A little bit more detail, now that I'm back and have Internet access again.
Powder:? In powder I've always struggled with balance in all dimensions. Fore and aft, laterally in getting equal pressure on each foot, and especially when skiing unbroken snow and crossing anothers trail.? We skied Game Creek Bowl at Vail (blues on one side, blacks on the other) after 14" the night before and about 40" for the week, and it had been windy so some places I couldn't find bottom with my poles and others were a bit windswept.? I was SO surprised by the UC's in this arena.? It was almost like skiing on a groomed surface.? No balance problems, no changes in speed as I would cross another's ski trail, and I could just tip and turn.? Absolutely amazed at "how good a skier I'd become."? And this is one of the reasons that my review is more focused on the effect on me as the skier rather than the ski itself.? I don't know what about the ski creates it, but in the conditions I was most wanting to improve it was just awesome.
An example.? There was a 3' snow shelf/drift that the wind had created in the lee of a bush (black trail) and I was across the hill from it.? Initially I assumed there was probably a buried log under it until I saw another skier go over it.? So I got my courage up and decided to ski into the shelf from below it, fully expecting to stuff myself into the snow.? It was a piece of cake! I built up some speed as I crossed under it, and just skied into the bottom of the shelf.? I went up the shelf, made a left turn, and skied back off the shelf.? No balance issues, no stability issues, just a little bit of adjustment as the ski tilted up and powered through the snow.? And there wasn't even any sense of suddenly slowing down or anything.? Just as smooth and supple as could be.
I found the same behavior later in the trees.? When Lynn and I ski the trees, there are usually lines already packed down through the trees.? Due to my desire not to ski all that fast, I would usually like to make bigger and more turns than the existing lines, but skiing across an other's line has the same problem as in powder, acceleration as you come out of the powder followed by a deceleration as you cross the packed snow and back into powder.? The Ullr's Chariots eliminated this - more consistent speed and no acceleration/deceleration. It's difficult to explain how smooth and supple the ride is, and how much easier it is to make the turns from atop the snow. It's also hard to believe how much faster I was skiing in both chopped up powder and trees.
Similarly, I did bumps astoundingly better. I don't really have a bump technique other than not to go too fast. I drift down some, I turn in the troughs some, I turn on the top of the bump some. In the past I would often take a wild pony ride across the hill while I get the speed under control. With the UC's, I got to the bottom of the hill faster with MUCH more control (and I haven't the foggiest idea why). And a couple of these were on near 30 degree slopes on the front face at Vail that were pretty intimidating.? This was probably the first time that I was EVER able to consistently make better progress on a bump slope than Lynn and stay under control (and that's not the result of any change in my skier skill).
The biggest negative that I noted was a tendency to have my weight on the inside foot. I think I get lazy and initiate the turn with my feet and then counter with my body as I drop more into the fall line. That works with the SuperShapes, with the UC's I found myself inside ski heavy every now and again, and I started trying to pay more attention to getting more weight over the outside ski at turn initiation. The recovery, however, was easy.? Just relax the inside leg and extend the outside leg and the skis come back together. (just like at camp).
Comments about the skis. They definitely don't feel stiff when on the snow. The words I would use are probably "supple but always in contact with the snow". They have considerable camber built in, so I guess that just flattening them on the snow loads the tip and tail. Even at 20 mph or more (enough that I was at the upper edge of my comfort zone) on trails that were covered in texture from having the powder skied off all day, they always stayed in touch with the snow and never deflected or did anything other than just track true even though it was a pretty bumpy ride. The Watea 84's would not have handled this terrain (and I wouldn't normally try to ski that kind of snow that fast). I never had any concerns with stability or wanting more length. Never felt any deflection in ski when skiing crud or hitting piles of powder, no matter whether I hit it while turning or just coasting over the top of it.?
I was skiing them one notch forward on the Power Rails, will play around with that some to see where I like them. Obviously, you have to be comfortable with a lot of sidecut. The Ullr's Chariots have 44mm difference between tip and waist (145-101-xxx) and while that's less than the 51mm on my SuperShape Magnums (122-71-xxx) its still a small turn radius. It worked very well for me.
Overall. I wanted a ski that would be a one ski quiver for western skiing, but never in my wildest dreams did I think one ski would make me that much better in so many different ways and terrain.