Cascade Powder Skis

Scotsman, how the hell can one guy be so goddam eloquent all the time?



I'll take training wheels all day long (I need all the help I can get) and I'm a veteran of over 30 seasons, most in the great northwest, even though I still suck. My first fatties were 85 underfoot a few years back (they looked enormous down there) and this year am adding to the quiver a zero camber, slight sidecut tip/tail rockered semi-pintail ski that's 138 underfoot. I can't wait to try them out. I have a number of variations on the theme and all of them are a blast under the right conditions. Yes, I am an acknowledged and unrepentant gear whore.

Floating through even cascade powder - let alone Utah - takes on a whole new meaning with the right ski and while it is certainly possible and even enjoyable to ski new or deep snow on a highly shaped, narrow-waisted ski, you will never do it again once you've done it on something fat with less shape.

The skis I put more days on last year than anything else are 100 underfoot with lots of sidecut and they're more fun than the proverbial barrel of monkeys and carve up the corduroy like noone's biz.

I'm hoping Scotsman will let me take his Spats for a turn or two this season so I can see what all that fuss is about.

There're a million great skis out there. There are few you won't enjoy if you do a little homework. My somewhat backward approach, largely driven by my intense addiction to never, ever paying retail for anything, is to determine a few options by doing copious and spouse-alienating research, then wait for it to go on sale at a price where you know if you don't like it you can sell it without getting hurt by more than a day at the demo rental center. Buy used or last year's model. Shop like a fiend and you'll build a great quiver at bargain basement prices.

Do tell of your new quiver!

Do tell of your new quiver!

Only thing added this year is this:

bluehouseskis.com/node/99

These are SERIOUS training wheels purchased at their recent sale and with a returning customer discount.....

I was so close to pulling the trigger on those... might hold out for the megawatts though.

It's interesting to watch the debates on fat vs. skinny (well, what was mid-fat two years ago) skis. More passion spewed here than the presidential debates, actually!

I'm a relative newbie to bc skiing and have been really happy on a 80mm waist ski w/ generous sidecut, which seems to work in just about any condition, and seems fat compared to the toothpick torture devices I learned on when I was a kid. But people that use wide skis sing their praises, so I of course wonder what I'm missing. Admittedly I haven't tried anything wider than 90 underfoot, so should probably just rent a pair some day.

How are the wide skis for making quick turns? It seems like it comes up all the time, especially in the backcountry - you need to make a series of snap turns to get down something steep on variable conditions, or you're tree-skiing and really need to turn on a dime to avoid a lifetime of dental work. My experience is that this is more frequent in real-life skiing in the NW than the big-mountain free-ride runs that are repeated ad nauseum on ski videos. Do you guys notice any compromise on wide skis in these tight-turning situations?

I don't feel that I loose anything if you were skiing a traditional sidecut and camber ski. Like I said, i have the coomba (174cm) which is 102 underfoot, but they have something like a 20m sidecut which in my opinion is really small. they probably make smaller turns that i'm used to with my 183 gotamas, but they're really fun and give a great surfy feeling. Maybe the doubters haven't had the right conditions to have the surfy feeling but once you get it, it's life changing. I skied the coomba on every bc trip i took this last winter, and to the top of adams and hood. yes, they're heavier than a skinny ski, but never did i think they were disadvantaged due to their width on the way down. they are stable and predictable while skiing through trees with a pack on.

I'd say rent a pair, and give them a fair shot. I don't think you need something huge like 138 for your every day backcountry ski, but something around 95mm is a great size to start. Then later when you realize the potential, go for the big boys.