Thread: OPINIONS SOUGHT: dps wailer 95 as a dynafit AT rig

Looking for feedback on these skis from people who've owned 'em/ borrowed 'em/ demo'd 'em/ loved 'em/ hated 'em. Lots of talk on tgr about the dps line but mostly the lotus and the wailer 105, surprisingly little in the way of actual reviews on how these skis. I am set for resort and sidecountry skis, looking for something to mount with dynafits for longer day tours, maybe a multi-day once a year. Maybe.

Just for completeness sake, other skis I'm considering include
bro 179 or 183 softs
high society freerides 179 (light like the wailers)
but I am mostly looking for info on the wailers from people who have skied them. FYI, I mostly ski looking for good snow- boilerplate performance not exactly a priority.

thanks in advance

IMHO - if you're gonna be skiing a lot of corn and steep, tight lines in the spring the 95 is an excellent tool. It skis very well in deep pow, variable conditions, wind-fuck, hardpack....whatever you run across. That being said, (if my memory serves me right), the 105 only comes in a few ounces more per pair...??....???......

Assuming by "good snow" you mean powder why not go with the 105's? Both will treat you well.

^^^Agreed. I'd go with the 105s if your considering DPS; mas underfoot for a couple ounces more?? That being said, I love my 183bro/dynafit rig for longer tours. They might hold up a bit better than the wailer too. The 183 construction is $$.

There's some 95's used available, the 105's new are unfortunately well out of my price range...

Never been on the 183 BROs but that could be the winning setup too!

Harpo-The-Skier to the White Courtesy Phone please!

srsosbso, you might try PMing him to chime in.

Not exactly what you are looking for, but I have been touring on 178 lotus 120's with dynafits. Super light and I have found they ski everything pretty well. I have been thinking about the wailer 95 or dynafit manaslu for more of a spring ski mountaineering ski.

The only issue I have with the dps's are durability. Mine show a lot of wear, the sidewall needs repair and the topsheet is cracked. The bases are very solid though. I am leaning towards the manaslu for a spring ski since those skis will probably see a lot of harsh use hiking around to find snow.

Ski_faster has this setup. Maybe shoot him a pm.

I love my W105/Dyna/ZZero setup in all backcountry conditions from boilerplate to bottomless. I do have trouble carving them on groomers. That my be my lack of technique, using an at boot vs using an alpine boot, or the tune on the skis. On boiler plate in the backcountry I am skidding not carving so this doesn't really matter.

I looked for reviews on the w95 and didn't find much. I think they have more camber than the W105 which might make them better for carving hardpack.

The one thing I don't like about both the w105 and w95 is the twin tip tail. I have considered cutting off the tail to make it easier to stick into the snow. DPS says there is a piece of plastic in the tail where the core should be extending foward 6cm from the tail, so I could cut about 5cm of the tail without effecting the core. I am still thinking of doing that.

Instead of cutting off the tail, I am also considering the Dynafit Manaslu, which comes without a twin tip. If I were you, I would look closely at the Manaslu as it retails much cheaper than the DPS skis, although it is new so you probably won't find one used. You should note the Manasly has a progressive tip shape like the W105, which I will demand for any powder ski I buy in the future. Only reason I am waiting till next year to get the Manaslu is suspect hardpack performance and durability.

The W105 weighs 7lbs, the W95 and the Manaslu are both about 6.5 pounds.

Thanks, harpo for the above.

Anyone know how Dynafit skis measure in terms of their stated lengths? 178 seems a tad short, 187 a tad long for what I'd like.

srsosbso - if you contact ski_faster by PM, post up what he says. I'm also curious about the 95's.

allenataylor has the 105s as his dynafit rig....less than 5 lbs per pair, he has the charger version, so they are real stiff, and seem to be a bomber touring set up

Originally Posted by Conundrum

Ski_faster has this setup. Maybe shoot him a pm.

Sent him a pm asking if he'd chime in here.

I looked at the manaslu. Can't get my head around the funky sidecut (long radius in the front, short radius in the tail.) Seems like the opposite of what you'd want, if you were going to vary the sidecut radius at all.

thanks for all the input so far.

Originally Posted by schwerty

Assuming by "good snow" you mean powder why not go with the 105's?

Ya, I suppose I'm your typical kootenay snow-snob, touring for good pow or staying home to do the laundry. The new price on the 105 is way too much $ for the abuse skis take here (rocky under all that good snow) but I guess I could watch for them used. There has been a couple of pairs of the 95's used in the last few weeks which was why I was looking at them at all.

Originally Posted by Fritz

I love my 183bro/dynafit rig for longer tours.

You on the softs or stiffs? Like 'em in the pow? Somebody(?) told me they found them stiff in the tip/shovel for soft snow. Did you also try the 179? My current skis are ax4's and mythics in a 178(which are stiffer than the lp's in the same length) and I'm looking for something a bit softer/easier for the BC, but not noodle-fest. I like the ax4's and mythics fine, but sometimes in tight trees/at low speeds they are a challenge.

Originally Posted by harpo-the-skier

I have considered cutting off the tail to make it easier to stick into the snow. DPS says there is a piece of plastic in the tail where the core should be extending foward 6cm from the tail, so I could cut about 5cm of the tail without effecting the core.

Did they give you any other advice about this, like how to seal along the cut? I'd probably do this too. I kind of wonder why anyone would go to so much effort to make a ski light and then throw a twin on, but then again I'm not exactly riding switch. Well, not on purpose.

