 Poster: A snowHead
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So I finally got my Sir Francis Bacon's (178cm) and Atomic Tracker / (aka Salomon Guardian) out on some proper snow over the last few weeks.
Conditions varied from windblown ice and rocks (Macedonia - Popova Sapka), to 2feet of fresh powder (Saas Fee).
In the powder, they're a lot of fun - they're not good at the 'showoff' short radius hops beloved of ESF instructors, but larger floaty turns its just like snowboarding. The fewer the turns, the better, generally!
On the piste, they're 'big mountain' skis - I need _all_ the piste to be able to carve turns - but you _can_ carve, and on the quiet 'first runs' at Saas I could get my hand down and chase the piste-board snowboarders... and I could pick up more than enough speed, and the ski's felt solid.
On the crud - they're surprisingly nimble - front and back rocker really makes it easy to navigate crap terrain, and dive through trees.
On 'mixed' terrain - they pretty much go through anything, so the lumpy/mixed/poor light/usual varied side of piste stuff I just charged through....
The bindings are dead-easy to use, and were easy to adjust from the 'downhill' boots I had to the Scarpa's.
Putting them in touring mode is really easy (once you work out which bit to press and which to hold), and far easier to de-ice than Marker EPF's.
only touring grumble is cutting the skins to suit the size is a bit of a faff.
I've not seen another pair on the mountain in the 'blood orange' colourway I have - and the top sheets seem reasonably scratch resistant (the wife's Whitedots are looking decidedly scrappy now for the same amount of skiing on them)
Downsides
They're very heavy! both ski's and bindings are 'heavy' in their class, and together, you really notice it either carrying them on your shoulder, or on a backpack, or touring!
I managed 90 mins in Popova - we weren't exactly gunning it uphill, but I really started to notice after about an hour.
For the sort of slack/side country offpiste I do (upto an hour or so), they're fine - but I do wonder if there's an equivalently wide stiff lighter ski (other than say the Carbon Whitedots, which were >twice as expensive)
my stats, fwiw:
65kg /174cm tall
SCGB 'purple' grade (probably at the aggressive but not very stylish end!)
Scarpa Freedom SL boots
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@hamilton, Good review, which pretty much mirrors my own experience. I had the 2011 SFB in 182cm with Marker Barons. They were the ones with the multi-coloured palette wheel top sheet and zebra bases. They were 142-115-139, and weighed the best part of 2.3kg per ski. The Barons added another 1.3kg, and I know that the Trackers are even heavier.
It sounds like Line have improved their topsheets, as mine would chip if you just looked at them funny.
I'm slightly taller than you and about the same weight, and I agree about the touring. My hip flexor's had pretty much had it after 2 hours of climbing. When I switched to lighter skis (DPS Wailer 112RP) and tech bindings I saved 1.5kg per foot 
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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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| hamilton wrote: |
For the sort of slack/side country offpiste I do (upto an hour or so), they're fine - but I do wonder if there's an equivalently wide stiff lighter ski (other than say the Carbon Whitedots, which were >twice as expensive)
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Dud du du duuuh:
http://www.downskis.com/shop/countdown-107-2015 (now out of stock but resale price will likely be €350 or so in the summer I imagine).
Or the 114, or 110...
Surprised you needed so much room to carve the bacons they're like a 17m turn radius right? Maybe think about really working and flexing the ski and not just riding the sidecut, which should help narrow the radius a bit.
I also didn't think they're that heavy, what, ~2kg a ski? I'd say that's on the light side of average for the class tbh. But yes, the bindings will add a lot of weight.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@hamilton, where are your bindings mounted (Eric's choice or traditional)?
I bought the 2014/15 SFBs at the end of last season have have Marker Griffon Schizo bindings on them - these bindings have 6cm of adjustment. At first I had my boots centred on Eric's choice, but that's only 2cm back from centre and it felt so far forwards, with loads of ski behind my foot (compared to my all mountain skis). I've now got them set at 4cm back from centre, which is between Eric's choice and traditional (6cm back from centre), and I like it more.
I've used them all season on everything - mainly piste and park, but also some off piste, and they felt good on everything apart from ice. Swapped back to my old 80mm all mountain skis for the odd run to compare and didn't feel that my piste skiing or carving was affected on my SFBs (my carving needs some work anyway).
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