Author Topic: Fischer Progressors and 2 other skis  (Read 262 times)

jbotti

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Fischer Progressors and 2 other skis
« on: January 31, 2008, 02:06:53 pm »
I just bought a pair of these in a 175cm length and I absolutely love them!!!

I am 6 3" 180 lbs (I lost 10 from cycling this past season and I haven't gained it back yet!!)
I don't know my skiing level but I have solid carving skills with decent off piste abilities

Fischer Progressor 175
I first demoed these skis in a 170 cm length (as that is all that was available). I knew instantly that it was a great ski and I also knew instantly that I wanted the 175 cm length. I have skied these exclusively in Montana (where we bought a new home in October). I first started skiing these on excellent corduroy with some very steep sections. My everyday skis are Head Super Shapes which I love, but they are always a little nervous and noisy at GS speeds in wider turns (they still rock in slalom turns). I took the Porgressors into some very steep sections and they may be the most stable skis I have ever been on at speed!! Even better, with a 16m turn radius, these skis will do reasonably short radius turns which on these were incredibly confidence inspiring. On flatter terrain I could carve very short radius turns almost like slalom skis.

I spoke with Fischer Customer service to better understand the "progressive sidecut" which these skis have. The tips to the heel piece of the bindings have a 14m turn radius and from the heel piece of the bindings to the end of the tail it is in the 17-18m range (for a 16m average on the whole ski). This means that the initial engagement on the ski is incredibly quick and tight, but with less sidecut on the tail portion of the ski, the skis are more stable and incredibly fast. For me, this ski has the best of both worlds, the quick engagement that I love in slalom skis and the stability at speed that one finds in a cheater GS ski.

2 days later I took these into 6-8 inches of fresh snow on top of 2 feet of chopped up snow (about a week old) which had gotten some wind buff. Wow, again these skis absolutely rock. I wouldn't say that they have incredible float and in 2 feet of fresh I would select a fatter ski, but these are incredible crud skis!!! They felt like bull dozer's especially when they are on edge. The are so easy to carve, that this was the best and recommended technique to ski in this kind of chop. I think these skis would be awesome in up to 12-15 inches of fresh, and even better later in the day after it gets skied out. I would go as far to say that these skis have made me a better skier in that they allow me to use my carving skills in what typically can be non carving situations. Usually in chop on fat skis, I brush carve everything and I rarely engage the tails in a full bore edge lock carves. These skis go on edge so easy that you will want to carve the crud and they are so stable you won't be wishing you were on (in my case) my IM 88's or my Fischer Atua's. In fact I was thrilled that I wasn't on either of those skis!!

This is now my favorite ski, for a variety of different conditions (and I have been a huge Head SS fan since they came out). Some of this can be attributed to the fact that I am skiing mostly in Montana now, and there is no one on the slopes. Skiing at very fast speeds is not dangerous here as it is at Squaw on a day with 15,000 people on the mountain.

Fischer RC4 RC's 180

I skied this ski at Squaw on 2 different days and the conditions were very poor. They had gotten 2 feet of snow a week before and the 3 days before I arrived it had rained. The groomed terrain was granular at best and boiler plate and ice elsewhere. Off Piste it was pretty much pure ice with an occasional patch of very skiable granular powder ( for lack of a better description) when the ice would get broken through or melt through with some very skiable stuff underneath).

I didn't love these skis. They were nice carving skis but lacked the quick tip engagement of the Progressors and they actually didn't feel as stable at speed. I could not carve turns nearly as tight (but the snow had something to do with this as it was perfect in MT and mainly ice in Tahoe). Edge hold was solid to excellent. Off Piste, they were very much the wrong skis for the conditions. On bumped up ice with no uniformity to the surface these skis just chattered and deflected (which they most certainly do not do on uniform groomed terrain even if it is ice).

Let me say in advance that I have been on these skis before in better conditions and I liked them much better. I also did not ski the progressors at Squaw so no side by side comparison was made under the same conditions.

Fischer Big Heat 184

These are big burly boys. Whereas the RC's were the wrong skis for the ugly off piste conditions at Squaw, these were the perfect skis for the conditions. These are burly skis and they just grip the snow. Under chopped up iced conditions these skis did not deflect at all. Edge hold was amazing for a 90mm under foot ski. Carveability was quite strong. They require force and strength and I needed to really tell these skis what to do (off Piste in the ugly conditions), but when I did, they did exactly what I told them to do. This is not a finesse ski (at least not at my ability and weight), but I really liked this ski, so much that I never gave them back to my friend rest of the day (he skied his Rc's).

On groomed terrain they carve really nice for a wide ski, and they have a big. amazingly stable GS feel. Forget about carved SRT's. You can brush carve shorter turns but they are a lot of work and require strength and force rather than finesse or technique.

I did get them in a few sections of that granular powder and they skied wonderfully and were a ton of fun and were easier to ski with finesse.

These skis can fill a big spot in a quiver. I'm sure they slay crud and chop, it apperas that they will ski fresh powder well and float reasonably well. and for any difficult or questionable off piste conditions, these skis are what I would call incredibly dependable (even if they are some work).

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nevils

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Re: Fischer Progressors and 2 other skis
« Reply #1 on: February 06, 2008, 03:10:10 pm »
Very good reviews - makes me want to demo the progressors