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K2 impact review vs smoke ti / Outland 80 pro

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Just for anyone who's interested in these skis, I demo'd a few pairs yesterday at the local fridge so thought I'd do a bit of a review based on my findings. I'm no expert reviewer, it's just my thoughts which i thought may help someone when researching their next set of skis.

I'm 32, male, 5' 8", and would say I'm a confident intermediate, full parallel skier that can carve reasonably well whilst not technique perfect. I wanted to upgrade my skis to something that will match my current skills but with a little room for expansion. I will probably never get to a level where i'm only interested in off piste / moguls etc. I'm mainly a family skier who likes to turn up the power every now and again but I'm by no means an athlete and don't have the time or money to do multiple trips a year.

So i did some research and thought the impact would be about right, or maybe the atomic smoke ti and possibly some of the new dynastar outland range. So, here goes.....

Atomic smoke ti - I wanted to like these skis. They have some good video reviews on the Internet and the nomad range seem to have a good reputation generally. I skied them in a 171. Straight away, if found them pretty lifeless, which surprised me a bit being as they have the metal layer. when hitting the chopped up stuff at the side of the piste, they seemed to grab a bit and slow down, getting a bit of chatter too. Although they seemed to track well enough and were pretty easy going, they just felt dead with no pop. Also, the short turns were a bit difficult although that may be as they were a little long for me. I initially thought I might not be pushing them hard enough because of the metal layer but even when driven hard, they just didn't give anything back.

Dynastar Outland 80 pro - I thought this may be a bit too much ski for me and I was right. They track really well, hold a carve beautifully and handle chop ok as well. But, strangely again, they felt a bit dead to me. It was a different sensation to the smokes though and if I'm honest I think it's because I don't have the weight and power to consistently drive them. I got the impression that if you are heavier than me and are willing to ski at 80 to 90% of your ability, 80 to 90% of the time, they'd be fine. If you want to relax a bit though and mix it up a bit, they're probably not for you.

So, onto the k2 impact which i skied in a 167. Straight away, these felt great under my feet. From the first run, they were very stable, tracking beautifully. They carved superbly, smashing through the chopped up stuff without chattering and grabbing at all and seemed very quick if that makes sense. They were easy to carve and initiate turns but also easy to spin around in short turns. They just felt perfect in every way! I was absolutely blown away by them.
I even tried getting them into trouble by initiating carves at speed, right in the middle of some really poor choppy, heavy snow but they just blasted through, rolling smoothly onto the edge and holding a nice powerful carve and leaving a lovely set of trenches in the snow. Very impressed and it's clearly the ski for me!

Hope this might be of use to someone who is looking for their next ski but is in that bracket between improving intermediate and upper advanced.
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