Hi Ron,
How are you feeling? We both will need PT this summer, you for your knee, me for my belly?
.
Skiing with Scott was great. Mt Bachelor is a unique place. The bottom half reminded me of Vermont, with narrow wooded trails of moderate steepness. The Upper half reminded me of Lake Louise, a tree-less ice & snow covered space that is wonderful on a clear & calm day, but un-ski-able on an all-to-common windy & foggy day. April is the time of year to ski Oregon, according to several locals. The scenery is spectacular, as is the quality of life in Bend. Fun!
The Fischer WC SC provided a familiar blend of Fischer characteristics; quick but stable, like the RX8. The ski is also rewarding of clean carve like the WC RC & Scenio S500. Very response to direction changes if you flex the ski and very punishing of any stance that's off center. I was spooked by the power of the ski for several runs.
I spent the first hour making cautious soft-edge linked turns, the ski will skid turns, but it feels like a Porsche in a parking garage. Then Scott & I went to the back side. Caution was no longer a luxury I could afford. I managed to link most of my turns, but I skied with excess concern about tip dive, which would have put me over the handle-bars in an instant. Skiing in snow that was deep & soft enough that floating was reality is really spooky on a 165cm ski, tremendous work also.
Things got way-better as we skied the Northwest section. These runs are great cruisers and were perfect for high "C" clean carved turns. It was fun keeping pace with Scott, he is a great skier and very good company. I eventually was skiing at my normal pace, but with 50% more turns. The ski coach on my feet were making an positive impact. The WC SC perform very well and are surprising stable for such a short ski. Its number one issue is its potential to auger into moguls, a problem most SL skis share. The Flow-flex plate works very well on on variable surfaces, soaking up the choppy afternoon snow. The ski is a keeper for Vermont conditions and will make my cruising less dependant on speed and more driven by clean carve technique.
It was snowing and sleeting on Saturday. Several inches accumulated, and the surface would constantly vary from corduroy to deep untracked snow to wet & soft moguls. Skiing in my normal speed range was really demanding on the 165cm Fischers. I finally demoed some Monster 88's in a 186cm. (I asked for a 182cm Monster 82, but it was being used). The big monsters were great, carving like a GS ski regardless of the sloppy mess underfoot.
The Contact 11 could have covered all the conditions seen at Mt Bachelor very well. The WC SC is far more race oriented, and a fun & challenging addition to the quiver.
Cheers,
Michael