Shamans!!

[jbotti]

I just came back form 15 days in MT. My laptop crahsed and burned on the third day and I was pretty much in no mans land with my wife and daughter only having Macs. Crazy as it may seem I could not find this site with any google searches. Weird!!

I will make a couple of comments from my trip. First the Tri One tuning tool is great. It took some playing around with the finish (how much emery and diamond stone to de burr) but once dialed in the edges are perfect.

Second, everyone knows that I love Peter's site and I have bought many skis without demoing based on his picks. I bought last years Sultan 85 (his ski of the year last year) based on his rave comments. This is a fine ski, but IMO there really is nothing about it that is even close to exceptional. It is a little less stiff than I would like, it has almost no pop when you load the ski (my head IM 78 and Peak 88 will lift you off the ground when you bend the ski in an arc). It carves OK, it busts crud OK. I did find that I was skiing bumps very well on it, but when I went to other skis I realized that it is just my bumps skliing improving. I bought it cheap so no big deal.

Lastly, I got to ski my Shamans in 4-5 days of knee deep snow (yes, we were incredibly blessed this Holiday season wth the most snow ever during these 2 weeks). For me, this is the best powder ski that I have ever skied or owned. It is just about the perfect stiffness (could handle it slightly more but this would be nitpicking). The ski turns on a dime, carves beautiful arcs and it is hard (but not impossible) to dive the tips. I really did feel like superman on them at times especially in the steeps. I felt like they really complimented the way that I want to ski and I would call these the true PMTS powder ski. The 18m TR is about as tight as they come in a wide powder ski at 184cm long (yes some rockered skis have tight turn radius, but that is because they are have such short running lengths). I even took this ski out the day after a powder day and skied it for the morning. I was very impressed with how will it handled the harder firmer conditions (but I switched half way through the day to my IM 78's). Did some very steep tree skiing on these and wow, it felt easy. The ski is not quick edge to edge (as you would expect at 110m underfoot) but it is hard to find anything else about it that is not super for soft snow conditions. It skis shorter or at it's length and I would call it a very user friendly ski especially for anyone that likes to tip the skis first versus pivoting them. They do pivot nicely as long as your weight is not back. All in all a great ski. I love them!!

[Ron]

glad you liked them!  Quick edge to edge.... gotta love that......  like saying the 78's dont float well....  a fun ski for sure for its intended use. 

[Gary]

JB....were you on the new boots?

Glad to hear the tune was good but with the conditions you had.....blunt edges would have performed well me thinks..

Nice review...sounds like it was a fantastic snow! Glad you got some!

G

[jbotti]

The Dodeg boots will have to wait until next weekend. We had so much snow there really was never a day that was a pure groomer day. It looked like New Years day would be a bluebird day with no new snow. It was but it was -8 F. We skipped skiing that day and the forecast was more of the same tye next day. When I woke up another 8" had fallen and I was headed out to ski some pow!! It was one of those amazing stretches with fresh snow almost every night!! Bad news for testing the dodges, great news for the powder hound in me!!

Harald set the boots up pretty agressive for me. The canting is higher than on me Heads and he dialed up the forward lean. It may end up being too much but on groomers it should be incredibly responsive. I will take them out next Saturday assuming it's not a pow day.

[Ron]

Sounds great. I am hearing a 2 boot quiver for you!  We had 4 days of non-stop at the Boat as well. Just about the same conditions it sounds.  Nice!

[jbotti]

Whereas I can and do make a strong case for a multi ski quiver I am not sure that multi boot quivers work or make sense. The WC skiers are skiing different boots in almost every event, but they are on snow and on each specific pair of boots 325 days per year. At 45-50 days (although my goal is to hit 60 days this year) I am just not sure it makes sense. Harald swears that once I ski the Dodges when they are set up right for me (which is what he thinks he has done) that I will never look back and I will drop my Heads from the rotation. He may be right, but I love me Heads both the Raptor 130 and the Raptor 150. They rock and they are set up perfectly for me. Obviously I will know for sure next weekend.

On boots BTW, I skied my Raptor 130's in Tahoe on Tuesday. The high temps were in the mid 30's amd it was a bluebird day (tried to demo the MX 88 at Start Haus and they were all out and Phil was not in). At the warmest point of the day my boots felt like rubber and I was hating how flexy they had gotten. In Montana my 130's probably ski like 150's most of the time and in cold temps I can hardly tell the difference in flex between the two. I was really shocked at how much the higher humidity and higher temps in Tahoe affected the flex. Max from the PMTS forum always complains about his 130 flex boots in warmer weather up at Bachelor. I didn't really understand what he was talking about until Tuesday. This is another reason why Carbon Fiber has advantages for boots, one flex in all temps.

The good news on Tuesday was that by 2:45 the sun had subsided substantially and the temps started to drop and before long the boots started to feel like their old selves, nice and stiff and tight.

Ron, that's great that you hit it big as well. I'm sure the Benny's were fun. I can't wait to get back and ski my Shamans!!

[Ron]

sounds like a good plan!  Too bad you didn't get on the 88's.  Maybe next time.  Enjoy the Shammy's they really are a blast. I forgot just how much fun they were. They are siting in Steamboat.  I am currently infatuated with the Bennys.....