Am going to take the plunge and buy some skis this year. From what i tried last year, Salomom Enduro was the bestest, so am erring towards a 2012 Enduro of some sort.
70% piste, and the rest in the slack country with occasional days off piste with a guide.
Anyone got any opinions/experiences?
Either head to 1 of the snow dome places with an Ellis Brigham attached and try several out or better still wait till you get to resort and go to a shop and speak to them. Several friends have done this, rented some good skis and swapped them to find what fitted them.
Or better again buy a board and really enjoy the time off piste. 
Board? Not sure my parents could live with the shame.....
Have tried a fair few at Hemel, as well as rentals when on holiday, butI feel like treating myself to another new toy!
Try some more. Only you know if a ski suits your style. There are masses of tests and comparatives on the Net to narrow it down at bit then borrow or rent. Unless you're going to somewhere that has really deep powder (the us) or are fat yourself then GS or slalom skis float nicely enough through powder and deal with most everything else a lot better than fat skis.
I do 95% of my skiing on Atomic Tour Guides from over 10 years ago which are the same shape as a GS ski but much lighter, and that despite having bling skis such as Dynastar 64 Omeglas and Atomic race GS in the cupboard.
Head I magnums or I speed??
I keep coming back to the Dynastar Sultan 85.
But you really do have to try them out - a couple of years ago I did all the research and selected 6 to try in the Manchester fridge. If I'd bought based on review etc I would have got the Fischer Watea but I tried it in two different widths and really didn't get on with it at all.
Like biking, it is my skill that holds me back, not the gear.
(Some £50 Kastle something or others second hand and a pair of hand-me-down Salomon Quest's do just fine, especially when most of my ski-ing is hike up and thump down on some rocky Scottish hillside. )
Looks like a day at Hemel is going to have to happen! Enduro xt800 looks pretty tidy to me. Sultans could work too. Time to start narrowing down a short list....
I know you read French so Skipass reviews might help. The Atomic D2s in the link are what my son will be racing on this year and I'll be on the older version when I'll not pottering down on the Tour Guides. Banzai!!!!!!!
Nice link, thanks!
Looks like the XT800 is this year's equivalent of the Tornado. I did 3 days on a Tornado (Ti) a couple of years ago. It was a fine ski - very neutral and balanced. I just found the Dynastar a bit more fun - it egged me on a bit more than the Salomon.
If going to Hemel, make sure they have them in test facility as last time my wife went for new planks her favourites from reading the reviews weren't available to test.
Or be like 1 of my friends and spend the 6 days of the holiday trying out about 10 sets of skis and being so confused she bought none.
It's like asking - what tyre?
We're considering getting rid and hiring, thus getting up to date skis every season and not having to lug them around, servicing or paying carriage.
However, we have had some use in Britain over the last 2 winters, with all the brilliant snow.
I've head 2 pairs of head supershape magnums and I'd buy another in a heart beat. For a piste biased ski, ski they work surprisingly well off piste in fluffy stuff, crud or steeps. I doubt they'd work well at all for touring, but for everything else they work very well indeed.
How heavy and how aggressive a skier are you ?
Do you cruise about or pin it everywhere ?
I keep coming back to the Dynastar Sultan 85.
Yes the best ski's ever used to date! Had them for a week in La Plagne.
It's like asking - what tyre?
So so true. It really depends on your skiing style, agressiveness, how much off piste you really do, if you like a long turning radius or not. The ski companys that i think are really on top of their game though are salamon, obvious reasons. Theyve been tweaking their all mountain ski's for the past few years making them better and better. It was the scream, then the X-wing, not sure what it's called at the mo.
Volkl and Dynastar would be my other favourites, the volkl Unlimited range are a really nice all round ski geared more towards piste than off, they handle crud and powder good enough though (theyve changed the name of them this year though).
Movement make really nice ski's aswell, theyre swiss and they know there sh!t.
Btw, i hope you already have your own ski boots if you're buying ski's, a must to improve your technique, more important than having your own ski's for sure.
I've been skiing these all last season. I think they're pretty much the perfect all-mountain ski.
They have, i think, a 14m radius - the same as my Dynastar Contact's - 92mm underfoot, can do groomer carving as well as any other piste skis I've used. Take powder, crud and hardpack well. The only thing is they are a bit long in the bumps (for me anyway) Some of the other instructors I work with gave a positive review too. If you can find a demo try them.
As others have said, volkl and dynastar are both good, find them both stiffer so if you're heavier or more aggressive and can get them to bend they're good, if you're a bit lighter I find K2 to be a bit easier to bend. Don't think too much of the lower end Salomon stuff but people really rate the 'Lord'
Skied with someone who owned Enduros and rated them, don't think they're all that 'turny' though.
Salomon race skis are great, but other stuff in their range imo is over hyped junk compared to what else you can get.
Dont get race skis they are too hard work for all day use, fantastic on a hard piste but will dive in any soft stuff.
Any modern ski will be good off piste as they have such huge surface area.
Always preferred the way a wood core ski feels.
Personally I just hire as per reasons bunnyhop says above.
Good advice all round, thanks.
Re build and style - am 'rugby' build and only really get cruisy when chilling on a blue/green back home at the end of the day.
