OK, I've been meaning to post about it -- just haven't had time. Spoiler: I went ahead and bought the Montero AWs in the 150 length, new, with Salomon Strive bindings. Peggy at LSM also worked with me on the price, and since it turned out to be just about $100 more than a great deal that I found online, I bought them from LSM in appreciation for their willingness to negotiate and to keep a good relationship with them. I also like supporting small businesses.
So here are my observations: First, as
@Peppermint noted above... "the AW has the perfect combo of stiffness underfoot and softness at the tips. The AW is also a bit wider...." Although I like a light ski, the Nela 80 was too light -- i noticed the performance difference immediately when I compared them on the same day. The Montero is a bit stiffer and definitely heftier, and although it's also light, it's not too light, and the dampness was perfect. They also like to go fast, and while the Nela 80s (and my Sheeva 9s) clearly had a speed limit, I didn't feel that with the Montero AWs -- they could easily handle all the speed I cared to try them at, and I didn't get that "OMG -- I'm gonna die!" feeling that I get when I hit a certain speed on my Sheevas (and the Nelas).
Another thing I loved about the AWs were their ability to perform in less-than-ideal snow conditions and crud. On Mon-Tues at Taos Ski Valley after the expected 8-10" of snow blew away in the 70-80 mph winds, in the morning on Wed there was just about 4" of pretty dense snow (people from Tahoe compared it to Sierra Cement -
OpenSnow's est was ~ 9:1 snow: liquid ratio, which is far from Taos' usual 15-18:1), and they hadn't groomed, so by the time I got onto it there were big chunks of chopped-up crud everywhere. I had made the mistake of taking out my Sheeva 9s, expecting at least a small amount of light powder, and I found that I could barely ski in those conditions. In the places where there was only windblown dust on crust the Sheevas could barely get a grip, and they reallly couldn't handle the thick crud -- I was bounced around all over the place.
So I went back to the car and got the AWs to do a head-to-head, and OMG! What a difference! They carved the slick stuff and cut through the crud like it was nothing! I couldn't believe the difference, but I was sure glad I had them, or it would not have been any fun at all skiing for the last few days. I stil love my Sheeva 9s, but I really learned a lot about what type of ski to use, depending on the conditions!
The only thing I couldn't really do a fair comparison of them was on performance in the bumps, since the quality of the bumps has deteriorated over the past few wks with no fresh snow, so they were deeply carved out and skied-off. The AWs performed as well as could be expected, but there was no real way to assess "playfulness" in those kind of bumps.
In summary, I'm really glad I tried them out, and thank you to
@DebbieSue , who predicted perfectly how they would feel and encouraged me to try them out!
) but I still can't get those SC's out of my mind from my Christmas holiday skiing!!
Yes the "the couple who Stocklis together stays together" Loved that
Even if you can tell a difference the question would then be, are they big enough to justify the higher price?! Can't wait to find out what you end up deciding.
, I broke my arm 2 weeks ago.
