Poster: A snowHead
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I got the chance to ski these 3 skis at the weekend at Glencoe so thought I would do a little review as a lot of the reviews I have seen have been from people who sound much more hard core than me.
I'm 5'9 and reasonably athletic. This is my 7th year skiing, I must have done around 150 days, most in the last 3 years. I would say I am decent intermediate skier and started skiing more off-piste last year. I ski more than half my days in Scotland where the conditions are a lot more variable than the Alps, on piste being more often than not like tracked out off-piste.
I ski 177cm Volkl Bridges which I like for most conditions and just got a pair of 177cm Volkl Auras which I also skied this weekend and also very much liked, I've got them mounted with touring bindings I also have a pair of carvers for icy days.
The One
I skied this in a 180cm, I think it's around 89mm underfoot. I skied this on Saturday on soft packed snow with some hard icy patches. I didn't really get on with this ski, I think it may be a little stiff for me although I usually like quite stiff skis. It didn't want to do short turns at all and I like to turn so I found it a lot of work, worth trying if you like long turns as it felt good on edge, just not the ski for me.
The Preacher
We had a few inches of fresh snow on Sunday morning so I took these out next. I skied the 180cm again and I think they are 112 underfoot with pretty fat shovels. I loved these skis. First run I thought they were surprisingly easy to ski but maybe a bit much for me, second run I let them go a bit more and by the third run I loved them. They are really confidence inspiring, the fresh snow was pretty tracked out by the time I took these out but they just went over everything. They were really easy to turn and I was totally happy skiing these at a reasonable busy Glencoe. To me these would be ideal fat skis for Scotland as they were really great on the soft snow, still good fun on the packed snow and really easy to carve for their size, to me they felt more like they were mid 90s underfoot. Obviously I wasn't carving parallel train tracks but they were very fun doing what most people do when they say they are carving, instructors and pros excepted.
The Redeemer
I took these out last on the Sunday, also in 180cm, I think 128mm underfoot rockered tip and tail. These are by far the biggest skis I have been on. It really wasn't the right conditions for them but I still skied them for a few runs. I would love to try them in proper powder but realistically I would not buy a ski like this. They were again surprisingly manageable for their size but they was no way I was getting these on edge so not a ski for anyone doing any more than using the pistes to get back to the lift, definitely more specialized than the Preacher.
Thanks again to everyone at Whitedot for the chance to try the skis. I would seriously thinking about selling my Bridges for something fatter now after having so much fun on the Preachers, very fun skis.
Posted on Winterhighland as well
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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lynseyf, good for you, that some big skis you've been skiing there!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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great meeting you lynseyf,
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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A fair few people have been asking about the Whitedots of late. Would be good if I had a some cards to hand out or something...
lynseyf, the ONes take a bit of getting used to but they only get easier to ski
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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scotia, just not the skis for me, as I said I like to turn which I know isn't very fashionable but I've spent 7 years learning how to do it well so I'm going to get my moneys worth I tried to persuade my friend who doesn't like to turn to ski the Ones but he was loved up with the Preachers as well.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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+1 from me on the Preachers. Couldn't quite believe how easy they were to ski and how confidence inspiring they were too. Only tried the 169s as the 179s were out but even with shorties like these it felt pretty stable. I ran over some of the areas/stashes I had been doing in the morning on my Salomon Hots and the difference was huge. It was like going from my original (age leaking out here) VR27s to the X-Screams back in the day. A proper jump in tech/design. Can't wait for their arrival.
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I got some 10/11 Ones courtesy of dinomartino via Scotia (I believe), in 180cm flavour.
I'm 5'9" and 13 1/2 stone, and would probably describe myself as a decent-ish intermediate - can get down more or less anything, but can get pretty out of shape in steep or icy moguls, or in poor vis. Have skiied powder much less than I'd like.
Skied them the week of the 14th in Val Thorens. First outing I was feeling a little intimidated (skiied 78mm underfoot 166cm Bandits all last season, and a few goes on some Rictors at 80mm) and self conscious (due to the bright orange-ness!), but they were actually really easy to ski. They are quite stiff so they encourage you to be "on it" a bit more - the one day I went out with a massive hangover in poor vis I skiied like a sack of potatoes and they really weren't very forgiving.
I was with 7 other guys, 6 of whom were beginners and the other guy had done 6 weeks, so I couldn't really hit much offpiste and the side-piste stuff was pretty well tracked out, so I didn't get to test their offpiste ability too much. They felt pretty good through the cut up and icy/windblown stuff I did try though (as good as any ski can feel through that I guess).
On piste they were great - carve really nicely and feel incredibly stable on edge and at speed, which is great for nailing it past people poleing over flats. They were a bit more hard work for short rapid edge-to-edge turns, but I suspect that's to be expected. They were brilliant in cut up snow at the end of the day, really really confidence inspiring. I also sort of enjoyed skiing moguls (!!!) for the first time ever!! Which was a massive surprise to me as I used to dread them, I think it's because they encourage you to be active and they're very responsive so it encouraged me to attack a bit more.
They did seem to work my legs quite hard, I suppose due to a combination of the length and width; my quads burnt out faster than usual despite making a real effort to get forwards. Mine are mounted at the FR point and it's really easy to get forwards on them and drive them hard, which is very satisfying.
Midweek I had them serviced with a full base grind, structure, p-tex and edge etc. and after that they became a bit of a handful - very fast and overly grippy. I think maybe the edges need detuning (as in this thread the other week) as I felt they were excessively bitey, and I kept getting this really weird sensation where when skidding on edge it felt like they were trying to "push" or "roll" you off the edges and onto the base. But I learnt to deal with it and it was OK, didn't ruin my skiing.
I had a run through the park (blues only!) and hit a few side-piste kickers that were about and they felt good, but that's not really my forte. My backwards skiing took a big leap forwards too...
On the Friday it snowed heavily, ankle to boot deep on piste with deeper drifts.... And they were f*cking awesome! First time I've skiied bigger skis in any sort of powder and it was a really good experience (yes I know they're not especially wide in the grand scheme of skis). Probably my favourite day skiing ever, despite the poor vis. The beginners with us didn't like it much though so I ended up skiing the last couple of hours on my own, which I don't usually like, but I had a great time, which I will put down to the skis!
So all in all, they're really good, buy them!
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If only they did the ones in a 185-90! A bit short for me in the 180.
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