Kimmyt
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Conditions: early season packed powder to hardpack in spots, later in the day it started to warm up and snowed a bit to add some softness here and there. I skied each ski on the runs that were open which usually was blue groomer --> blue groomer and some extremely awkward bumps on the side of the run to a blue/green groomer.
My skier type: 40 year old aggressive advanced Western (CO) skier, ski moderately fast at times and spend most of my time on ungroomed terrain including trees and bowls. 5'3", 135 lb.
What I'm looking for: a do-it-all ski that is enjoyable on ungroomed terrain and functions well enough in bumps and trees and steeps. Looking for stability at speed as well as a playfulness to allow me to explore terrain. Willing to sacrifice some performance in aspects in order to have a kind of jack-of-all trades ski. I'm generally a one ski quiver girl (current skis, Armada TST 165cm that I feel is slightly too short and unstable through crud) but am thinking of moving towards a 2 ski quiver with a mid-fat and a 105-110 mm waist powder ski in the future.
The skis:
Armada Reliance 102 ti, 172 cm: this was the first ski I tried. It was a little fatter than I want for a daily driver, but previously I had tried the Armada Trace 108 and really really enjoyed it so I figured I'd give it a whirl. In the past I have really enjoyed Armadas so this was my first stop of the day. Generally I think that a defining characteristic of Armada skis is a feeling of 'playfulness' that makes them a joy to ski as an all-mountain ski. Sadly I felt that this was distinctly lacking in this ski, it felt a bit planklike and while it was responsive, it felt heavy and wasnt as fun as I wanted. While I wouldn't call it a damp ski, it definitely had more of a dampening quality than I wanted it to have.
Black Crows Camox/ Camox Birdie 168cm and 174cm: 96 waist. I tried the 168 first and it immediately put a smile on my face. It was light, poppy, nimble, but still I was able to make bigger arced turns on the groomer without feeling instability. It was super fun in the bumps and was the best bump ski of the day that I tried (it was also the shortest, and had the lightest demo bindings on it which might explain my feelings about it). I then tried the longer length and I really enjoyed it on the groomer and in bigger turns but found it too unwieldy in the bumps. I wish the two lengths had the same bindings on them so I could have had less variables to compare the two but I decided that the 168 cm would be more versatile for me and it was a very strong contender.
Faction Dictator 2.0/x 171cm: 95 waist. I was unsure about this ski based on reviews going into the demo day but some of the descriptions intrigued me. It was described as a 'charger' and that it 'needed to be driven' which made me think it wouldnt be as playful as I was looking for. But I decided to take it out anyway, because I'm stubborn like that. This was the biggest surprise for me, it was super stable and just damp enough on the groomer and slightly chopped up snow, it was pretty easy to get forward on it and when I took it into the bumps I found it was surprisingly responsive and energetic. While bumps probably aren't its strong suit, it was easy enough to push into shorter turns that I think it would make an ideal all mountain ski. Popping off terrain features and catching little bits of air here and there was super fun because it was so stable to land at speed.
Rossignol Black Ops 9 Stargazer, 170 cm: at this length. this ski is listed as 94 waist so was a bit narrower than I had been considering and honestly I just took it out because the Rossi tent wasn't busy and I didn't know what else to try at the moment. This ski was a little damper than I was looking for but I found it extremely stable in both large and small radius turns. It seems like it would be a great all mountain ski for people looking for extra stability in ungroomed terrain, however I found it lacking in that 'playful' and energetic feeling I was looking for. It also felt like it had a bit of a speed limit at the upper ends and preferred to be skied at slower speeds.
I had some lunch and since I was getting tired and it was starting to snow a bit, I decided to go back and take out my two earlier contenders to see how I felt about them. I took out the Camox Birdie 168 and the Dictator again. I was suprised that my feelings on the Camox changed completely. While it still felt responsive and playful, now it felt too jittery and every bit of ungroomed snow I skied over translated directly to my legs in a bad way. In fact, I took a little fall on these when I hit a patch of scratch on a steeper pitch and bit it. I felt that maybe some of it was the tune (my left ski felt off) but also think that this ski in the shorter length just wasnt stable enough for me at the speeds I like to ski especially once the snow got more three dimensional. Still would be a great pure bump/tree ski but I am looking for something a bit more versatile than that. I took the Dictator out again, but I was really feeling trashed at this point so basically I wanted to see if I also disliked that ski compared to earlier (at which point I think it would just tell me that I should trust my earlier instincts since my legs were now too tired to really test skis effectively). But I still really liked the Dictator, it felt stable and comfortable on the now slightly softer and choppier groomers. I didn't take it in the bumps because my legs were too tired at that point, but I did some short radius turns and even though I was tired it was still pretty easy to bend.
Summary/results: I decided to ask Santa for the Dictators. I was surprised that I didn't think they were too stiff and aggressive for my style of skiing, especially since they are constructed with two sheets of metal in them. But I think that they don't really ski like a ski with lots of metal in them (compared to, say, the Nordica Enforcer which I tried in the past and found too burly and stiff for my style of skiing). They are slightly narrower than my current skis, but I think that in moderate amounts of powder they will work just fine although in the next year or two I may consider adding a powder ski into the mix and getting rid of my TSTs. My only concern about the Dictators is that I have read some reports of people snapping Factions due to some past manufacturing issues. However, I'm a 135 lb 40 year old woman, so I doubt I'll be doing anything crazy enough to snap a ski in half, as much as I would like to pretend that might be how I ski.
