Playful charger touring skis

J

JonnyK

Member
I've been looking around for a pair of skis that are fairly light for touring but can also charge big turns on open faces and make playful slashes in powder. For the past two seasons I have been touring on my ON3P Jeffrey 114s mounted with dukes and I love the way they ski but they are a pretty heavy set up to lug up the mountain.

So far I have looked at:

187 Moment Underworld

186 Moment Exit World

184/189 ON3P Steeple 112

188 Icelandic Vanguard

I will be mounting these with Kingpins and I am open to any ski suggestions
 
Our Chairman might be worth looking into. 189 cm, 112 mm underfoot and they weigh in at 2 kg per ski with a full carbon layup. They also just went on sale.

http://kfskis.com/products/chairman

Here is Heffy riding the chairman for reference.

[video]https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/761043/Heff-cruizin-Snowbird[/video]

[url=http://
 
13667904:cydwhit said:
Yeah, and in the slightly narrower bracket, the KF All Mountain is pretty damn perfect for me as a touring weight ski that doesn't ski like one, I wrote this review on Blister (shameless promotion) http://blistergearreview.com/gear-reviews/kitten-factory-all-mountain

I'll probably be on those for 90% of my touring through August.
Click to expand...

Yeah I read your review a few days ago and they seem like a super fun ski! The only thing that didn't appeal to me was you said they didn't have enough float for high speed arcing turns in more open terrain and here in Alaska I do a lot of that.
 
13667983:JonnyK said:
Yeah I read your review a few days ago and they seem like a super fun ski! The only thing that didn't appeal to me was you said they didn't have enough float for high speed arcing turns in more open terrain and here in Alaska I do a lot of that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, so for that sort of touring ski the Chairman should be super awesome.

We should have a review up of that soonish, unfortunately New Mexico hasn't been getting any snow, so JE has been holding off on that one...

Sorry, didn't read your OP as well as I should have!
 
13667988:cydwhit said:
Yeah, so for that sort of touring ski the Chairman should be super awesome.

We should have a review up of that soonish, unfortunately New Mexico hasn't been getting any snow, so JE has been holding off on that one...

Sorry, didn't read your OP as well as I should have!
Click to expand...

Sweet I'll be looking out for that!
 
13667983:JonnyK said:
Yeah I read your review a few days ago and they seem like a super fun ski! The only thing that didn't appeal to me was you said they didn't have enough float for high speed arcing turns in more open terrain and here in Alaska I do a lot of that.
Click to expand...

the all mountain is amazing man. skied on it everyday before my vishnus and will continue to do so
 
If you re really looking into serious backcountry touring (note: this excludes side/slackcountry touring/hiking) I wont recommend any skis with a waist wider than 105mm.

Scott Cascade 95 with a Kingping or something similar would be perfect. Nice tip and tail rocker, quiet light, perfect if you plan longer ascents. (4000 plus feet). Maybe the Cascade 110 if you wanna use the ski for mainly fluff!

Blackcrows Navis Freebird would be another pretty sweet option. 102 under foot but still light enough for serious touring. Ski was fun while demoing. It was possible for me to have some with them in the park too :D On G3 Ion 12 demos haha. Switch landings are possible :) Still not comparable to a Jeffrey.

I dont see why would tour on anything over 105mm. You ll have enough float with a 95-105 ski on most of the days as well plus zhey are lighter and more comfortable for touring as well.

I d recommend mount the Jeffrey with something like a Pivot 14/18 or STH2 13/16 for resort slashing, jibbing and having fun on the reaaallly deep days and a light setup for backcountry fun and serious touring.
 
13670762:fab02 said:
If you re really looking into serious backcountry touring (note: this excludes side/slackcountry touring/hiking) I wont recommend any skis with a waist wider than 105mm.

Scott Cascade 95 with a Kingping or something similar would be perfect. Nice tip and tail rocker, quiet light, perfect if you plan longer ascents. (4000 plus feet). Maybe the Cascade 110 if you wanna use the ski for mainly fluff!

Blackcrows Navis Freebird would be another pretty sweet option. 102 under foot but still light enough for serious touring. Ski was fun while demoing. It was possible for me to have some with them in the park too :D On G3 Ion 12 demos haha. Switch landings are possible :) Still not comparable to a Jeffrey.

I dont see why would tour on anything over 105mm. You ll have enough float with a 95-105 ski on most of the days as well plus zhey are lighter and more comfortable for touring as well.

I d recommend mount the Jeffrey with something like a Pivot 14/18 or STH2 13/16 for resort slashing, jibbing and having fun on the reaaallly deep days and a light setup for backcountry fun and serious touring.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've thought about getting a narrower more serious touring ski but I'm not really touring to do week long trips or make daisy chains turns down open slopes. I'm touring to ski fast through deep powder and down steep lines . Almost all of my days touring will be single day trips with a fairly light pack so having Skis that are super light is less important to me than having Skis that ski well.
 
13670775:JonnyK said:
Yeah I've thought about getting a narrower more serious touring ski but I'm not really touring to do week long trips or make daisy chains turns down open slopes. I'm touring to ski fast through deep powder and down steep lines . Almost all of my days touring will be single day trips with a fairly light pack so having Skis that are super light is less important to me than having Skis that ski well.
Click to expand...

CobraComander's suggestion of dropping your kingpins on the Jeffreys is not a bad idea at all. I'd be pretty hyped on that setup myself!

I disagree with the guy telling you that you should go way skinny, the All Mountain at 105mm underfoot works well for me on like 75% of touring days in the Tetons, but if I was in AK, or if I had a more aggressive style I can totally understand wanting something wider. It works well for me because I'm either skiing hippy pow or tighter couloirs most of the time, but for actually charging wide open bowls in waist deep pow, and for more mini golf / jumping off of stuff, it's hard to beat an inbounds ski that you like.

I had G3 IONs on my Shreditor 112's, and later on some Revision Subtractions, and honestly, they tour well enough that I didn't really mind the weight of those skis at all.

Get an inbounds ski that you like, and throw the kingpins on it if you're looking for something to ski just like you would in the resort.

Next winter I really want to build out a setup like that, something like Kartel 108's with kingpins and Mountain Explores....
 
13670775:JonnyK said:
Yeah I've thought about getting a narrower more serious touring ski but I'm not really touring to do week long trips or make daisy chains turns down open slopes. I'm touring to ski fast through deep powder and down steep lines . Almost all of my days touring will be single day trips with a fairly light pack so having Skis that are super light is less important to me than having Skis that ski well.
Click to expand...

Yeah you re kinda right but light doesnt mean that a ski skis bad. Best example: Kitten Fact. Lazers are wayy lighter than Jeffrey 114. Does the KF Lazer skis really that much worse?. And the float with a ski around 100 +/-5 mm is totally enough for 80-90% of your days.

F.e. the Armada Declivity is pretty stiff due to metal in its construction means pretty stiff but still faiiirly light with around 1,9-2KGs/ski in 184cm. The Armada with your Kingping could be something for skiing even the gnarliest chutes (proper technique recommended :D) and still feel super safe.

Also wider skis are getting quiet annoying on windblown or crusty traverses/faces. If you just wanna do some Sidecountry touring up to 800 vert. meters/ 2,5k feet you can take wider stuff, but then I dont understand why you wanna take a Kingping and not a Guardian/Adrenalin/Tracker/Duke/Baron....

My 2 cents.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top