meganh
Diva in Training
After deciding a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to reduce my three-ski quiver and find a good all rounder, I have spent two days this week in very different conditions demoing the Atomic Vantage 95. We have just hit spring, and I had the opportunity to ski this ski in very different conditions and give it a good test. The rest of my quiver for comparison is Nordica Conquer 162 (84mm underfoot, fairly stiff), ancient (2004) Dynastar Little Big Fat 167 (88mm underfoot, big turn radius) and K2 Phat Luv 167 (102 underfoot). I demoed the Atomic in the 162cm length, hiring it for the full day as none of the industry was still doing demo days for Atomics this late in the season.
I am an advanced skier, 74-ish kg, 167cm (5'6") and normally ski one of our club-run ski areas where off piste snow is the norm. We have varying terrain but it is generally fairly steep and mostly ungroomed. There are two runs that we do groom but the rest of the ski area is natural snow. Conditions can vary from hard and icy (if the freezing level gets too high and we get rained on, or freeze/thaw in spring), to 'skier groomed' packed powder, to crud, chopped up powder, and if I'm lucky, powder - although not generally by North American standards, we do get light and dry but deep dumps are few and far between particularly the last few seasons. 10-15cm is more the norm for us rather than waist deep! So I'm after a ski that can do it all and handle most of these conditions, and I think I've found it.
Day 1: Porters (www.skiporters.co.nz). Conditions: strong southerly winds (read northerly for you northern hemisphere readers). Groomed slopes under the chairlift (nice corduroy to begin with), off piste was mostly wind scoured hard/icy patches with the odd area of windblown snow. Due to the wind the softening promised on the snow report never occurred and it remained hard (and cold) all day. I ended up wearing my down jacket that I bought for a Canada ski trip that I never need to use in New Zealand.
I spent the morning mostly skiing the groomed run off the chairlift and was impressed with these skis. When you stood on them they gripped and carved well. I was able to comfortably do a range of turns from short to long, and at speed (for me, I'm not an aggressive skier) they were stable. Off piste, they were reasonably OK in the hard snow, not too bad in the bumps - more my technique than anything and I felt I would have skied no better on anything else.
As an interesting comparison, there was a Volkl demo day on, so I traded these in for a pair of Volkl Kenja in 163. I did two runs on these. On the groomers they were OK. They tried to run away with me at one point on a cat track between T bars and I wasn't so impressed with them off piste although I felt they handled the bumps better than the atomics (although 90mm vs 95mm might have made the difference here?). After two runs the inside of my left knee was twinging, telling me it didn't like the Volkls. I took back the Atomics and no more twinges.
I finished the day impressed with the Vantages and wishing I had had some soft snow to try them on.
The following day I skied at my regular ski area, Broken River (www.brokenriver.co.nz), where conditions were completely different. The snow hadn't been stripped by the wind as it had at Porters on the other end of the range, and conditions varied from skier groomed packed powder to semi-tracked powder in Allans Basin (the attached image shows part of Allans) . I skied on the K2 Phat Luvs and found them hard work, they felt like a lot of ski after the Atomics. So that afternoon after skiing I drove back to the shop and got the Atomics again for another day's rental.
Day 2: Today I skied the Atomics at Broken River, on conditions varying from packed powder, some moderate bumps, to powder where previous tracks had been blown in by the wind, about 10cm over a firm base underneath. Other areas had chopped powder, and it was on all day if you wanted it. A fantastic bluebird day in the mountains, and only about 12 of us at the ski area including the staff! These skis were amazing. I skied runs that I hadn't felt game to try this season (Cornice Bowl), and enjoyed it. They were easy to initiate turns, did not feel like they were going to get caught up in the heavier chopped up snow, and felt like they were very forgiving if I did get my body position a bit wrong (unlike the Volkl Kenjas!). My only gripe was that with the next warm storm cycle rolling in, it warmed up a few degrees after 3pm and the snow went really sticky on sunny aspects and flatter areas - but I think the demos just needed a wax, and everybody was feeling it! Fortunately I'd pretty much worn myself out by then.
I had an absolute blast and fell in love with them. Given that they were on sale, when I took the demos back to the shop, I bought my own pair! I carried both the demo skis and my Phat Luvs down from the ski shed to the car (about a ten minute walk, downhill, so my pack was VERY heavy!!), so I could have the shop take the nice light Marker Squire bindings off the Phat Luvs and mount them onto the new skis. The Atomics with the Squire bindings seem fairly light, if anyone wants to know the exact weight let me know in the thread as I can weigh them. The rest of the quiver will be for sale on our version of ebay soon.....
PS: we had a guy from Michigan at Broken River for a couple of days, I skied with him for a few runs and showed him around today, he was absolutely blown away and loved it. If you ever come to New Zealand in winter, come and check out our club-run ski area - we'd love to see SkiDivas!
Allans Basin, Broken River Ski Area. Today I skied Cornice Bowl, in mid shot (with the powder 8's courtesy of ski patrol - just checking the stability, yeah right), and Double Bowl, to the right. Both were really nice with windblown dry winter snow. Cornice is on my limit of comfort for steepness and there is quite a big cornice at the top this year with about a 3ft drop in places, so after much fannying about finding a spot to drop in that didn't involve too much drop, it actually skied quite nicely. Another positive for the Atomics!!