My skier type: 40 year old aggressive advanced Western (CO) skier, ski moderately fast at times and spend most of my time on ungroomed terrain including trees and bowls. 5'3", 135 lb.
What I'm looking for: a do-it-all ski that is enjoyable on ungroomed terrain and functions well enough in bumps and trees and steeps. Looking for stability at speed as well as a playfulness to allow me to explore terrain. Willing to sacrifice some performance in aspects in order to have a kind of jack-of-all trades ski. I'm generally a one ski quiver girl (current skis, Armada TST 165cm that I feel is slightly too short and unstable through crud) but am thinking of moving towards a 2 ski quiver with a mid-fat and a 105-110 mm waist powder ski in the future.
The skis:
Armada Reliance 102 ti, 172 cm: this was the first ski I tried. It was a little fatter than I want for a daily driver, but previously I had tried the Armada Trace 108 and really really enjoyed it so I figured I'd give it a whirl. In the past I have really enjoyed Armadas so this was my first stop of the day. Generally I think that a defining characteristic of Armada skis is a feeling of 'playfulness' that makes them a joy to ski as an all-mountain ski. Sadly I felt that this was distinctly lacking in this ski, it felt a bit planklike and while it was responsive, it felt heavy and wasnt as fun as I wanted. While I wouldn't call it a damp ski, it definitely had more of a dampening quality than I wanted it to have.
Black Crows Camox/ Camox Birdie 168cm and 174cm: 96 waist. I tried the 168 first and it immediately put a smile on my face. It was light, poppy, nimble, but still I was able to make bigger arced turns on the groomer without feeling instability. It was super fun in the bumps and was the best bump ski of the day that I tried (it was also the shortest, and had the lightest demo bindings on it which might explain my feelings about it). I then tried the longer length and I really enjoyed it on the groomer and in bigger turns but found it too unwieldy in the bumps. I wish the two lengths had the same bindings on them so I could have had less variables to compare the two but I decided that the 168 cm would be more versatile for me and it was a very strong contender.
Faction Dictator 2.0/x 171cm: 95 waist. I was unsure about this ski based on reviews going into the demo day but some of the descriptions intrigued me. It was described as a 'charger' and that it 'needed to be driven' which made me think it wouldnt be as playful as I was looking for. But I decided to take it out anyway, because I'm stubborn like that. This was the biggest surprise for me, it was super stable and just damp enough on the groomer and slightly chopped up snow, it was pretty easy to get forward on it and when I took it into the bumps I found it was surprisingly responsive and energetic. While bumps probably aren't its strong suit, it was easy enough to push into shorter turns that I think it would make an ideal all mountain ski. Popping off terrain features and catching little bits of air here and there was super fun because it was so stable to land at speed.
Rossignol Black Ops 9 Stargazer, 170 cm: at this length. this ski is listed as 94 waist so was a bit narrower than I had been considering and honestly I just took it out because the Rossi tent wasn't busy and I didn't know what else to try at the moment. This ski was a little damper than I was looking for but I found it extremely stable in both large and small radius turns. It seems like it would be a great all mountain ski for people looking for extra stability in ungroomed terrain, however I found it lacking in that 'playful' and energetic feeling I was looking for. It also felt like it had a bit of a speed limit at the upper ends and preferred to be skied at slower speeds.
I had some lunch and since I was getting tired and it was starting to snow a bit, I decided to go back and take out my two earlier contenders to see how I felt about them. I took out the Camox Birdie 168 and the Dictator again. I was suprised that my feelings on the Camox changed completely. While it still felt responsive and playful, now it felt too jittery and every bit of ungroomed snow I skied over translated directly to my legs in a bad way. In fact, I took a little fall on these when I hit a patch of scratch on a steeper pitch and bit it. I felt that maybe some of it was the tune (my left ski felt off) but also think that this ski in the shorter length just wasnt stable enough for me at the speeds I like to ski especially once the snow got more three dimensional. Still would be a great pure bump/tree ski but I am looking for something a bit more versatile than that. I took the Dictator out again, but I was really feeling trashed at this point so basically I wanted to see if I also disliked that ski compared to earlier (at which point I think it would just tell me that I should trust my earlier instincts since my legs were now too tired to really test skis effectively). But I still really liked the Dictator, it felt stable and comfortable on the now slightly softer and choppier groomers. I didn't take it in the bumps because my legs were too tired at that point, but I did some short radius turns and even though I was tired it was still pretty easy to bend.
Summary/results: I decided to ask Santa for the Dictators. I was surprised that I didn't think they were too stiff and aggressive for my style of skiing, especially since they are constructed with two sheets of metal in them. But I think that they don't really ski like a ski with lots of metal in them (compared to, say, the Nordica Enforcer which I tried in the past and found too burly and stiff for my style of skiing). They are slightly narrower than my current skis, but I think that in moderate amounts of powder they will work just fine although in the next year or two I may consider adding a powder ski into the mix and getting rid of my TSTs. My only concern about the Dictators is that I have read some reports of people snapping Factions due to some past manufacturing issues. However, I'm a 135 lb 40 year old woman, so I doubt I'll be doing anything crazy enough to snap a ski in half, as much as I would like to pretend that might be how I ski.