I figured it was about time I posted an update about my Santa Anas. Last time I posted in this thread I'd just had my first full touring day on them. Since then, I took them on a 4-day hut-based touring trip, another hut trip that turned into 1 day of skiing in the rain, some quick evening tours, and a skiied a full day on-resort at Castle Mountain on them to try and get more of a feel for how they ski.
Touring:
Through the 4-day trip we had progressively more snow. Started off with some thin crust that broke easily. The next day we had highly variable conditions while touring but somehow picked a ski line that was soft. The third day we had a few inches of fresh hero snow. And the 4th day we had rapid accumulation of very wet snow that we were skiing on very mellow slopes. The skis handled the first 3 days well but didn't like skiing the wet junk on the 4th day. More slope angle might have been helpful. I still felt in the backseat through this trip, though on hero snow day I was able to focus on getting myself forward. I was cranking the top 2 buckles on my boots in an effort to keep myself back in them. I was very much in the backseat on that last day in the muck, after a fall on turn 2 thanks to a diving tip.
Then I took them on what was supposed to be a 2-day/2-night hut trip. We skiied in at night and then woke to pouring rain. So up we went, finally getting above the snow line. The slope we skiied at the top was not bad...hard to turn but manageable. And then we got down into the trees and rain again, and eventually I actually gave up turning and was just traversing/kick turning to get down. I didn't trust the combination of myself, skis, and boots to actually turn before the approaching trees.
I spent the weekend at Castle Mountain after the touring in the rain disaster, and although it had rained & then re-frozen low on the mountain, the upper mountain was soft and on day 2 we got some fresh. I decided to take the Santa Anas up for the day with no pack and see how this new set-up actually skis in a variety of conditions. The morning snow was a bit wind slabby, and fresh turns were actually quite a lot of work. The skis broke through the crust ok, though it took quite a lot of focus to stay mostly out of the backseat and anywhere near balanced. It was much easier to stay forward on steeper slopes where my uphill knee ends up quite near my torso anyway. As soon as I got on mellower slopes I crept towards the back again.
So, I think the conclusion of that novel is that I don't like how much I feel in the backseat with this Santa Ana/Fischer Transalp combo and mounting point. I felt a bit more stable with my old Garmont Zena/Atomic Century setup. But, I can make it work.