Author Topic: 'All-mountain' skis and the occasional skier  (Read 1230 times)

Svend

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Re: 'All-mountain' skis and the occasional skier
« on: January 04, 2012, 05:52:14 pm »
Johnny, depending on how tall and heavy you are, you might get pretty decent float in soft snow on a ski in the mid-80's width.  We had an interesting discussion here about that topic -- ski width and skier weight -- a few months ago in the "Skis 4 Me" section, when I asked the question whether my wife, at 5'7" and 130 lbs, needs a wider ski than her present 85mm ones for float in powder.  Check it out....

Also, in my experience, a lot of how a ski behaves in soft snow seems to depend on how stiff or soft the tips of the skis are.  I have skied models with similar or even identical sidecut dimensions, and those with the softer tips seem to float and go over soft snow and bumps much better than those with stiff tips.  The latter just seem to trench, making them less versatile.  Eg.  I have skied my Progressor 9+, at 70mm underfoot, many times in soft spring snow (not quite mush), and they are just brilliant in that; whereas my previous model RC4 Progressor (same sidecut, but much stiffer tips) were terrible in that stuff.  Something to keep in mind if you're faced with limited choice in the rental shops.

Cheers, and welcome to the forum.  Nice to someone from overseas here, to add a different perspective.

Svend