Thanks Mike. If I ever figure out a way to review skis and get paid for it, I'm not telling! I'm keeping that little secret to myself. Pfftttt........ (insert sound of raspberry being blown)
You would like the Outland. It may not have the solid, dependable feel of your Sultan 94's or my Mythics (which have very similar characters), but for that the Outland is significantly lighter in feel underfoot and in real grams. Still, it is very stable in crud and is not easily pushed around, and certainly strong enough to hold me (at 220 lbs) on a steep cruddy slope. The sidecut at the tip doesn't seem to start until well back along the edge, so I can imagine it would be easy to handle in deeper snow and not the least bit hooky. These would be a great replacement for my Mythics, as they are an improvement over those in many ways, edge grip on hard snow being the most dramatic.
I liked the Atomics too, but unless it was just a weird tune that put me off and I could re-tune to make them less grabby in the crud, they were simply not versatile enough for what I am looking for. If a re-tune couldn't change their character, then IMO, they are just too front-side groomer oriented for my taste. In mixed snow (pushed around and wind blown piles, interspersed with icy patches) they were a handful and needed a lot of attention. An interesting comment from the guy who owned those and who swapped for my Mythics on that one run, was that he felt the Mythics handled the crud far better than his Atomics and that he really liked them there. OTOH, on the lower part of the run, being a smooth groomer, the Atomics ruled with their superior edge grip and smooth high speed stability. FWIW, the run that these were skied on was at Sunshine: Goat's Eye Express chair; Upper Afterburner (groomed) to Gold Afterburner (ungroomed) to Sunshine Coast (groomed) (
http://www.skibanff.com/sunshine-village/trail-maps/goats_eye_mountain.jpg)
The Outland seems to offer a bit of the best of both worlds -- very good crud and off-piste performance, and very good edge grip on hard snow, while having a nice smooth feel underfoot and plenty of power for speed addicts. I would love to have tried it in a 184.
Let us know if you get to demo either of these.
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