volklgirl
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Well.....
The long-awaited Volkl Karmas finally showed up from the UPS man! Hubby immediately took them to be remounted and tuned while I was still at work on Thursday (he's such a nice guy!!). I got a chance to ski them Thursday night and all day Friday and Saturday. Conditions on the hill that we would usually consider less than optimum were actually the greatest conditions to check these skis out. Daytimes were 40-45 deg f, nighttimes were around 35is, and it rained on and off, so we got everything from icy corn snow to mashed potatoes, to really hard rain cured crust.
I just gotta say - WOW!!!!!
I expected another stable, slightly balky "fatty", but what I got was an agile, stable, all mountain ripper! The steeper the terrain, the happier it was. The faster I went, the happier it was. The more I carved, the happier it was. And yet....skidded, smeared turns at a snail's pace through super-heavy glop was a breeze, too. It has the carvability and fun factor of the Nordica Olympia Speed and Rossi Zenith Z9, and the stability of the K2 Outlaw without the hesitation and orneriness on shorter turns or slower speeds. It has a reasonably large sweet spot, but preferes to be driven from the middle or front. Only once when I got really lazy and way back did it punish me - that cute little twin tip rear hooked up and sent me on a flip-and-slide :o . I was amazed and thrilled to find that a ski this fat actually CAN make short turns. When driven like a slalom race ski with lots of angulation and power, it actually popped off short turns until I was breathless, yet in long turns, I was actually catching and passing my race tam buddies on their GS race skis without even trying.
Here's the cons: 1) It skis really short - the 177 skis like a combo of my 161cm 6* and my 168cm Vertigo G20. 2) The harder the snow got, the less happy it was - not surprising of course - although it never got sketchy on the rain cured crust. 3) While it can easily be skied by a lower level or lazy skier when flat and skidded, it requires real commitment to the edge change and a bit of angulation to carve it - mostly just because it is soooo fat under foot.
All-in-all, this is the best, funnest, most versatile all mountain ski I've been on in a long time. Billing this ski as a park-and-pipe twin tip is doing it a real disservice. If you rarely see midwest/east coast "hardpack" (aka Ice), or like a versatile ski that turns gunk and glop into play-time, take a serious look at this ski!! If you already have a carver, this is the perfect complement. (Good thing I like it since I now own it - and it matches my jacket too :D ).
ps...for you gear geeks... 119-87-111, 22.3 meter radius at 177cm.
The long-awaited Volkl Karmas finally showed up from the UPS man! Hubby immediately took them to be remounted and tuned while I was still at work on Thursday (he's such a nice guy!!). I got a chance to ski them Thursday night and all day Friday and Saturday. Conditions on the hill that we would usually consider less than optimum were actually the greatest conditions to check these skis out. Daytimes were 40-45 deg f, nighttimes were around 35is, and it rained on and off, so we got everything from icy corn snow to mashed potatoes, to really hard rain cured crust.
I just gotta say - WOW!!!!!
I expected another stable, slightly balky "fatty", but what I got was an agile, stable, all mountain ripper! The steeper the terrain, the happier it was. The faster I went, the happier it was. The more I carved, the happier it was. And yet....skidded, smeared turns at a snail's pace through super-heavy glop was a breeze, too. It has the carvability and fun factor of the Nordica Olympia Speed and Rossi Zenith Z9, and the stability of the K2 Outlaw without the hesitation and orneriness on shorter turns or slower speeds. It has a reasonably large sweet spot, but preferes to be driven from the middle or front. Only once when I got really lazy and way back did it punish me - that cute little twin tip rear hooked up and sent me on a flip-and-slide :o . I was amazed and thrilled to find that a ski this fat actually CAN make short turns. When driven like a slalom race ski with lots of angulation and power, it actually popped off short turns until I was breathless, yet in long turns, I was actually catching and passing my race tam buddies on their GS race skis without even trying.
Here's the cons: 1) It skis really short - the 177 skis like a combo of my 161cm 6* and my 168cm Vertigo G20. 2) The harder the snow got, the less happy it was - not surprising of course - although it never got sketchy on the rain cured crust. 3) While it can easily be skied by a lower level or lazy skier when flat and skidded, it requires real commitment to the edge change and a bit of angulation to carve it - mostly just because it is soooo fat under foot.
All-in-all, this is the best, funnest, most versatile all mountain ski I've been on in a long time. Billing this ski as a park-and-pipe twin tip is doing it a real disservice. If you rarely see midwest/east coast "hardpack" (aka Ice), or like a versatile ski that turns gunk and glop into play-time, take a serious look at this ski!! If you already have a carver, this is the perfect complement. (Good thing I like it since I now own it - and it matches my jacket too :D ).
ps...for you gear geeks... 119-87-111, 22.3 meter radius at 177cm.
. My poor 6* spent almost the entire winter in the shed or the car - why compromise when you actually have the awsome carvers and the best crud skis???;) 
. Still, a season of lovingly hand tuning them every week has cleaned up all but the ugliest edge dings (I've actually had to designate a left and right since one set of edges was junk).
