Some of you may remember that i made an impulse purchase with these skis which I ordered in November. I had read a lot of reviews on rockered skis with traditional sidecut and I was looking for a powder specific ski that was much more user friendly on hard snow than a Reverse/Reverse ski like my DP Lotus 138's. The Lhasa Pow seemed to be the one that sounded best to me based on the reviews.
Well I finally got these things out in 2 awesome powder days in Montana on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday there was 10-12 inches of fresh and we had the same on Wednesday. On the ridge where snow blew into the bowl it was 2-3 feet deep in spots. In a word these skis rock!! This is the best powder ski that I have been on and I like them better than the Lotus 138's (reverse/reverse) because they are much more like regular skis. Float is exceptional, tip dive is non existent. You can pretty much take on any turn shape you wish in? soft snow from GS turns at speed to powder 8 turns to borderline straightlining with slight turns. I was able to rip faster and more aggressively than on any other soft snow ski I have been on (maybe the lotus 138's are similar in ability to be aggressive, but I don't love the width under foot at 138mm). At 112 underfoot these seemed just perfect.
If these things were an absolute blast in powder, they really shined as well in crud and bumps with fresh snow. I have never been able to ski so aggressively through this stuff. I really did feel like superman. As well, because of the tip rocker you can stay way forward on them through everything and this means virtually no quad burn!!! I was shot after two days of skiing on these but it was because of how aggressively I skied and how many laps I skied. You will ski fast and hard on these skis!!
In the trees these things were awesome as well, and they are some of the easiest skis for tree skiing that I have been on.
As for groomed terrain, they are more than acceptable. To carve them you need to stay way forward on the ski (where you are supposed to be anyway). The sweet spot is not huge and I was not dynamically carving tight arcs, but they act nicely on hard snow and they are quite comfortable to carve gs arcs at speed (not even close to possible on reverse/reverse skis which are borderline dangerous on hard snow at speed!!)
On Tuesday afternoon I switched into my Mojo 94's for two runs on the ridge. After skiing the Lhasa Pows, the Mojo's were just too soft. I had to really dial it down. They skied fine and they were fun but I really missed the firmness of the Lhasa's. What is amazing about them is that they are a reasonably stiff ski that is easy to maneuver. This is very hard to find. Generally stiff skis like to go straight and these are like butter to turn.
I would still call this a very powder specific ski and for those that want a great powder ski that will carve like a race ski, I don't think it has arrived yet. Still, on big snow days, this ski will not disappoint the whole day even when it is totally cut up and bumped out. I highly reccomend these!!!
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