volkl mantra

This thread has a lot of great advice. I like it.

snp, if you haven't cut those skins yet, don't. I don't know who recommended a 110 skin for a ski 130 at the tip, but it definately wasn't someone who skins much. Total coverage (except the edges) is what you want. 20mm of exposure may not sound like much, but when you're following a steep track , even the tiniest bit of exposed base is a liability, especially when you're side-hilling on harder surface. Going wider is no compromise.

There are a number of us that have mounted Freerides on the Mantra. Its a combination that works pretty well because the Mantra is reasonably light. I think there is a point of diminishing returns setting up a long ski for touring. If I had unlimited funds, I would ski the 191 with alpine bindings and keep the shorter pair, with freerides exclusively for touring. That said, my experience on the 184 is all over the place here. I couldn't be happier. For powder, the 130 mm shovel prevents dive, and the 94 mm waist maintains a fun amount of float. I like skiing in the snow and taking face shots, so a wider waist is not a priority for me. The skis have functioned very well on softer groomed conditions, and are tolerable on true ice and coral reef conditions, but as conditions get firmer, I am more likely to be on something else.

If you are planning to really ski hard inbounds with lhuge air, do yourself a favor and mount skis with conventional 14 or 18 DIN bindings appropriate to that use. The Mantra will do fine. If you plan to do a lot of touring off-resort, or backcountry, you will need to make some accomodation for the AT bindings. Freerides take abuse, but I suspect will have a failure point that doesn't apply to dedicated alpine or race bindings. Personally I have not had a problem, but I probably don't air as much as some here. Anyway, the limitation (if any) is in the binding.

The 110 is fine and 120s would have given full coverage. This is only 2.5 cm (one inch) in length at the widest part of the ski that has a few extra millimeters of base exposed. The remaining ski is fully covered except for the edge. When you consider we purposely leave 5 mm/side uncovered to expose the edges, this small exposure of base at the tip is truely insignificant for traction. The widest part of the Mantra shovel isn't even in contact with a skin track, it is in the upward cured part of the tip.

I'd just like to say that my 184 Mantra's arrived the other day and are being prominently displayed against the wall in my basement (for now). They will see snow for the first time in Tahoe this January. Thanks to all in this thread and others related for helping me with my first "big ski" choice. Y'all rock!

Basement??? Are you ashamed of them? Mine would be in the living room.

Living Room... so the dog can eat them?

Ok then...the bedroom.

No good. Ya gotta sleep with em...under the covers..in the middle.

Hey, I could've just left them at the shop until the bindings came but I wanted these babies at home under my watchful eye. Don't misunderstand, their location in the basement is a heavy traffic area but safe from bolting cats and a dog. Sleep with em though? No, no, that's not necessary. Skichick70 has that base covered just fine! Now lets see some damn snow in the Sierras, okay?

Oh, so there is a surveillance camera on them, with a link to your work, cellphone....

hey guys...
thought you might like to know that I picked up my sweet new 184 mantra's w/freeride tonight....now time to get these puppies into the BC mtns....
thanx for your help - look forward to trading stories on the forum.
Cheers, Mjollnir

At least you have snow! Welcome to the forum. Be sure to post back on your experience, and don't forget the pics. Have a great time, and be safe out there.

How would the Mantra do for someone like me:
6'2" 160Lbs 16 yrs old
I can ski anything you throw at me. My current ski is a 169 Seth Pistol (original), but it is too short for me now.
Is the mantra too burly for a skinny kid like me?

Not to Burly
Due to the fact that you are young and strong, I suspect you would have alot of fun and be able to take your sking to another level with the confidence a 184 or even 191 Mantra would give you. You may even want to take a look at some of the other big mountain skis in the same size range.
Dynastar Legend Pro @186
DynaStar Legend 8800 @188
Blizzard Titan 9 @ 181 or 188
PM Gear Bro Model Soft or Stiff
Fisher Atuea

I think you get the picture.
It would be easy to demo one of these you will know if you like it on your first run.

My Mantras come home to papa this weekend!

Then its off to ski some Cascadian Powder Next week!!!!! (Crystal)

I will post a report on how they skied in a couple weeks.

Can't wait!!!

Wow!!!

Okay, I've finally got to ski em.

I am so happy with the Mantra!

My Stats:
39 yrs old
5' 4" 175 lbs
Level 9 skier

The equipment:

Volkl Mantra (177)
Fritschi Freeride (Shorts)
Garmont Adrenaline (25.5)

Conditions:

20" of Cascadian Pow.
Mount Hood Meadows and Heather Canyon Backcountry

I swallowed my pride and went skiing at Meadows. (Couldn't find any backcountry partners online.) I have an aversion to meadows because its the most overcrowded ski area on hood. Landed first chair. Between 9 and 11, I had fresh untracked every run. Light density compared to normal cascade fresh. But the colorado lifty was complaining that it was too heavy. Whatever buddy.

