Flying metal

It's tasty, tasty, very very tasty...

 

Forgot to ask - are you around in the third week of March?[1]

[1] Giving you enough notice so you can buy a ticket to the South Pole
if necessary

 

So you can avoid the earthquake that will accompany Timo's arrival ;-)

 

heh

Nothing's ever broken here.

 

Long tow rope.

 

Good stuff, some beers may be in order then.

 

Nonono: 'proper' skiing.

 

Cool.

 

Ah Klosters. Fond memories from last year.
I met a shred Betty on a t-bar whose contact info I really should have gotten.
You can have Hawaii.

--

 

Last year, because I had the carrying capacity, I took my old 195
Kästles with me, just to see how they compared. I took them on kind of
a farewell run.

It was odd, apparently being the only person in the entire resort
wearing such long skis.

Skis have come on a bit: the old Kästles initially didn't feel that
different, that is, they'd turn when asked without undue pressure.

Then I started noticing the diferences: if I tried to carve, despite
exaggerating the movement, they just wouldn't; the lines were there
but always scrubbed a bit.

Later, as I relaxed and forgot what I was wearing, once or twice I
tried to steer the skis around at low speed, as is my habit, by sort
of rolling the outside knee inwards and slightly stepping the inside
ski into the turn. Here I found that I now had a rapidly diverging
pair of skis...

 

In communiqué <>, Pip Luscher

I have only tried modern carvers (170s) at the Tamworth Snow Dome. TBF
the Dynastar 185s are probably a tad long for me anyway but they were a
bargain second hand from Snow and Rock 20 years ago.

I last used them in 2004 at Mont Dore (Espace Sancy). They were indeed
hard work for rapid direction changes, but they were invigoratingly fast
where you could schuss a bit.


--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Actually, now that you mention it, my old skis were more stable in a
straight line (hardly surprising) and they always had a good glide on
shallow runs.

 

How tall & heavy are you? I still use my 185cm Pocket Rockets and
they're certainly not too long for me, but then I'm an aggressive,
6'2" 13-stoner. Some of the Freeride skis are only made in that length
or longer.

I bought new skis last year, the 1080 foil, and went even shorter, at
175cm. These are just so agile it's amazing. Pip may remember me
skiing moguls on my wife's 165cm ones last year in Alpe d'Huez.

Longer != faster. The only relationship between speed and length is
that in the old days one needed a massively long ski to retain
high-speed stability. Nowadays, with much more rigid construction, the
shorter skis can offer at least as much control as the old long ones.

Indeed. The key to gliding on shaped skis is to never put them
straight. If you're always very slightly on one edge or another
they'll not give that unstable feeling.

More down to servicing than anything else, although clearly the
overall surface area is also a factor and the older skis would be much
narrower.

 

Who me or Pip? I am 5'6" 70 Kilos (CBA to convert) and didn't learn to
ski until I was 40. The slightly arthritic hips mean I am hardly an
aggressive skier.

There you are then. I'm living in the past as always. I must try some
modern skis on a run longer than the Snow Dome.


--

+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR Moto Morini 2C/375 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+

 

I still have a pair of Rossi GX, a pair of Salomon 9100 Equipe, and two
pairs of K2 MSL, all around 200cm. Very occasionally I take one of them
out, and I'm always amazed first that I can actually still ski on them,
even in difficult snow, but more particularly how much more comfortable
they are (especially the MSLs) to go really fast on.

Modern skis (I have Salomon X-Screams and Atomic R9s, neither of which are
even that modern) are far less effort, though!

 

I remember you swapping them, but I can't remember where we went.

Aha. Just like a snowboard, then.

 

x10!
<ouch>

 

Only on icy sections. Anything less than that, I run my board flat when
I'm trying to maximise speed and get along flat sections.

 

That's what I have trouble with.

 

Well, many of the flat bits of packed snow I've been on have had lots
of parallel ridges from everyone schussing along them, and the board
has felt terribly twitchy.

As Champ says, I just keep my weight well forward and though the board
may be wobbling and twitching around, it will kick itself straight if
I do let it get sideways a bit.