bounceswoosh
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Some of you may remember that I bought the 2012 Icelantic Gypsy the instant they became available in the fall of 2011. I loved my Icelantic Nomads, and I fell in love with the walrus motif and the purple bases as soon as I saw the pictures on this thread (I feel like I saw them in a different thread that actually had a review, but these are definitely the pictures): https://www.epicski.com/t/98885/breaking-news-epic-exclusive-2011-12-icelantic-gypsy
It may shock you when I tell you the following: topsheets and base color are terrible reasons to choose a ski. Maybe especially a ski that's 125mm underfoot - far from a generalist. I'm sure other factors were on my mind, but I'll be honest. These skis attracted me like a flower attracts a bee.
Anyway, so I skied them for the first time at Silverton two seasons ago, which is kind of a rough place to get used to a ski - it's not like you can take a few runs on a groomer to dial them in, and I didn't have any familiarity with the terrain. I didn't ski them again until Silverton last season. The wet snow shredded all the wax off my skis, but I didn't realize it. I took them out the following weekend for a powder day at Breck, and spent the entire time with my skis sticking to the snow, feeling like I was trying to ski two by fours. After that, I avoided these skis. I loved the idea of them, but the reality hadn't measured up. And I didn't have any more big powder days in which to consider them.
After getting the Sick Day 110s a few weeks ago, I've been thinking I really need to figure out if I like these Gypsies. If I do, great. If I don't, I should still sell them while they have some pull.
So hey, this weekend. Opensnow is predicting basically unending snow. If I can't make them work for me in those conditions, they are not the ski for me. Let's do this thing. Wax them like crazy, then give them a solid shot.
It was snowing when I got to the condo at 11pm. In the morning, the car was covered in a good four inches of snow. For once, the predictions came through. An excellent day for a fat ski.
First run: warm up by skiing Spruce, which is some tracked up soft snow over a groomed base. I felt … okay? I was getting knocked around a bit by changing density. I had to remind myself that powder doesn't like horizontal skiing, so I needed to have a lighter touch and let the skis run a bit. I could feel some scraping here and there under the soft stuff, which I did not like.
Second run: Mayday to High Anxiety. Mayday is a short steep pitch that tends to accumulate snow, and in fact this is the first place where the Gypsies felt good. They felt reassuring in the soft stuff. High Anxiety is a bump run that today was covered in powder. I skied down. It felt … okay? Not amazing, not terrible. But I knew - as @SkiGAP has described - that it takes a few runs to figure a ski out. I was going to ski on these planks all day, and they'd work for me, or I'd have to find them a new home. No matter how pretty they are or how well they match my insulated Armada pants. (Woman on chair, when I described the goal of the day: "But they're purple! And have walruses! And they match your pants!!" Indeed.)
It snowed all day today, with winds getting so bad that they closed 6 Chair before we had a chance to ski it, and even closed E Chair before the end of the day. I experienced full-on vertigo in a white out - skiing a mellow blue to the Peak 9 restaurant. It was hairy. But during the day, something magical happened. I started really digging the Gypsies.
I was at first apprehensive about trees, even easy ones. But I quickly realized that it was all in my head. If I thought "Oh man, these skis are so fat, how are they going to turn?" - I had trouble turning them. But if I forgot which skis I was using and just did my usual thing through the trees, they were great! They smeared like nobody's business. Super maneuverable.
I was apprehensive about groomers. (Actually, everything had snow all over, but the groomers had been groomed the night before.) No worries. I quickly adjusted to the wider skis and had no trouble. As DH said when I expressed my concern about the 20' turn radius - "Sweetie, you don't carve anyway. You smear. If you don't carve, the ski's turn radius really doesn't matter."
I was apprehensive about steeps with big soft bumps and crud. No worries. In fact, after a few runs, I experienced an "Ahah!" moment with these skis. I realized they wanted to ski big arcing turns (at least compared to my usual style), and if I would give them what they wanted, they would pay me back by ignoring anything in their way. Powder, chowder, crud - it mattered not. (They don't, as it turns out, plow right through trees. I will report this to Icelantic so they can improve their skis. *mutter*)
I found that I just did not get tossed around on these skis. They plow through anything they encounter. Not just soft snow and crud. At the end of the day, almost to the base, I hit a bunch of hard mini rollers at a pretty good clip. It's the kind of thing I would normally expect to toss me around quite a bit, but I just held a neutral stance, and the Gypsies just kept going. Tanks, these are.
The Gypsies would not be my first or second choice on a hardpack day. But on a day with several inches of fresh and more falling from the sky, they were super fun. The trees were great, but I felt they did best on open steeps with soft or crud snow, where they gave me the confidence to open up the throttle a bit and let them run.
