realskiers

Liam sounds like an interesting ski as well...

AND you're right...sure is purrty!

Liam, the only personal fetish (well the ones I can speak openly about) is the turing radius. I've always found the longer TR skis to be a weee bit more cumbersome feeling. Now that may not be the case but the quickness of the Rev with it's 16m TR makes it easy to flick, stick and slick! I'm not what one would call a power skier...but finesse...that also may drive my interest towards the shorter TR.

Liam, does it feel quicker than it's 22TR might indicate?

Interesting point about wide skis in the crud...I agree with you too...that makes or breaks the quality of a ski to me as well since I actually like skiing the dregs along the edges. Deflection is not our friend.


G

It's funny to think of 22m in a 186 110mm waisted ski as a big turn radius...by comparison, my Head Rock n Roll 95 (180) has a 19.5m turn--and neither feels cumbersome at all.  For me, in chaotic crud specifically, I always find shorter turn radii skis a little to hooky and not as free-feeling as I like (The Shaman is a half exception to this...not hooky and very stable, but still I always felt locked into a short turn on those).  Except for carving/ hard snow skis, I'm not a fan of short turn radii (and even on hard snow I like 15m as the magic number give or take a meter)-which is why I didn't like the Ullr's Chariot at all.

But to the question, based on one very good day's experience, The lightness of the ski coupled with it's surprising stability made it very easy to maneuver quickly through tight spaces.  The flex is a true medium, and short turns felt good. 

However, I will say that I found the Howitzer worked best when using a solid medium radius turn in the crud--Taking that extra second to let the ski breath and bite before transitioning--and that is both a function of Turn radius, but also width and length.  I will also add, specifically to Gary, using a little Clendenin-style inside foot drift in the trees is money on these skis and helps make those much shorter, tighter turns on this bigger ski.

There are so many great skis now at every length and width....Gary, Have you tried a Shaman??  You might really love it if short radius is important to you--to me, it's the only credible short turn radii Fat skis I have used.  I'd get the 161 and carve it up..