As an aside, this photo was taken Sept 4th, 2010, the day of the first Christchurch Earthquake at about 4am. It shook us from our beds in the lodges up at the ski area, and was one of the best powder days of the season. Due to the earthquake, there were about 30-40 at the ski area to ski all of this fantastic powder. One of my best days skiing!! The damage at home (mostly collapsed brick chimneys) could wait!!
I am an advanced skier, 74-ish kg, 167cm (5'6") and normally ski one of our club-run ski areas where off piste snow is the norm. We have varying terrain but it is generally fairly steep and mostly ungroomed. There are two runs that we do groom but the rest of the ski area is natural snow. Conditions can vary from hard and icy (if the freezing level gets too high and we get rained on, or freeze/thaw in spring), to 'skier groomed' packed powder, to crud, chopped up powder, and if I'm lucky, powder - although not generally by North American standards, we do get light and dry but deep dumps are few and far between particularly the last few seasons. 10-15cm is more the norm for us rather than waist deep! So I'm after a ski that can do it all and handle most of these conditions, and I think I've found it.
Day 1: Porters (www.skiporters.co.nz). Conditions: strong southerly winds (read northerly for you northern hemisphere readers). Groomed slopes under the chairlift (nice corduroy to begin with), off piste was mostly wind scoured hard/icy patches with the odd area of windblown snow. Due to the wind the softening promised on the snow report never occurred and it remained hard (and cold) all day. I ended up wearing my down jacket that I bought for a Canada ski trip that I never need to use in New Zealand.
I spent the morning mostly skiing the groomed run off the chairlift and was impressed with these skis. When you stood on them they gripped and carved well. I was able to comfortably do a range of turns from short to long, and at speed (for me, I'm not an aggressive skier) they were stable. Off piste, they were reasonably OK in the hard snow, not too bad in the bumps - more my technique than anything and I felt I would have skied no better on anything else.
As an interesting comparison, there was a Volkl demo day on, so I traded these in for a pair of Volkl Kenja in 163. I did two runs on these. On the groomers they were OK. They tried to run away with me at one point on a cat track between T bars and I wasn't so impressed with them off piste although I felt they handled the bumps better than the atomics (although 90mm vs 95mm might have made the difference here?). After two runs the inside of my left knee was twinging, telling me it didn't like the Volkls. I took back the Atomics and no more twinges.
I finished the day impressed with the Vantages and wishing I had had some soft snow to try them on.
The following day I skied at my regular ski area, Broken River (www.brokenriver.co.nz), where conditions were completely different. The snow hadn't been stripped by the wind as it had at Porters on the other end of the range, and conditions varied from skier groomed packed powder to semi-tracked powder in Allans Basin (the attached image shows part of Allans) . I skied on the K2 Phat Luvs and found them hard work, they felt like a lot of ski after the Atomics. So that afternoon after skiing I drove back to the shop and got the Atomics again for another day's rental.
Day 2: Today I skied the Atomics at Broken River, on conditions varying from packed powder, some moderate bumps, to powder where previous tracks had been blown in by the wind, about 10cm over a firm base underneath. Other areas had chopped powder, and it was on all day if you wanted it. A fantastic bluebird day in the mountains, and only about 12 of us at the ski area including the staff! These skis were amazing. I skied runs that I hadn't felt game to try this season (Cornice Bowl), and enjoyed it. They were easy to initiate turns, did not feel like they were going to get caught up in the heavier chopped up snow, and felt like they were very forgiving if I did get my body position a bit wrong (unlike the Volkl Kenjas!). My only gripe was that with the next warm storm cycle rolling in, it warmed up a few degrees after 3pm and the snow went really sticky on sunny aspects and flatter areas - but I think the demos just needed a wax, and everybody was feeling it! Fortunately I'd pretty much worn myself out by then.
I had an absolute blast and fell in love with them. Given that they were on sale, when I took the demos back to the shop, I bought my own pair! I carried both the demo skis and my Phat Luvs down from the ski shed to the car (about a ten minute walk, downhill, so my pack was VERY heavy!!), so I could have the shop take the nice light Marker Squire bindings off the Phat Luvs and mount them onto the new skis. The Atomics with the Squire bindings seem fairly light, if anyone wants to know the exact weight let me know in the thread as I can weigh them. The rest of the quiver will be for sale on our version of ebay soon.....
PS: we had a guy from Michigan at Broken River for a couple of days, I skied with him for a few runs and showed him around today, he was absolutely blown away and loved it. If you ever come to New Zealand in winter, come and check out our club-run ski area - we'd love to see SkiDivas!
Allans Basin, Broken River Ski Area. Today I skied Cornice Bowl, in mid shot (with the powder 8's courtesy of ski patrol - just checking the stability, yeah right), and Double Bowl, to the right. Both were really nice with windblown dry winter snow. Cornice is on my limit of comfort for steepness and there is quite a big cornice at the top this year with about a 3ft drop in places, so after much fannying about finding a spot to drop in that didn't involve too much drop, it actually skied quite nicely. Another positive for the Atomics!!
As an aside, this photo was taken Sept 4th, 2010, the day of the first Christchurch Earthquake at about 4am. It shook us from our beds in the lodges up at the ski area, and was one of the best powder days of the season. Due to the earthquake, there were about 30-40 at the ski area to ski all of this fantastic powder. One of my best days skiing!! The damage at home (mostly collapsed brick chimneys) could wait!!
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