Hi Divas,
I'm currently enjoying my third and unfortunately final week of skiing this year in the Dolomites of Italy, and the scenery here is absolutely breathtaking! I've been putting some serious kilometers on my Stockli SC skis.
I've noticed some things about skiing on spring snow and crud. When skiing at a reasonable speed, the SCs cut through the snow really well and feel very stable. They maintain stability not only when carving but also when skidding on these type of snow. Of course, on well-groomed, non-bumpy slopes, they perform incredibly, and they grip amazingly well on firm/icy patches. However, with the warm weather we've been having, the pistes facing south and the connecting pistes with heavy traffic become completely wet and bumpy with slush after 1-2 hours. Dealing with this is definitely my worst nightmare, second only to very sticky, rainy, slushy snow (which I'll definitely be avoiding in the future, stay at home day for sure!).
In the slushy bumps, some almost as high as 1 meter on the red runs, and the black I accidentally find myself in, I struggled due to my less-than-perfect bump technique and the stiffness of the SCs. I recalled what
@snoWYmonkey mentioned about them "not being very bump-friendly". They felt too stiff and not easily maneuverable, and when I lost my balance, they would grab the edge and twist my legs into awkward and potentially dangerous positions. My knees survived, but I definitely experienced major quads and calf burn. However, I am gradually improving. After 3 days, I can now handle the bumpy blues reasonably well (I don't die.....;-)
I considered renting some other skis to make navigating these conditions easier, although I'm not sure which ones would be better suited for this?
Cheers to all!