 Poster: A snowHead
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Just back from four weeks in Whistler, during which I put my (once shiny, now battle-scarred) Nomads through every condition imaginable, from slush to concrete corduroy to thigh-deep powder.
These are my first skis - bought only because renting for four weeks made no economic sense. After previous scepticism I'm a total convert to the idea of owning your own.
I'm a level 6, maybe 7 on a brave day, 184cm tall, 72kg. The skis are 174cm.
Overall, I found them utterly brilliant. They're rock-stable over virtually anything yet lively enough to pop you out of turns. Despite their stiffness they're not unforgiving - if you're tired or lazy and start to shift rearward they will chide gently rather than punish. Although I can only compare them to hire skis I found their edge hold superb: on the odd patch of ice, they would break away progressively rather than snapping out from under me like every other ski I've been on.
Before this trip I hadn't spent much time in powder. The Nomads chop straight through tracked out fresh stuff without a millimetre of deflection, and stay remarkably predictable and stable in older, heavier snow. We did have a couple of days of sugary snow at low altitude, and they were as unfazed by this as virtually everything else.
On piste they're amazing - I never believed I'd feel so comfortable going so fast. But the Nomads are just so surefooted and easy to turn that they egg you on. They lapped up short and long radius turns without a murmur of complaint.
'Fast' is a common theme. Atomic are apparently known for this and mine felt rocket propelled at the merest hint of a fall-line, especially on piste. But because they're so manoeuvrable and stable, this is very rarely a problem.
They even love moguls, despite the fact that I don't - lively enough for me to get into a rhythm and turn over the top of them, grippy enough to stay under me over scraped patches.
I only found two areas where they struggled slightly: going fairly quickly over closely spaced, foot-high bumps on hard, chopped up pistes, where they weren't able to chop through and their stiffness made them a little difficult to control; and untracked, knee deep (or more) powder where only 100mm plus planks will really work. But in both cases, a better skier than me would have coped more easily - and the Nomads would certainly suit a better skier every bit as well as they suited me.
So obviously I can't recommend them highly enough. They're forgiving enough to be an absolute pleasure from first lift to last lift, yet demanding enough to make me a better skier every time I clip them on.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Just got back from Verbier. Rented these skis for the week.
I agree with most of your comments. I do believe that they are much more suited to expert level skier rather than intermediate. I found I needed to give them plenty of energy to really make them work. Obviously an intermediate can pootle around on them skidding turns, I've never found a ski that you couldn't ski in this manner.......I think an intermediate would be better off on a softer ski......to enable carving turns at lower speeds.
I found them to be good in bumps. I found the tails to be good and strong, hence when I got my weight too far back in the bumps, I got launched!
I skied them in powder (1-2' fresh snow) and found them to be fine. We skied crusty snow, heavy afternoon snow and even breakable crust, the skis worked in them, but I had to put more effort in........I suspect that is the case with all skis.
I agree that the edge hold is fantastic, and yes it does egg you to go as fast as your bravery will dictate.
The build quality is superb, I rammed and skied over a couple of rocks offpiste, and found no damage to the base.
I skied the K2 Rictors last year (only for one day.......off-piste with a guide) and my impression is that K2s were easier to ski reasonably. The Atomics might be the better ski, but you have to be on your game.
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