That is a pretty awesome snow stowe report, Dan. What skis did Josh and Epic get you on and did you see the wisdom of their equipment choices in Stowe Powder??
I should probably start by saying I loooove my Head Monsters, and compare pretty much every other non-groomer ski to them. I have no clue what my skiing looks like on them (unconscionable for somebody who posts on the PMTS forum, I know), but they feel awesome and make me happy. I showed up with my Monster iM78's, and tried 3 other skis:
1) Josh's Rossignol Sickles--I didn't get on well with these. I couldn't seem to feel the tips, and started sitting back to avoid the tip-bury/double-eject routine. Josh assured me that wouldn't happen and it was safe to get forward on them, but the lack of feedback from the tips weirded me out and we were too busy running for me to want to spend time slowing down and trying to figure them out. I gave these back pretty quickly.
2) epic's Kaestle FX94's--I liked these a lot. The dimensions felt great to me, I found the tips immediately, and they gave me just enough extra float that it made our couple forays into the trees noticeably easier. The only thing more I could've wanted from these was a slightly softer/damper tip like the Monsters have. Otherwise, they were awesome.
3) Josh's Blizzard Magnum 8.5's--he switched to these in the afternoon, and I tried them out briefly. They felt like I might've liked them more on groomers, with a flex pattern that seemed pretty stiff and uniform from end to end. I like a more progressive flex pattern in general, and especially off-piste, so these didn't really do it for me. They had very good edge grip in the scraped off sections, though.
I don't get to try out that many skis, so it was really cool to get on some different stuff and see what it's like. I think my next pair of skis will still be the Head RnR, but I'm feeling really good about that size after trying out the FX94. What're the tips like on yours, Liam? Do they have that damp Monster feel to them?
By the way, I really hope the mods here will extend a reinstatement to Josh on this site. The guy takes strangers through his hard earned 'secret stashes', to me, that overrides all forum posting issues. And, it really has gotten pretty stale around here lately and more insular than ever.
Agreed.
How big of a gang showed up for the pmts get together weekend??
It was a small crew this year--we had 6 actually make it. We lost 5 people in the 3-4 days leading up to the event, due to last-minute work conflicts that seemed to catch a bunch of people this year. We lost a couple more due to weather-related stuff. The smaller group made logistics a bit easier though, which wasn't bad, given how many people showed up at Sugarbush for the weekend. Finding a spot big enough to fit everybody for lunch has been really hard the past couple years, and it was cool to be able to get everybody at one table.
Next year, we're going to Maine. I was bribed with the promise of lobster, therefore pre-empting any further discussion.
I'm definitely keeping Stowe in mind for future years though, especially if the event sees some reliable growth that'll make the group ticket thing easily achievable in advance.