Ok maybee this ski review belongs at
www.epicski.com, but I'll post it there anyway....At work we have quite a few high end Volkl Piste planks (we have a few powder planks as well). Ithought I'd give some of them a try...My boss told me to ski these in something under 160!...so I ignored him and took out the 168 (they do make them longer)....Testing ground the steep imaqulate pistes or Mt Norquay....if High to very High speed arcs are your thing these rule....you do have to right on top of them all the time or they will just spit you at the ground!....but for going Mach loony on an Ice cube they rock...took me a while to trust their grip on the steepest faces...i used to thigs giving way just as it gets steep and icy, but no...just hang on and hope your legs don't colapse....It's almost imposible to brush the tails out and slide a turn...the obligatory skid stop at the lift requires a lot of unweighting to avoid catching an edge and slamming into the maze (fixed steel barriers at norquay).
these skis don't like soft snow....I was skiing in 2-4" of fresh...any deper and they get upset!...bumps - an explosive is a much nicer bump ski.....chopped up off piste - again not fun oldschool straight or blades handle with similar ease in crud!