tseeb
Well-known member
I left San Jose about 4:10 and arrived Palisades about 8. I loaded Red Dog chair at 8:30 to get a couple of runs on my skis before demo event that I'd signed up for started at 9. At the top liftee let me know that lift was only open for racers and coaches. Patrol was OK with me going down either side and recommended Resort side and a coffee at the Resort. The E-facing top of the Resort run was softening, but most of the rest made me glad I’d sharpened edges previous day and it stayed that way until about 10. I waited almost 10 minutes at bottom for Resort chair to open to the public and skied very firm easier way down Red Dog to get to demos. Picture is from Red Dog chair of Jr skier throwing helicopter with racer on course higher up.
The demos I skied were:
Blizzard Brahma 88 - 183
Volkyl Deacon 84 - 177
K2 Mindbender 108Ti - 179
Nordica Unleashed 108 - 180
Rossignol Sender 94Ti - 180
The Brahmas were great on early firm Spring snow. Volkyls were not as impressive, could have been tune as they did not seemed to not slide as well as my skis or Brahmas. The skis I enjoyed the most and would consider buying were the K2s. They seemed to handle everything well, especially considering their width. I have 94 mm DPS Cassiars that I thought were my one ski quiver for traveling, but I was disappointed with them in Bookends at Snowbird in day-old 15+". The K2s were the only skis I went off of the groomer on the Resort side and the only skis I took as far as Headwall where I skied North Bowl.
Most of the skis I took for a Resort run, then a Red Dog run and a KT lap, twice skiing Saddle, once taking entrance under top of chair into GS Bowl into Ladies Downhill and twice taking Ladies Downhill from top which required removing skis for about 15 feet on back of McConkey’s where I lot of people were hiking up to top as it was the day of Shane's downhill on snowblades.
My friend, who is a long-time manager at Sports Basement, had recommended the Nordica Unleashed, but he also did not recommend trying anything over 100. They did not bring the 98s and the 108s where not impressive back-to-back after the K2s. There were a lot of costumes.
I did not find my friend (who day-tripped from Morgan Hill with his 20-something son) until afternoon when he was busy was passing out swag to the reps so after skiing Resort run about 2:30, I waited about 15 minutes at top of Red Dog for him. We skied Red Dog twice, where surface was staying firmer than Resort side due to salting, before I talked him into a KT lap. We thought we’d lost his son on the way to KT, but he caught up to us when we were removing skis to get around the back of McConkey’s. When we got to Ladies Downhill his son balked saying he’d never skied anything like that. Dad coaxed/coached him down, but partway down I realized it was already after three when demo event was over so once through worst of it I pointed them toward top of Exhibition/Julia's Gold and left. Son said he was glad he was on demos as could not have done it on his own skis. Conditions were soft bumps so it was not treacherous. On my first time through, I’d found the choke was too confining so I avoided it by staying on wall to skiers right next two times. My watched counted 25.4K
The Rossi reps had already taken down their tent, but I was not the last one returning skis so they were OK enough with me that I was able to talk them out of one of their June Lake Brewing beers. The event sponsor also poured me a Tequila shot. Then when I returned to car and was moving my wallet from ski pants to shorts, I realized they still had my ID and credit card which I was able to get back by returning to event in shorts and sandals. I also helped Boarding for Breast Cancer people move their folded-up tent and other stuff from event to near parking lot. Demo event was very well run with ski companies having 2-3 people staffing tents so there was no waiting to swap skis.
The demos I skied were:
Blizzard Brahma 88 - 183
Volkyl Deacon 84 - 177
K2 Mindbender 108Ti - 179
Nordica Unleashed 108 - 180
Rossignol Sender 94Ti - 180
The Brahmas were great on early firm Spring snow. Volkyls were not as impressive, could have been tune as they did not seemed to not slide as well as my skis or Brahmas. The skis I enjoyed the most and would consider buying were the K2s. They seemed to handle everything well, especially considering their width. I have 94 mm DPS Cassiars that I thought were my one ski quiver for traveling, but I was disappointed with them in Bookends at Snowbird in day-old 15+". The K2s were the only skis I went off of the groomer on the Resort side and the only skis I took as far as Headwall where I skied North Bowl.
Most of the skis I took for a Resort run, then a Red Dog run and a KT lap, twice skiing Saddle, once taking entrance under top of chair into GS Bowl into Ladies Downhill and twice taking Ladies Downhill from top which required removing skis for about 15 feet on back of McConkey’s where I lot of people were hiking up to top as it was the day of Shane's downhill on snowblades.
My friend, who is a long-time manager at Sports Basement, had recommended the Nordica Unleashed, but he also did not recommend trying anything over 100. They did not bring the 98s and the 108s where not impressive back-to-back after the K2s. There were a lot of costumes.
I did not find my friend (who day-tripped from Morgan Hill with his 20-something son) until afternoon when he was busy was passing out swag to the reps so after skiing Resort run about 2:30, I waited about 15 minutes at top of Red Dog for him. We skied Red Dog twice, where surface was staying firmer than Resort side due to salting, before I talked him into a KT lap. We thought we’d lost his son on the way to KT, but he caught up to us when we were removing skis to get around the back of McConkey’s. When we got to Ladies Downhill his son balked saying he’d never skied anything like that. Dad coaxed/coached him down, but partway down I realized it was already after three when demo event was over so once through worst of it I pointed them toward top of Exhibition/Julia's Gold and left. Son said he was glad he was on demos as could not have done it on his own skis. Conditions were soft bumps so it was not treacherous. On my first time through, I’d found the choke was too confining so I avoided it by staying on wall to skiers right next two times. My watched counted 25.4K
The Rossi reps had already taken down their tent, but I was not the last one returning skis so they were OK enough with me that I was able to talk them out of one of their June Lake Brewing beers. The event sponsor also poured me a Tequila shot. Then when I returned to car and was moving my wallet from ski pants to shorts, I realized they still had my ID and credit card which I was able to get back by returning to event in shorts and sandals. I also helped Boarding for Breast Cancer people move their folded-up tent and other stuff from event to near parking lot. Demo event was very well run with ski companies having 2-3 people staffing tents so there was no waiting to swap skis.
