I took these out today and skied at Northstar (my first time ever at Northstar). . I was hoping for something like the IM 78. I skied the 179 length. It does have that glued to the snow feel that a race skis has, but I can bend a full on race room GS ski as much or more than I could bend this ski. It has an 18 m TR and I couldn?t seem to tighten it very much. It was reasonably quick edge to edge it would do reasonably quick slalom flushes (with wider arcs than a slalom ski). It was actually OK off piste, just a tad too stiff for my taste, but actually pretty skiable (especially in the Dodge boots). I could see a 220lb ex WC racer loving this ski and having it as his everyday, all mountain ski. It is not nearly as stiff in the tips as some of the Nordicas I have skied in the past or the steel tipped AC 50 other big mountain "carving skis" from Volkl. In Montana I would most likley like this ski better (or even in Tahoe wth better conditions). It was 6-8 incjes of skied off snow from Saturday and Sunday on top of a Tahoe melt and freeze cycle that lasted the past several weeks (that means bolierplate). The conditions were not ideal for beiing real agressive and for bending skis in edge lock carves. In general this is a nicely made ski, probablly a ilttle stiff for most. Off piste it handles well, and I was able to ski bumps with it reasonably well, you just could not relax in the bumps because the ski is stiff. In great/ hero conditions, this ski could be pretty fun.
Now for my review of Northstar: Phil, you need to buy a pass at Squaw next year!!
Fun little mountain, but no real terrain of any sort. There is some tree skiing on the back side and some of it has some pitch. Beyond that it is a cruiser dark green, light blue and blue mountain. For a non holiday monday it was way more crowded than midweek days at Squaw and the quality of the average skier is way below what you see at Squaw (which means that sking around them is harder and they are not predictable). We did find some fun stuff to ski, but I would find it very diddicult to head there on a powder day knowing I could be skiing Squaw.
Having said all that, it was fun day!!