Got some fattish skis - Cham 97

A snowHead

After the bindings on my old B2s dicked me around on my last trip I have been tempted into the buy new market by the prices on glisshop and ekosport. Presumably courtesy of the Euro woes. On the aforementioned trip I hired some Dynastar Cham 87s to cover for the ailing Rossignol B2s that I've had for 3-4 years which in return replaced their predecessor Bandits. I had a brief flirtation with some Movement Thunders which I didn't like. Anyhow as I seemed to get on well with Chams and try before you buy is always best I thought Cham 87would be the way to go. Getting back to the UK the reviews backed up a lot of what I thought and proved I wasn't just dreaming stuff. It was then I discovered there was a Cham 97 and a Cham 107 with the 87, 97, 107 number representing the waist of the ski. The construction was thereabouts equal. There are High Mountain (HM) versions which have the metal taken out and are therefore light enough for touring. I just needed an all mountain lift served ski. The 107s and HM versions were clearly overkill for the amount of off piste I am expecting to do in the near future. The 97s though despite the extra width still got a lot of good reviews for piste skiing whilst adding that extra bit of powder float and crud bashing capability.

Due to my deliberations gliss sold out but eko still had stock. They arrived yesterday. **** me they look fat. I guess going from 78 to 97 waist ski is always going to be a bit of a shock. The question is will I be shocked when I ski them. That's a rhetorical question. I will find out next month when I use them. I've read the reviews again today almost to reassure myself I've done the right thing Shocked

But the reviews are still the same. It's weird to think back to skinnies I started on 25 years ago. These things are like boats! But when I tried going back to my skinnies one afternoon I swore I'd never go back. Wonder if it will be the same again Puzzled

A snowHead

Congratulations, you have joined the Fat Ski dark side Twisted Evil

Years back I jumped up to Head Monster 88's, then a couple of years later up to K2 Coombacks at 101, and I have not skied on anything less than 100mm since. I reality 97mm will be fine, just don't look down when skiing, and you will soon forget about the width, and just enjoy them.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The only thing you'll notice is their excessive weight.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

A lot depends on how good a skier you are and where you spend most of your time - if you can genuinely carve, it will take a little adjustment and they won't be as good on hard snow as narrower skis, but you should be fine. If you are more at the stage of riding the sidecut rather than working the ski, they probably won't be too helpful for your piste skiing. That said, if you learn how to work them properly, it will seem really easy if you try out some narrower skis

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

'Owt wrong with Sham 69? Should turn more easily, need to shave your Heads though.

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I skiied on a cham 97 for a week. It was the ordinary version without HM. It was v heavy n took some time to get used to. It is highly responsive and despite the width, it has a short side cut radius. It can be a little less stable at v high speed. It floats on powder. If u r spending most of the time on groomed n packed snow or on ice, this is not the ski for u. This is a ski u would use off piste n a ski u would bring out after a heavy snow fall.

I jumped from the old 76mm B2's to Nordica Enforcers at 98mm and had those as my only ski for 6 years. The only thing they were not good at was short turns, buying a second hand pair of slalom skis filled that gap Toofy Grin

I still love the Enforcers and they are my all round use and touring ski choice. The bigger fats are kept for proper powder days (please weather gods, can we have some more?).

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Cheers Scarpa. I think provided I can make GS turns should be OK. I think my big dilemma is that the kids are still pretty young so the variety of skiing I do is so broad. Looks like I may have got a back binding for my old skis aswell. Getting those back working provides another option. Will report back for sure next month.

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Just to report back. It was a week where I skied everything - nice piste, slush, cut up, crust, powder, concrete mix. slough. Not much in the way of moguls or really hard packed or icy piste. But I really got a big feel for what these planks can do. The views expressed by other posters on this thread where pretty much spot on. As the week progressed I became less conscious of what I had on. They could carve nicely on the piste and were solid in a schuss. And I guess more importantly were a delight to use off piste in crusty, cut up and powder snow. I read some stuff in reviews about the flat tail. I think I noticed it once or twice but not to any great detriment. So, I have no regrets at all about buying them and can't wait to get on them again next year. As mentioned you wouldn't want to do much slalom with them. And we did do a couple of slalom pitches left out. It wasn't that they couldn't do fairly short radius turns, understandably it just didn't feel natural with these skis. They are a great all rounder with the extra waist width to make that powder skiing even more fun.

Very Happy

snow reports

I have been skiing on Cham High mountain for the last two years , best ski I've ever owned for what I like to do , I tend not to eat up the Kms on Piste , but charge round the mountain skiing everything with the Kids when I'm not Touring/proper off piste with friends . My Guide introduced them to me .

Having jumped from an 84 waisted ski to my 112 waisted Preachers a few years ago I know the exact feeling you're having.
The good news is once I got on them that fear disappeared and they FLEW!!!
Just jump on them and enjoy, you'll work out yourself what technique adjustments you need to master them but they won't be huge.

You know it makes sense.

I too use a Preacher, and in Ishgl in fresh snow they were brilliant. But the fat ski thing is, as others have said, not great for everything. I spent a day of the week (swept, hard conditions on piste) on a pair of rented Salomon X-Race, having given up on the Preachers which were a pain in such conditions.

And fell in love with piste skiing all over again. I then spent a day on all sorts of SL/GS type carvers, doing some demo, and came back to those X-Race skis in a 170 as being utterly fantastic (72mm underfoot, so not super-narrow)

Do not discount the power of a proper race-style carver on the hard stuff. These Salomons have since been added to my quiver for next year, and 95mm "all mountain" DPS Cassiars quietly mothballed. The latter felt appallingly clumsy on piste after jumping back into them straight from the Salomons.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Having piste skis would have been handy at Christmas when that was pretty much all that was available. But that was quite exceptional. Invariably my day will involve anything from 30 to 70 % off piste. And I as I can't switch run to run I just need the one pair. Hence why I went for 97 rather than 87 or 107 really. But I hear what you are saying.

A snowHead

I tested the new Cham 2.0 97 and 107 earlier this year. Very respectable skis - all 80% of the "bit of off piste" skiers need IMV ( scale appropriately for wimmin, little guys etc)

A snowHead

Bit late to this but great read and persuaded me to buy a pair of the 2015 Cham 87 HMs (for dirt cheap before the new season stuff comes in). @Layne, probably ski a bit less off piste than you so hopefully the 87s are a perfect one-ski compromise... Just need some snow now...! Nonetheless thanks for the review - good read before I made the purchase!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Never mind the width feel the camber!
I couldn't get on with the Cham 97's to me they felt rather vague with tip rocker after my traditional cambered but fatter Preachers. This comes down to your choice and skiing style. The Preachers carve brilliantly on hard snow but not ice. I've ordered some Whitedot Ones (89) for icier conditions and touring, again with a good traditional camber.

I guess It comes down to your preference and skiing style , but maybe there is a risk in just looking at the width and sidecut in choosing skis when the type of camber can be as important or more so

Help!!

Got some fattish skis - Cham 97

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