Metal Band Promised Land
Heavy metal meets heavy doctrine, plus other miscellaneous observations and hobbies of a Mormon Gen X'er.

Skiing with my boys.

So I’ve done a little research on buying some new skis. I bought my current pair in 1997, right after I got home from my mission. I’m been shredding on those things for 13 years now and it is time to upgrade to the latest and greatest in ski technology. When I bought my Solomon X Free 9′s they were sold as a good all mountain ski. Looking back, I should have bought the upgraded X-Scream but a mission buddy was convinced they weren’t worth the price.

The new skis are being marketed by the type of snow you ski most often. Do you like deep powder, or do you ski groomed runs all day? For those who would ski powder every time but are limited to what they get after big storms at the resorts, then an all-mountain ski is probably the better choice. Groomer skis are more parabolic and have camber, which is essentially a curve across the length of the ski that forces the ends of the ski to dig in and get better bite on the snow. For powder skids, they are wider and have rocker, a reverse curve that sends the ends of the ski arching away from the snow. See the diagrams for rocker here, and for camber here.  This winter I’ll rent some of both and see what I like better. I need a good pair of powder skis but I’ll probably go for a pair of all mountain skis first. All mountain skis attempt to incorporate a little bit of both camber (in the middle third of the ski) and rocker (at the ends of the ski).