HUGE Powder Ski

[Tom K.]

Since gear whore reading seems to have slowed quite a bit lately -- ahem, thumbnails coming any time soon @Philpug? -- I've been surfing around too much on my eternal quest for the "right" powder ski, and ran into an interesting one.

So, I thought I'd put a question to Pugski's Best and Brightest: Does anybody know or have any experience with the Liberty Genome?

It's crazy wide at 140 in the waist, but the little I've read seems very positive in terms of range of ability. I'm interested because my home area gets a LOT of snow, but it isn't particularly light, and our slopes aren't particularly steep. Every time I step up a notch in ski width, it's great, and I end up thinking to myself "would wider be even better"?

Input on other gigantic pow skis also welcome, of course.

Let's have some fun!

 

[Ken_R]

Depends on your size, weight, skiing ability, style and speed. Are you going to ski untracked backcountry powder or resort powder. Two VERY different things most of the time. How about higher wind affected terrain?

More info would help but generally a ski 140mm wide is more a one dimentional pow ski for untracked powder when you do not want to sink much due to the possibility of sharks under and or you love to surf on top.

 

[newfydog]

I have a pair of Atomic Big Daddys. They are an older design, no rocker, but huge at 190 cm with a 145-125-129 cut

They suck in anything but deep, deep snow. Every now and then we get such a dump at Bachelor that you can hardy get down the mountain. Places are just not steep enough for 3 ft+. Those beasts sit on the rack waiting for a day like that.

 

[Ecimmortal]

You don't need a bigger ski for Meadows snow. You need the RIGHT ski. There are dimishing returns on width which is why you see manufacturers backing off waist widths. You should try the ON3P Billygoat for it's float, power, and maeuverability in typical Meadows conditions.

 

[Monique]

I have a pair of Atomic Big Daddys. They are an older design, no rocker, but huge at 190 cm with a 145-125-129 cut

They suck in anything but deep, deep snow. Every now and then we get such a dump at Bachelor that you can hardy get down the mountain. Places are just not steep enough for 3 ft+. Those beasts sit on the rack waiting for a day like that.

190 is huge, 125 is what I've had in powder skis the last few years, and I can have fun with them in 6". Mine were too heavy for me, though. Both fully rockered. I'm interested to try my Fat-ypus IRocks, but I can't ski steep or variable yet. I probably will be trying them next season.

 

[Tom K.]

Thanks for the input so far, everybody. In no particular order....

@Ken_R, I'm an unapologetic resort skier, so honestly, performance in deep, starting-to-get-skied-out pow is probably MORE important to me than untracked. Shoot, my old VO Slaloms work pretty well in perfect, steep, untracked pow!

I'm 6'2" and 195 pounds this time of year, and I would call my skiing style "modified charger". Sorta big, sorta fast, sorta lazy turns. They used to be faster, but my knees seem to be aging about 15 years faster than the rest of me.

@newfydog, those old Atomics sound like beasts! Probably perfect when called for, though.

@Ecimmortal, I'll have to check out the ON3Ps. I love the idea of a ski made in Oregon.

I'm also looking at the Liberty Double Helix. It combines a more reasonable width of 120 with very little tail rocker -- a combination that I know suits my tastes well.

 

[Ken_R]

Thanks for the input so far, everybody. In no particular order....

@Ken_R, I'm an unapologetic resort skier, so honestly, performance in deep, starting-to-get-skied-out pow is probably MORE important to me than untracked. Shoot, my old VO Slaloms work pretty well in perfect, steep, untracked pow!

I'm 6'2" and 195 pounds this time of year, and I would call my skiing style "modified charger". Sorta big, sorta fast, sorta lazy turns. They used to be faster, but my knees seem to be aging about 15 years faster than the rest of me.

@newfydog, those old Atomics sound like beasts! Probably perfect when called for, though.

@Ecimmortal, I'll have to check out the ON3Ps. I love the idea of a ski made in Oregon.

I'm also looking at the Liberty Double Helix. It combines a more reasonable width of 120 with very little tail rocker -- a combination that I know suits my tastes well.

Ok I am just about your exact size (just 10lb less) and I absolutely love my Moments (Deathwish, 112mm wide) as my resort pow / soft snow daily drivers. Absolutely great in chopped up conditions and really easy going in more untracked powder. I ski the 190cm length. Also check out the Bibby Pros. My Moments can basically handle any resort conditions and then some. Much wider skis will be much less versatile. I think you need a ski with some stiffness and stability not just wide deep pow surfy skis since at resorts one encounters a wide range of snow conditions throughout the day, even on powder days.

 

[Bill Talbot]

My 3 BIG boys for fresh dumps are;
K2 Pontoons (BLUE), 179cm- 160/ 130/ 120
Dynastar HUGE Trouble, 185cm- 140/115/130
Fischer Watea 114, 186cm 146/114/128

They all have VERY different personalities! The HT are very good as the snow gets tracked out and starts bumping up or for wetter snow. The (stiffer, Blue) Pontoons are crazy fun in the fresh and the deeper the better. For all around use the Watea 114s are probably my favorites for boot top to knee deep.

These are first world problems for sure...

