gear question; Black diamond kilowatts

Hoping someone here will have some advice or be able to point me in the right direction.......


I have a pair of 2009 black diamond kilowatts, 185 cm, mounted with fritsche freeride pros. I am 6'2" 190 lbs and a moderately aggressive skier. I have skied the set up a few times with my garmont endorphins and have felt very out of control on each trip. The skiis seem to take tons of power to turn which is the opposite of what others have said about them. This is my first at set up and im looking for comments/ advice about how to improve it. I am looking for a solid ski mountaineering rig.

I've the same ski, & am close to same weight & height. The first several times on the ski were the same - like riding a ski that didn't turn. I then moved my bindings -Dynafits- about 1.5 Cm forward, detuned (filed to ease the edges) the tip and tails and put a 1 degree bevel on the bases. This helped, but ski is still pretty dead; just OK on hard snow or ice but not fun on anything else, so am retiring them to rock ski status. Good luck, and don't give up on bc skiing because of those boards-may be better off dumping them & getting new, lighter, livelier skis, even if used

I loved 'em. Might still be on them if I didn't lose one, though my reverse sidecut fatties are superior to them (and any other ski i've tried) in soft snow conditions.

You guys should go out hard this year early and try to bust one, then sell me the spare for dirt cheap.

You have the tan Kilowatts, right? I freeheel on these as my go-to ski. 175, 5-9, 175. They are quite stiff and take some work in variable hard snow, but they definitely float and plow. They do better when I pick up speed ASAP.
Significantly, the newer version of the 'Watt has been softened a bit.

Mine were the first year of the green series, 09's. They must ski different than the tan's, as friends skiing the tan's like them - couldn't just be me

As the saying goes, "size matters." I have a 175cm tan pair and am 5' 10" at 190lbs. I ski them with a pair of BD Method boots and love the set up. The thing with touring is not to get too much ski as in too long. The shorter length turns easier (both uphill kick turns and downhill) and are marginally lighter. Unless you intend to press your touring setup into side country use or are an aggro hucker, you should go shorter which will match much better with touring boots which despite the ad copy just don't have the power of downhill boots (even though endorphins are supposed to be 130 flex).