Off piste skis

Neiltoo wrote:

bandit wrote:Any ski will work off piste, as long as it's a modern shape.

So how did we all manage to ski off piste on those old skinny skis then? )

Personally, very badly, just could not get to grips with it. My breakthrough "eureka" moment came with my 1st pair of Rossi Bandit's, which of course, now look incredibly skinny :D

Neiltoo wrote:

So how did we all manage to ski off piste on those old skinny skis then?

You took the words right off me.

Worse than tha, dunno about you Neil, I predate the regular use of piste machines, and after two days, every hill was a mogul field. Skinnys were not so good in the moguls.

Dave Mac wrote:
Worse than tha, dunno about you Neil, I predate the regular use of piste machines, and after two days, every hill was a mogul field. Skinnys were not so good in the moguls.

Have you had your hands on any competition mogul skis, recently?

They are narrow and very straight. In fact they look very old fashioned in their shape.

150mm? Check out "Duret Monster Fats" which are wider than this, 170 I believe.

RossF wrote:150mm? Check out "Duret Monster Fats" which are wider than this, 170 I believe.

I knew when I posted that there'd be some "bozo the clown's feet" ski that were wider than they were long and someone, probably in Verbier, would be trying to make anyone without at least 100mm feel inadequate. At some point this has got to be a ***** substitute :D

ise, might return mine :oops:
:lol:

here they are :

http://www.skipass.com/guide-matos/ski/2007/duret/legende-series.html

989€ !!! I'd want two snowboards for that ..... oh..... wait a minute.... I see this is two snowboards :roll: :wink:

ise wrote:

Ian Wickham wrote:I'm thinking about having some off piste lessons this year, and i wonder if you have any advice on a ski to use off piste.

what do you have already? and where are you going?

off piste needs definition as well, a lot of people just mean powder when they say off-piste and buy some fat ski on that basis. In reality a lot of off-piste skiing is hacking around in crud in steep places (or it is for me) so fat skis don't always work too well. Also, in truth good powder in European quantities, say 10-50cm, isn't so difficult to ski so you hardly need a special ski for it although obviously everyone does get a special ski.

It's probably the case you're already making the best investment in getting lessons and won't need an ultra specialised ski anyway.

I think it makes a huge difference how heavy you are. I still have my first pair of Atomic C9's which are a great versatiule ski. They are OK in powder too but as a heavy skier (think Hermann Maier :-)), I need to lean way back and be going about 60 MPH to get any flotation :D

I hired some B3's a while back before Rossignol messed around with the bandit range. They are 'proper' fat powder skis and realy noticed the difference, they were a bit less versatile in tricky terrain though.

you probably want to look at something similar to the classic old Rossignol B2. This type of ski is sometimes called 'all mountain'. It will give you good floatation in the powder but be versatile in tricky terrain and conditions. I've got my eyes on this season's Atomic Nomad Crimson Ti.