I suspect that when I first bought them, I didn't have the skills to handle them in a way that would let them shine. And the days when I will definitely choose them to ski will not be ultra frequent. But now I know - on a real powder day, these skis put a big ol' grin on my face.
It may shock you when I tell you the following: topsheets and base color are terrible reasons to choose a ski. Maybe especially a ski that's 125mm underfoot - far from a generalist. I'm sure other factors were on my mind, but I'll be honest. These skis attracted me like a flower attracts a bee.
Anyway, so I skied them for the first time at Silverton two seasons ago, which is kind of a rough place to get used to a ski - it's not like you can take a few runs on a groomer to dial them in, and I didn't have any familiarity with the terrain. I didn't ski them again until Silverton last season. The wet snow shredded all the wax off my skis, but I didn't realize it. I took them out the following weekend for a powder day at Breck, and spent the entire time with my skis sticking to the snow, feeling like I was trying to ski two by fours. After that, I avoided these skis. I loved the idea of them, but the reality hadn't measured up. And I didn't have any more big powder days in which to consider them.
After getting the Sick Day 110s a few weeks ago, I've been thinking I really need to figure out if I like these Gypsies. If I do, great. If I don't, I should still sell them while they have some pull.
So hey, this weekend. Opensnow is predicting basically unending snow. If I can't make them work for me in those conditions, they are not the ski for me. Let's do this thing. Wax them like crazy, then give them a solid shot.
It was snowing when I got to the condo at 11pm. In the morning, the car was covered in a good four inches of snow. For once, the predictions came through. An excellent day for a fat ski.
First run: warm up by skiing Spruce, which is some tracked up soft snow over a groomed base. I felt … okay? I was getting knocked around a bit by changing density. I had to remind myself that powder doesn't like horizontal skiing, so I needed to have a lighter touch and let the skis run a bit. I could feel some scraping here and there under the soft stuff, which I did not like.
Second run: Mayday to High Anxiety. Mayday is a short steep pitch that tends to accumulate snow, and in fact this is the first place where the Gypsies felt good. They felt reassuring in the soft stuff. High Anxiety is a bump run that today was covered in powder. I skied down. It felt … okay? Not amazing, not terrible. But I knew - as @SkiGAP has described - that it takes a few runs to figure a ski out. I was going to ski on these planks all day, and they'd work for me, or I'd have to find them a new home. No matter how pretty they are or how well they match my insulated Armada pants. (Woman on chair, when I described the goal of the day: "But they're purple! And have walruses! And they match your pants!!" Indeed.)
It snowed all day today, with winds getting so bad that they closed 6 Chair before we had a chance to ski it, and even closed E Chair before the end of the day. I experienced full-on vertigo in a white out - skiing a mellow blue to the Peak 9 restaurant. It was hairy. But during the day, something magical happened. I started really digging the Gypsies.
I was at first apprehensive about trees, even easy ones. But I quickly realized that it was all in my head. If I thought "Oh man, these skis are so fat, how are they going to turn?" - I had trouble turning them. But if I forgot which skis I was using and just did my usual thing through the trees, they were great! They smeared like nobody's business. Super maneuverable.
I was apprehensive about groomers. (Actually, everything had snow all over, but the groomers had been groomed the night before.) No worries. I quickly adjusted to the wider skis and had no trouble. As DH said when I expressed my concern about the 20' turn radius - "Sweetie, you don't carve anyway. You smear. If you don't carve, the ski's turn radius really doesn't matter."
I was apprehensive about steeps with big soft bumps and crud. No worries. In fact, after a few runs, I experienced an "Ahah!" moment with these skis. I realized they wanted to ski big arcing turns (at least compared to my usual style), and if I would give them what they wanted, they would pay me back by ignoring anything in their way. Powder, chowder, crud - it mattered not. (They don't, as it turns out, plow right through trees. I will report this to Icelantic so they can improve their skis. *mutter*)
I found that I just did not get tossed around on these skis. They plow through anything they encounter. Not just soft snow and crud. At the end of the day, almost to the base, I hit a bunch of hard mini rollers at a pretty good clip. It's the kind of thing I would normally expect to toss me around quite a bit, but I just held a neutral stance, and the Gypsies just kept going. Tanks, these are.
The Gypsies would not be my first or second choice on a hardpack day. But on a day with several inches of fresh and more falling from the sky, they were super fun. The trees were great, but I felt they did best on open steeps with soft or crud snow, where they gave me the confidence to open up the throttle a bit and let them run.
I suspect that when I first bought them, I didn't have the skills to handle them in a way that would let them shine. And the days when I will definitely choose them to ski will not be ultra frequent. But now I know - on a real powder day, these skis put a big ol' grin on my face.
