(Yet another "which skis") Powder skis for intermediate?

A snowHead

OK, this sort of thing has been asked before I'm sure. I did look for answers but didn't quite find quite what I was looking for. And yea, I just signed up so I could ask but I'll probably be hanging around here for a while anyway. I did just move to CO (15 minutes from slopes) from the southeast though, so it ain't just the forum that's new but access to real skiing on a regular basis. Stoked.

Me: Almost 50. 6'2" 225# (up 20# during COVID...). Solidly intermediate and still progressing. Will probably get 40-60 days this season. Been skiing 180cm Kung Fujas which are, yes, probably a bit short but I've had fun on them. They don't float me in pow. Nope. Looking for something fairly forgiving and fun to ride and progress on that'll work in the pow. Doesn't necessarily have to be the only ski I ride. Looking for suggestions for both size and models.

Thanks!

A snowHead

@DorcusMaximus, welcome to snowHeads. We're mainly UK based here we have a few sceptics in our ranks.

Now that you're a CO guy you won't go wrong supporting your local independent makers, namely Icelantic and High Society, both of which are long established with excellent reputations.

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

I've a "wet your finger and stick it in the air" calculation to indicate flotation in very soft snow. Crude experience rather than recorded quotable reference Very Happy

but it seems to work reasonably well.

For every kilogram of skier weight, 1 millimetre of ski waist width will give a general use all mountain ski without wild variation in conventional length to add support.

At 225 lb that would give 102 kg and follows into 102 mm skis (unsure if that's your current ski waist dimension) giving you an all mountain width. You'd need to go above that to bring flotation up in significant snow depth unsupported by compressed base layer.

That's just about the float it'll give and not considering all other aspects such as skill level, fitness, intent and pure combined ability to really "drive" a larger ski.

Whatever choice ok ski manufacturer, it looks like you've got to be towards 110mm and up to get you into heavanly float type skiing.

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

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

@ski3, [drift] that resonates nicely, in fact, at 60kgs my 66mm FIS SLs are arguably a bit fat.[/drift] Twisted Evil

Though, more serjously, my daily drivers are 98mm - if I lived in CO I'd be looking for something rather wider. @spyderjon's names seem like an excellent idea!

You'll need to Register first of course.

@ski3, that would mean I'd be on GS or slalom skis for all mountain use! It might work at the heavier end of the spectrum but not so much for lighter skiers.

@DorcusMaximus, no point in me suggesting skis, what works for me wouldn't cut the mustard for someone your size. I'm sure others on the forum will have more specific relevant suggestions. But you might want to also ask on one of the US forums as local knowledge should help. I'd suggest Skitalk as a start (no connection but my impression is that they're pretty friendly, like here - which may not be the case for some of the others).

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks all. I'll try to find a forum geared more towards this side of the pond. FWIW, I'll be at Sunlight mainly. Fifteen minutes from the house and a wee bit more affordable than an Aspen pass. Especially since my wife is patrolling at Sunlight.

After all it is free

@mgrolf, I disagree because I'm not talking about skiing as such in how the skier ultimately uses the ski.

Just the ability of the ski surface area to support the kilogram load you put on them, in unsupported soft powder. As my children have grown up it appeared to hold for them at the opposite end of the spectrum from adults too.

Of course, with a skillful skier, most things can be skied in non matching conditions of ski to snow surface but that is often working around true flotation.

Tried the whitedot altiums at the recent snowhead ski test. Great all round ski. I'm 6' 3'' and have also put on 'some' weight recently. (this one: Altum.104)

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@ski3, but you are suggesting that float vs weight is linear to area which I intuit unlikely.

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

@under a new name, certainly many transactions aren't, and I pre empted it with "finger in the air" sentiment, so I doubt a scientific accuracy is there.

But the downhill ski market effectively having a floor below which competition ski are prevented from going acts as significant distortion in not producing narrower skis to test that area.

But broadly speaking I feel it works, in as much as if you take your kg and used waist width of same in mm, then you'll be looking above that start point to give true powder flotation in a ski. Which is more or less what the OP was looking toward.

To flip it as crude method of proofing, if the mm width was minus the skier kg then would it truly float the subject (longer skis historically used to balance that question) in really deep powder..

snow reports

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(Yet another "which skis") Powder skis for intermediate?

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