Renting does make a lot of sense, but reckon that having my own does too, as work/life schedule means I might well get more time on snow this year. (Work may well take me to spots close to Tahoe this year for example)
Boots - Salmon Impact 120CS, with footbeds and shell moulding. Super comfy, and just seem to work really well.
Salomon Sentinel?
If you are going near Tahoe, consider buying in resort. I bought my last pair in Whistler and got fantastic advice from a massive range, option to demo and a killer deal. Plus I only paid to transport them one way on the flight.
Regarding skis, it's a trade off, just like bikes, with skis anywhere from the bike equivalent of a race hardtail to a DH bike and anywhere in between.
Pick a 'genre' and underfoot width to help narrow it down, being honest about your skiing goals (don't just buy for this season - will you be 70% off piste in 1-2 years? Will a ski help you get there?)
Fatter gives more float in the powder but can be slower edge to edge.
Longer also floats better but harder to turn in.
Stiffer better at speed but harder to initiate turns so you need to be honest how aggressive and fast you are. As FD says, too stiff and hard will be too tiring, whereas too soft and floppy won't support you and will flap at speed.
I'm old school and used to teach and race. Once I got on the modern skis I went fatter and am now on 90mm underfoot (Line Prophet 90) and they are amazingly versatile from fast piste carving (wide open GS turns down Mont Vallon) and bumps, not too slow edge to edge but still have lots of float in deep pow.
If you're going more on piste than off, then the width under foot is important. Generally 85mm and over is considered more of an off piste ski (some people say 90mm and over), although a lot of them can perform well on piste too.
You probably want to look at a waist of about 72-79 mm.
If you are going to a big resort then maybe buy them out there.
Or better again buy a board and really enjoy the time off piste.
Why have one snowboard under your feet when you can have two
Salomon race skis are great, but other stuff in their range imo is over hyped junk compared to what else you can get
We'll have to agree to disagree on that. I've known a few good skiers that use salomon, mates not pros.
There race ski's are very good though.
The resorts around Tahoe aren't particularly big, however they're diverse and if the snow's good then the off piste will be fantastic.
Hubby loves his 'Movements' ^^. Mine are some oldish Salomons, which seem to be o.k on or off piste.
Anyone seen the new Salomon BBR, hideous but very good apparently.
Someone said its like which tyres, more like which bike, Nukeproof Mega being your Salomon Enduro and some super lightweight XC whippet machine being your Volkl race tigers, which are awesome by the way if it's steep and hard packed.
Drop the edge by half a degree, sharpen to 88°, buff the last few cms at each end, steel scraper, orange-blue-orange-blue wax till there's no more black coming off with the plastic scraper, wax to temperature and braush to conditions, rainureuse, 4f surface wax, ski.
Find me a rental company that does all that and I'll take an interest in rental skis. Most get a machine wax if you are lucky and off you go. I'd rather ski a well-prepared ski from 15 years back than a new ski that hasn't been prepared. Well-prepared skis are much easier to ski, to the point a race ski is easier than a tourist ski from the rental shop.
Find me a rental company that does all that and I'll take an interest in rental skis.
Some rental places have 1000's of skis to service in twenty four hours. If they gave them that much attention they would never all get done!
Most people don't know about edge angles either.
Most people rent skis for a week so even if they come out of the shop's grind and wax machine the customer will be skiing on unwaxed bases by day two and blunt skis with sticky bases by the end of the week. I worked as a skiman in Val and only one pair of skis was hot-waxed each time they went out - the boss'. Some skis did much of the season with no maintenance.
Unwaxed skis stick on patches of damp snow and stick lots on fresh artifical snow. Blunt skis are hard work and lack precision.
Most people taking out rental ski's probably won't notice or care. Ive never taught some one who's complained about unwaxed or blunt ski's.
Educator - that's very interesting and good to know.
My salomon skis are getting on abit now (6 years). The chap in the French ski shop, said ' Wow old style'. However they forget that we 'recreational skiers' will only be out on the piste for a couple of weeks a year.
Because they don't know better, Michael. They don't know there struggling with sticky, imprecise skis with no grip except maybe at the exptremties where the edge should have been buffed to make the ski more forgiving.
I met an English pro cyclist training in Tignes on X-C skis and struggling along - pas de montée on the flat. The bases were in a terrible state so I sugggested he ask the shop to wax them. The next day he was out again, gliding better and making much better progress; learning the pas de vitesse in couple of hours.
Edit: the big advances in ski design were made over 15 years ago, Bunnyhop. Six-year-old skis will ski much like the latest ones if you put them through a machine that fills the holes, grinds the base, grinds the edges (ask for 0.5°/89° if the machine can be adjusted) and waxes them in one go.
Pah 88!? Go 87 its what all the kids are doing nowadays!
With well prepped skis you'll be stood up, passing folk who are on rentals in a full tuck!
I always do a full prep on my own skis - edge file and polish, hot scrape, wax, scrape, structure etc. When the Mrs used bought her own after 3-4 years of learning on rentals, I gave the new skis the same treatment and she was blown away - instantly using less effort, carving easier, gliding the flat bits with no pushing.
Only problem is I have double the work every trip now, she won't let me not do it! She's a stylish but cautious black run level and can really benefit from a good prep.
I'd say the average skier has no experience but when they have felt the difference, they will know!
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