Later it was the snow was cut up pow. In the afternoon, I met up with a couple guys skinning up a well anchored slope in heather canyon. I don't remember their names, but they had shovel, transceiver, probes, knowledge, and a damn fine already cut skin track traversing up Heather's steep face. (Having watched the avy forecasts very closely, I knew that the new layer had bonded well with the old strong layer beneath.) So, I ahem, ducked the rope and joined these fine adventurers for a little backcountry powder turning.

Now for the ski.

This is the best ski I have ever skied on! If this is hard to ski then I wonder how amazingly fun the gotama is. Granted I have little experience with fat skis. My previous ski is the K2 Axis x pro.

They performed admirably and easily in both pow and crud. The steeper it got the better they skied. (Of course with high water density powder you need that steepness.) The float and turn initiation was almost effortless in the deep stuff. And the crud did not exist. This ski just skied through crud effortlessly, as if it didn't even exist and the snow was still one smooth and beautiful blank slate.

I was able to ski trees with ease and make big gs style powder turns when the slopes opened up. I could even give it quite alot of speed. Contrary to what magazine reviewers have stated. In fact, in crud, speed did not affect its handling and stability.

Now as far as Jim S. is concerned. Yes, the 184 prolly skis the straightline more stably. but the 177 is a do all soft snow ski. I could initiate and turn without being locked in to the turn radius by the ski. It would release my turns so I could control the turn radii. Not the other way around. That's definitely not squirrelly in my book. (Yes, I know you are 8 inches taller than me.) But I like to turn.

Look out, there's a tree. I like to ski around them. Not into them.

As far as the boots and bindings are concerned. They performed admirably and I didn't notice any slop. Whatsoever. My 110 skins did great. I was able to get up the track, and blaze my own skin track without a problem.

Last thing. I like the clinky sound they make when they bounce together. but ymmv.



So there you have it. The heir apparent, in my book, has ascended to the throne.

Nice review, and glad to see someone finally address the "squirrelly 177 issue by getting on the right size ski and use it to full advantage. At 5'4" you are skiing a much longer ski than I am at 184, relative to height and weight.

The Mantra really does open up the whole mountain, and combined with AT bindings, skins and appropriate gear and training; its like discovering skiing again for the first time. Dare I say the adventure begins? Hey, where are the pics?

Pics?

I just spent all my teacher's salary on this darned at set up.

So words are all I've got.

Btw...

Yesterday at crystal in the south and northback these skis just slayed the bottomless, 31'' deep pow. Super light cold smoke bottomless.

You can just point em and go. And like I said. Steeper the better with these puppies. I was skiing a 50 degree pitch with ease.

I love the mantras.

(after sleeping a really long time edit)

I have to also talk about the mantra's abilities in the crud. I was able to look at a chopped up field of powder, point em in the general area of where I wanted to do my skiing, (the least cut up part,) and they just skied it all about equally, the line happily blurred between the generally scary division chop and unchop, where skis tend to deflect, dive etc. I was able to ski through it all, as long as I maintained a decent stance the ski did EXACTLY what I wanted it to.

It did help that all the snow was bottomless and feather light for the pnw.

Mantra sizing advice . . . 184 or 191?

First off, thanks for the great thread . . . valuable info . . .

I am a 6'3", 195 lb., strong skier who skis primarily in the general Tahoe area with maybe an annual trip to Utah.

I'm committed to buying a pair of Mantra's this season but need some help deciding whether to go with the 184's or 191's . . . I currently ski a 6 year old set of 195 Salomon x-screams . . . any advice on sizing would be much appreciated, thanks.

Also, as I haven't bought ski's in a while, any advice on favorite bindings for this setup would be great . . . best.

FWIW: I am 6'0", 190lbs. I bought the Mantras in 184. Primarily, I ski The Canyons, Alta and Snowbird. Mine are outfitted with LOOK P14 bindings.

If it is your everyday ski I would recommend the 184. It is the size I bought. The Mantra is going to quite a bit wider and stiffer than the XScreams. I had the 195 Xscream Series. When I got Bandit XXX (little narrower than the Mantra, similar stiffness) I drop down to 185 and was very happy w/ the decision.

 Couldn't disagree more with all you say about the Mantra, Westcat, really sorry, but are you sure you're talking about the Mantra? This is not a soft ski.

Whoo Bronx33.  Resurrecting a four year old dead horse just to beat it a little.  Outstanding.

They really come out at this time of year.  It's sad, really....

 It was his first post.  He might not have realized how old it was.

Or that the stiffness of the Mantra changed after the 1st year with additional metal in the ski.