I skied Halloween at Loveland and demoed 3 skis. (There’s a trip report here www.epicski.com/forum/thread/87386/loveland-on-halloween.) Conditions were man made with some new snow that was packed but still nice. For context, the skis I own are the Rossi B3 and the K2 Coomba (and I share a Fischer WC4 slalom ski with my son).
I started off on a slalom ski, the Nordica Mach 4 Power in a 178 length (121-74-106).
The shorter lengths have 13 m radius, but this one says 15.8 meters. Still pretty tight. This is a good ski, but to be honest I don’t see a lot of personality differences among skis in this class. But then again, I'm not racing and my reaction time or commitment or something isn’t sufficient to get as big angles as I would like on these skis. After about an hour I got tired of making very short turns. Though they did seem to run well in longer turns, recent threads about potential safety issues made me think it was time to trade to something meant to make bigger turns.
The shorter lengths have 13 m radius, but this one says 15.8 meters. Still pretty tight. This is a good ski, but to be honest I don’t see a lot of personality differences among skis in this class. But then again, I'm not racing and my reaction time or commitment or something isn’t sufficient to get as big angles as I would like on these skis. After about an hour I got tired of making very short turns. Though they did seem to run well in longer turns, recent threads about potential safety issues made me think it was time to trade to something meant to make bigger turns.
Next was the 178 Volkl Gotama (137-106-122).
This based on a recommendation from someone I rode the chair with, who was on these skis. This was the first time I had been on a rockered ski, and the first time on a Gotama from any year. Wow! What a ski. Once you lay it over enough that the whole edge is touching, it makes beautiful turns. Turning it was effortless. And it even looks pretty – I like this years graphics. I can only imagine what it would be like in soft snow.
This based on a recommendation from someone I rode the chair with, who was on these skis. This was the first time I had been on a rockered ski, and the first time on a Gotama from any year. Wow! What a ski. Once you lay it over enough that the whole edge is touching, it makes beautiful turns. Turning it was effortless. And it even looks pretty – I like this years graphics. I can only imagine what it would be like in soft snow.
The Gotama wants to be ridden with even front-back weighting and soft flexing boots. At first I wasn’t weighting the inside ski enough and it tended to wander, but that only took a run to figure out. As you might guess, the ski is a little vague for small turns (like threading through the crowd at the top of the lift) but it is not a big deal. For real turns I found it very easy to get big angles on this ski.
At 2 pm I decided I ought to use my third choice. I wanted to try the Gotama in a longer length to do a head-to-head comparison and see how much difference length made. Unfortunately, someone else had taken the longer pair out in the meantime. So I asked the shop guys to give me something weird.
What I got was the Icelantic Shaman (184). (160-110-130)
This ski has a huge shovel. At first I had a little trouble with it grabbing, but then I figured out it wanted to be skied with a significant amount of front-weighting. When I stiffened up my boots that made it easier to use. (Wait – you guys on modern boots don’t have on-the-hill forward flex stiffness adjustment, do you? Your loss.) Once I got used to it this ski worked well also, and wasn’t too hard to get big angles on too. But it definitely was more work, physically and mentally, than the Gotamas. It also seemed harder to progressively engage the Shamans – I had more of a tendency to set an angle and ride it through the whole turn.
Since I got home, I found this on the Icelantic web site: "With a truly unique shape and design, The Shaman balances the skier’s weight allowing a forward, powerful powder turn unlike anything you have ever believed possible." So I guess I figured the trick out correctly.
Torwards the end of the day, small proto-bumps started to form along the edge of the run under chair 6. Based on that limited experiment, I think the Shamans would do pretty well in real bumps.
The only run I really went fast was my second to last, when I wanted to make last chair. The Shamans ran very well turning just enough to keep them on edge. Very stable at speed, and that big shovel sliced nicely through surface variations. In retrospect, I should have tried a fast run on the Gotamas to see how they took it, but I didn’t think of it.
This ski has a huge shovel. At first I had a little trouble with it grabbing, but then I figured out it wanted to be skied with a significant amount of front-weighting. When I stiffened up my boots that made it easier to use. (Wait – you guys on modern boots don’t have on-the-hill forward flex stiffness adjustment, do you? Your loss.) Once I got used to it this ski worked well also, and wasn’t too hard to get big angles on too. But it definitely was more work, physically and mentally, than the Gotamas. It also seemed harder to progressively engage the Shamans – I had more of a tendency to set an angle and ride it through the whole turn.
Since I got home, I found this on the Icelantic web site: "With a truly unique shape and design, The Shaman balances the skier’s weight allowing a forward, powerful powder turn unlike anything you have ever believed possible." So I guess I figured the trick out correctly.
Torwards the end of the day, small proto-bumps started to form along the edge of the run under chair 6. Based on that limited experiment, I think the Shamans would do pretty well in real bumps.
The only run I really went fast was my second to last, when I wanted to make last chair. The Shamans ran very well turning just enough to keep them on edge. Very stable at speed, and that big shovel sliced nicely through surface variations. In retrospect, I should have tried a fast run on the Gotamas to see how they took it, but I didn’t think of it.
Summary: Mach 4 – a competent short radius carver. Gotama – wow. A great ski. Could be a daily driver, even on hard pack. Shaman – different and fun, but probably too much work to ski every day (unless you go fast all the time) -- but then I realize it is not meant for these conditions.
