Dynastar Cham 87

I am off to les arc soon and have spoken to a few of the hire shops to see what ski's they hold. From what i described i was looking for i expected to be offered the Atomic Blackeye TI or Volkl RTM, Salamon BBR/XT800 etc which i have used all these before. However both shops i spoke to were directing me towards the Dynastar Cham 87. Does anyone have any views on these?
http://www.dynastar.com/GB/GB/cham-87_DA2K104_product_dynastar-skis-men-freeride.html
I am 5'8 88Kg and fairly aggressive skier and not phased by any slope or conditions apart from the dreaded moguls. So would look to have mixture of on/off piste when there.

looking forward to trying these skis out unless anyone has alternative thoughts and any ideas on length to ski i usually use 170-175ish although have used 186 BBR's which i loved. And how effective are they on the groomers given that they are 87 underfoot.
thanks

I've been looking at the 97's myself. The reports I've been reading about the entire Cham series is a love or hate response. Each ski for it's size tends to be a bit heavy and damp and the unique tail shape takes some getting used to. On the other hand they're bomb proof, plow thru crud and float nose up.

Don't know about 87, but at last year's Extreme Freeride Final quite a few riders were spotting 97. Can't be too bad, I guess.

Looks like these have a huge rocker on the front so should i expect them to 'feel' much shorter and therefore go longer than my normal 170-175? length they are available in are 166,172,178,184.

178 should be a good length. Or 172 - a bit short, but since you are dreading moguls you will find these easier to manage.

Thought i should finish this thread off... just returned and expected to use the cham 87 however when i went in to collect them i had a chat with the manager and he suggested either the cham 87 or movement jam. i opted for the jam based on the fact that it would be better n ice than the cham 87. I made a great choice and would buy these ski's if i was in the market to buy - i prefer to rent though so i can have choice and change after a few days. As it happens i really didnt find any ice to test the jams on although there were a few hard patch's which they cut through without any issues.
1 of our group had the Rossi 88 and he also had fun on these as well - although i would say they were noticeably heavier than the jam's.

Just returned from a week in 3v and had 4 days on piste ski's due to snow conditions and it snowed over the wednesday evening and all through thursday so on the thursday morning i wanted to change ski's and there was a wide selection available and decided to try the cham87. MISTAKE!! they were fine on the thursday - everywhere was soft new snow and even the pistes were fluffy :-) and they were fine in these conditions although did not put a smile on my face. On the friday the pistes were back to hard pack and the off piste was good.. they still performed ok off piste although they did not bash their way through snow piles like other ski's i have used.
On piste.. useless other than groomed flat piste. They had been serviced on the wednesday evening and the edges were very good but actually skiing on them they could not hold an edge on the hard pack so hate to think what they would be like on ice. there was no tail power out of turns and there was a lot of tip vibration on faster speeds.
I believe they are being marketed as an all mountain ski - I have been on many other ski's that are able to perform much better on all types of terrain than these.. At 650euros i was expecting something much better - wouldnt pick these up again even if they were free.

MogulMonkey wrote:Just returned from a week in 3v and had 4 days on piste ski's due to snow conditions and it snowed over the wednesday evening and all through thursday so on the thursday morning i wanted to change ski's and there was a wide selection available and decided to try the cham87. MISTAKE!! they were fine on the thursday - everywhere was soft new snow and even the pistes were fluffy :-) and they were fine in these conditions although did not put a smile on my face. On the friday the pistes were back to hard pack and the off piste was good.. they still performed ok off piste although they did not bash their way through snow piles like other ski's i have used.
On piste.. useless other than groomed flat piste. They had been serviced on the wednesday evening and the edges were very good but actually skiing on them they could not hold an edge on the hard pack so hate to think what they would be like on ice. there was no tail power out of turns and there was a lot of tip vibration on faster speeds.
I believe they are being marketed as an all mountain ski - I have been on many other ski's that are able to perform much better on all types of terrain than these.. At 650euros i was expecting something much better - wouldnt pick these up again even if they were free.

Interesting report Thanks :thumbup: