Jan. 3, 2007, Snoq- Ski Demo Mank-fest

Well, the weather was interesting to say the least, parking lot had rain, snow, sleet all at the same time. I parked at Central, ran laps in 6-10 inches of thick, thick, wet mank; the inch or two of rain was evident. Untracked areas even showed water runnels in spots. The groomers were nasty, but the untracked "blacks" by the Triple 60 (Showoff, Revenge, etc) were fun, fun, with mini jump turn flicks to keep from augering into the sludge.

I then toured over to West to demo some skis. The setup was kind of a mess- there were no lights except for headlamps, so the techs had a rough time setting bindings. I tried a pair of BD Verdicts/Freerides, 185 size (the new Kilowatts were out). They were pretty fine, but nothing exceptional. Next were a pair of new Atomic Kailas, and damn, I was impressed. Ugly, ugly skis, but they felt like a near perfect combination of fun sidecut and powder width, and light enough to tour like mad. The snow was far from ideal to test skis, but maybe a good laboratory for classic PNW snowpack? Last were the G3 Reverends. I know Scotsman loves his, but not a ski for me. They ran great flat-out, but felt very dead and "planky" to me. Marmot had a huge fleet of random skis to demo (Trabs, Norbert Joos, some Rossis, etc.) but I needed to get back to Seattle. As I was packing up, the mank was freezing into something really nasty- hopefully the snow today covers that disaster....

Thanks for the writeup, K.   I was totally thinkin of going, but decided not to, mostly cuz of the forecast, and partially cuz of other stuff that got (needed to get) in the way.   Glad I decided against it.   

"Mank" huh?  Kewl... new word for me...   

To connect this with the December report on the trip to the Wallowa Alpine Huts, when I was there a while back, Connolly Brown, the owner, regaled us with tales of he and his buddies from CO who dubbed themselves the "Mankineers" due to the various sketchy snow ventures they undertook. I like that appelation. I have a funny feeling they didn't share the "no alcohol at night on overnight trips" policy of another outdoor club with a similar-sounding name...

Scotsman here using my son's sign in as I forgot my password again :-[.

Korup,
my friend I couldn't let your diss of my beloved G3 Reverends go unanswered.
" Planky, uneresponsive"--- exactly. When you are such an avid skier as I am and yet  still ski with such a lack of grace due to a singular lack of technique as I do, you must have a semi-valid excuse to be able to retain your self-delusion.

When YOU are flying through tight trees like some forest sprite on mescal and I am following , shredding more brush than a love-struck beaver, I can with some degree of truthfulness say, " these ski's don't like short radius turns".

As YOU carve turns like Alberto bleeding Tomba down Iceberg on an icy day and I follow slipping sideways like a hovercraft with it's starboard engine out, I can with delude myself by saying" these skis don't like the hardpack".

They are a perfect "excuse ski" and that's why I love them.
My secret is now out and I will need another excuse to retain my self delusion. Maybe I've got one leg shorter than the other so all my right hand turns are good but not my left hand. Yes....... that's a good one.

Thanks buddy >

Aw jeez, Scotsman, don't worry, your secret is safe with me!