on. The biggest surprise was on the hardpack where I thought the soft tip would flap and the wide ski would not grip well. At SIA, I tested the 105 mounted at the recommended point, I hated the ski, I mean hated the ski. Mounted at +2.5 this ski was superb. At this point you have a lot of control over the shovel of the ski allowing you work the edges and shovels for carving and bumps/varied terrain (edge-to-edge and pushing the tips down in bumps and troughs). The tail is actually fairly firm and has a nice turn up. It was very easy to work as well when on steeper terrain to either leave in the turn or to release and drift. We were on Storm Peak north (a black) with about 4" of wind affected dense snow with very hard frozen underneath (not groomed) the 105 made this very easy to ski. The dampness was very effective with the management of the soft/hard/rockhard snow in each turn. On the hard stuff it has excellent grip and was incredibly damp instilling confidence to ski faster and harder. On the soft spring snow the 16.5 TR was absolutely a blast to rip out super short radius carved turns. You can feel the entire ski hookup underfoot and skiing cross-under, when releasing he edges and retracting the feet was stupid-easy-fun! Such energy! I could ski with less effort and input. In the 8plus inches of more dense snow in the trees, they were a bit more work than the DPS's but once you adjusted for a flat tail, the turns were precise and predictable. A trait you want in the trees. These will be my every day ski next season. Something I can take to Copper and A-basin and ski steeps and more technical lines with confidence. They were fine in soft bumps too. With the nice sidecut and flat tail they were easy to ski. I didn't really take them into firm bumps but on the soft and crudded up piles (2-3') they were more than adequate. No ski is perfect so you have to find the one that best meets the conditions at hand. The 105 is one of those ski's for western soft snow skiing. Phil has some left at a amazing price of 359.00 shipped
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