Demo Days @ Sugarloaf

[MaineSkiLady]

(finally getting around to this!)
December 13-14
$5 registration, great deal

Conditions were COLD and frozen over/groomed to best of resort's ability, due to rain to ice event earlier in the week.

Representing were Rossignol, Salomon, Atomic, Stockli, Volkl, K2 - all right at the base of the SuperQuad, so a nice, quick turnaround.
Interestingly, Volkl's line-up did not have demo bindings, so quite a bit of adjusting was required on the part of the 3 techs (most tents had only 1 or 2).

Women's-specific somewhat underrepresented (:mad given the number of models that are available by these manufacturers. Still, not an altogether bad line-up, certainly enough to have fun for hours!

Taking cue from volklgirl, I did the same run the same way with each ski----although I couldn't resist taking the Volkl Fuego on a second run of serious ice. :D (tenacious skis!) Tried to run the gamut of short-medium-long radius turns, push to chatter, fast/slow, etc.

Ski reviews being terribly subjective (and my being confounded by the preferred numeric system recommended here), I'll skip except to name my "ride of the day" - Atomic Heaven's Gate. Did what I asked, when I asked, with a smile -- and gave me a big

Very fun day! (if COLD!)

 

[SnowflakeADK]

Glad to see someone else praising the Atomic Heavens Gate. I have last years (Foxy Momma), purchased end of season. The more I ride this ski the more I like it. I've now had it in a wide variety of conditions and it's fairly versatile. However, it shines on groomed, hardpack...and ice!! One thing I notice is how smoooooooth it feels carving up the groomed. I would call it "serviceable" in fresh tracked/untracked. As you mentioned MSL, its super responsive and does exactly what you ask of it. Mine are 150cm (I'm 5'2, 180lbs). If I get the chance this year I'd like to demo in a longer length just to see if I'd like or not.

 

[Jilly]

I put the 157's on hold at the shop. Going to try them next Sunday hopefully and then all I have to do is phone and they will up New Years Eve!!

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Yay, Jilly! Let me know what you think of them after a whole day. I only got a couple of runs. Sure was enough to impress me, though

 

[Jilly]

That's why I want a whole day. I did the same thing the end of last year. Demo'd for a few runs. At that time I wanted the 7th Heaven. But since I bought the Conquer's they would be too close. I need to replace my Z5's and I think this will be a good choice. I can also still get the Z6's, but I want to go women's if I can.

 

[SnowflakeADK]

Jilly, can you offer a brief comparison btwn the Heavens Gate and 7th Heaven (last yrs Sugar Momma, right?) I was eyeballing those too at the end of last season.

 

[Jilly]

I never got out on either the Sugar's or the 7th Heaven. I did review the Foxy Mama and the Heaven's Gate last year. SkiMave has the Sugar's and I followed her a number of runs at Tremblant New Years Day. That's when I got the bug for them.

But bascially the 7th Heaven is their top all mountain ski. It's built on the Nomad series. The Heaven's Gate is their top carver but likes crud too. Its built on the old Metron, but totally revised. If you ever skied the B5 or B11 those suckers were soooo heavy. We laughing called that line Mega-tron around the shop. You needed a sherpa to get them to the lift.

Both of these skis were rated high in the SkiPress World reviews.

 

[volklgirl]

Sounds like you had a great time!

Sorry you were confused by the ski scoring number system....it was something stolen from Skiing Magazine's scorecard - our version is available HERE or HERE.

I highly recommend printing them out and using them while doing demos to keep track of what you were on, what size they were, and what you liked/hated about them. Otherwise, the skis all just tend to blend in together and you forget stuff in all the excitement and fun!

 

[MaineSkiLady]

^^^ Not altogether confused as much as "on the fence" with a lot of numeric ratings (Is this a 4 or a 5 or shall we call is 4.5 and even?). Even a week later, I could rank those skis in order of personal preference and remember why. But there is that magical "X" - X the unknown factor - the chemistry between board and rider/skier, and how can anyone really describe it beyond saying that a particular model just was a great "fit?" I don't know if I do, for instance, short turns faster or slower than the next person or if I'm somewhere in the middle (and speed IS a factor, especially for those of us who need to attain it to get the ski to perform).

I do know that being solo that day and able to change out so quickly and often was a unique experience - and one that I highly recommend to anyone in search of their very own perfect ski. (I did, however, benefit greatly by your advice to ski the same run the same way w/each ski---that truly told me a lot.)