 

[cantunamunch]

Every now and then we get such a dump at Bachelor that you can hardy get down the mountain. Places are just not steep enough for 3 ft+. Those beasts sit on the rack waiting for a day like that.

This is pretty much the scenario I was envisioning when I started looking for a powder skating ski.

 

[Tom K.]

My current pow ski quiver (of two) includes the following:

1. Nordica Patron 193 @113 mm. So close to perfect. The overly-rockered tail gives an unsatisfying turn finish, to me, and they seem mounted a bit forward for best float (perhaps to adjust for the tail rocker?). These are way too good on groomers for a 113 ski. Not what you buy them for, but still, there's that.

2. K2 Pinnacle 118 191 @ well, 118 mm. Great in the open. Pretty dull and almost planky feeling when things get quick, or even slightly so. The mount point on these is WAY back. I may re-drill at + 1 or 1.5 just for kicks.

 

[Lorenzzo]

My current pow ski quiver (of two) includes the following:

1. Nordica Patron 193 @113 mm. So close to perfect. The overly-rockered tail gives an unsatisfying turn finish, to me, and they seem mounted a bit forward for best float (perhaps to adjust for the tail rocker?). These are way too good on groomers for a 113 ski. Not what you buy them for, but still, there's that.

2. K2 Pinnacle 118 191 @ well, 118 mm. Great in the open. Pretty dull and almost planky feeling when things get quick, or even slightly so. The mount point on these is WAY back. I may re-drill at + 1 or 1.5 just for kicks.

Love the term Powder Quiver. This season taught me I needed one.

 

[cantunamunch]

Love the term Powder Quiver. This season taught me I needed one.

Only just ?

In terms of this thread, I was just chatting with @mishka the other day about the possibility of an MR250.

(Buy one and have a monoski)

 

[Alexzn]

140 seems to be too wide and one-dimensional. Even at Squaw I see those only on guys who don't really like to make turns and have the legs to pull that off. I's consider 118-120 to be the upper end for any reasonable powder ski that would see some decent amount of skiing. My own pow ski is 112 underfoot, and I never wanted anything much wider.

 

[cantunamunch]

Anyone going to Whistler plan on demoing some garywaynes?

 

[ski otter 2]

Fun. Favorite ski group.

There's an instructor at Vail who uses the Genomes as his powder favorite, who writes reviews for Yellow Gentian. He's about your size. He answers questions online, nice guy.

"Powder quiver" - yes. So for "resort powder," what do you want?

For me, I'll take what I can get: since there are now all around good resort powder skis that do well powder/chop/ bad crud, pow bumps and groomers too, that's what my standard now is. I also want a bit of "playful" in there, for tight places, bumps, trees. The K2 Pinnacle/Annex 118 and the Volkl Confession would be on my list w/o that requirement.

(I'll bet the Moment Meridians and Fat-ypus I Rocks would be on my list if I ever got on them.)

My current favorites: 184 Volkl Katana 112. ( But there are others.)

 

[ski otter 2]

P.S. Another huge ski I know of a tiny bit, that I see two guys at A Basin on semi-regularly, is the K2 Powabunga 136. The giant bug green machines.

Surprisingly versatile, I'm told, and have seen. The two guys ski Pali on Pow days and kill it - fast turns, bumps, airs, much speed. Outa my league.

 

[Tom K.]

There's an instructor at Vail who uses the Genomes as his powder favorite, who writes reviews for Yellow Gentian. He's about your size. He answers questions online, nice guy.

I hate that guy (Craig, I believe).

It's thanks to his reviews that I'm even considering a big fatty like the Genome!

Not to mention the more reasonably-sized Double Helix.

 

[ski otter 2]

Ha!

Now, that Double Helix, I dunno.... But you're maybe big enough.......

There's a guy I listened to (not his fault, but my own risk) who was ditching the Super 7s (much work in crud) for the Liberty Double Helixes (problem solved, he said). I had Super 7s too - lots of movement to control in crud. So I got the 182 DHs, where he'd gotten the longer 19somethings, figuring that would cover our size difference, him bigger, me smaller. Nope. The DHs, for me, are tugboats drifting slowly, not even edge engaging as they sludge across the current of the fall line. (Maybe if I change the mount point forward? )

And now that DH guy, Lord bless his spunk, has a new favorite and is selling his longer DHs (I think here on Pugski).

So before you do DHs, at least ask him or pm him on what his new fat ski love is!!!!! (And maybe skip a step.)

 

[cantunamunch]

Ha!

. (Maybe if I change the mount point forward? ))

10 mm lifters, you know you want to

 

[Tom K.]

And now that DH guy, Lord bless his spunk, has a new favorite and is selling his longer DHs (I think here on Pugski).

So before you do DHs, at least ask him or pm him on what his new fat ski love is!!!!! (And maybe skip a step.)

Yes, that is @givethepigeye (Rob). We've exchanged a post or two, and he is almost giving them away, but I'm a new ski whore at heart....

10 mm lifters, you know you want to

I've done this.

It's not the worst thing I've ever done, by far.

It makes a wide ski a bunch easier to roll up onto a high edge.