Originally Posted by spthomson

178 seems a tad short, 187 a tad long for what I'd like.

I think this about a lot of skis these days. I think big companies are just saving money by offering limited sizes and people are just sucking it up.

I have the older model Wailer 95 (essentially the old Surreal) that I use as pretty much my quiver of one when traveling. As a limp-wristed tele-poseur, I have them mounted with Voile 3-pin Hardwires. Over the years, they've seen plenty of different terrain.

They're flex 3 185, though not exactly the same as the current offering. I consider them pretty much the Swiss Army knife of skis, allowing for anything from long multiday tours in variable conditions to in-area charging on packed runs. They don't do as well as some more specialty skis in some situations, but are pretty much all you need for just about anything.

They're reliable in just about any situation, including sketchy stuff where they're prolly better than something wider like the W105 or the L120. They tour effortlessly due to their light weight and offer plenty of control on the down; they ski a lot like my Explosivs without all the weight.

As for the twintip deal, there are pluses and minuses to that in the BC. Harder to set them in the snow as an anchor is a minus, but lower likelihood of getting tails hung up in something narrow and steep is a plus. I haven't had any trouble with skins on them.

Durability? The older full-carbon versions did have a tendency towards catastrophic failure in some of the "bad" lots (I broke my previous pair of Surreals on a simple traverse, but they gave signs of problems earlier with the bindings ripping out prior to that). Fortunately I've been lucky so far with the current pair. I haven't had any problems yet, despite lots of abuse. The newer, current sandwich versions seem less likely to fail catastrophically, though delam problems have been noted and hopefully addressed by dps.

I did get a pair of W105s this year for my NTN setup. I haven't mounted them yet, so can't compare directly.

Bottom line is that I don't think you can go wrong with the W95s for your intended use.

Steve Romeo over on Tetonat.com did a couple of blogs about cutting the tails off of twin tips. He tried sealing the cut but nothing seemed to stay on so he used them for most of the season unsealed, with not much worse for wear. I have some 24 hour epoxy from tongar that I will try if I ever go through with it.

Originally Posted by Tri-Ungulate

they ski a lot like my Explosivs without all the weight.

Well, that's something. Thanks for the great review.

I'm kind of blown away by your exploits, frankly. Himalaya, Andes, no-fall steeps, and 30 foot hucks, all on tele gear? Maybe I should just get some snowlerblades and go find some green dots.

Originally Posted by harpo-the-skier

Steve Romeo over on Tetonat.com did a couple of blogs about cutting the tails off of twin tips.

Ya, I saw that too. I heard doug coombs used to lop twins off whatever K2 sent him. My ski pals would refuse to let me go with them if I was spraying some obnoxious rooster tail all over hells half-acre. I know some of the younger folk think the spray is cool, but my crowd would slaughter me. One of my buddies got some goats last year, and he is getting no end of abuse for the rooster-fest.

i've got 105's with comforts, and i couldnt love them more. its a great setup that i bought for a big trip to washington over the summer, the only thing i didn't like them for was skiing rime ice on top of the volcanoes, but then nothing i would have wanted to cary up would have exactly slayed rime ice. They're super fun in powder too. PM me if you want more info

It's not a rooster tail issue when a lot of guys are hacking the tails off twins.
It's a matter of being able to plant them into the snow and rappel off the skis.
Guides are now prohibited from skiing anything but flat tails.
We make a lot of our skis with flat tails for guides.

Originally Posted by splat

It's not a rooster tail issue...

Ya, I realize there are a bunch of issues. I'm just speaking for myself, where they'd pan out like this.
1) Skins. Apparently you can either cut off the clips and run a straight skin or get the climbingskinsdirect.com version with tip loops at each end. Either way, fixable.
2) Gondalas. Not an issue for me really.
3) Anchors. Never needed to do it, not likely to need to do it. Not a deal breaker for me.
4) Pissing off my buddies 'cause I am spraying them in the face. Not all twins are a problem- in fact, the only ones I've ever noticed are the gotamas. But the twins on the recent crop of wailers look pretty substantial. Anybody able to comment on this? It is the single reason I won't buy gotamas.
5) Pointless (for me) weight. Whatever, not a huge deal.

Yeah, I guess my post did come across as dickwaving, apologies for that. Anyway, all I'm saying is that they've never, ever let me down, no matter where they've been or what I've subjected them to. Some bottomless days I wished I had more width underfoot, some sketchy icy days I wished they were narrower, but again, they've served me well through pretty much everything and anything.

edit to add: I've been using the standard Ascension clipfixes on them, without any modifications, and it hasn't been a problem. The tail rise on my Wailers are prolly a bit less than in the current crop, though.

Originally Posted by Tri-Ungulate

Yeah, I guess my post did come across as dickwaving...

No, not even a little. Seriously. I'm just impressed, and envious. How about some TR's? Got any old photos or vids?

Originally Posted by srsosbso

I looked at the manaslu. Can't get my head around the funky sidecut (long radius in the front, short radius in the tail.) Seems like the opposite of what you'd want, if you were going to vary the sidecut radius at all.

AFAIK a lot of modern skis are shaped that way...they just haven't made it into a marketing bullet point. You've probably skied some yourself.

The reason is so that when you get in the backseat, the ski still comes around instead of just locking you into a straightline.

Really? Huh. I had no idea. I thought they were mostly still round, or in the case of elans, parabolic. I know the 4frnt msp is dual radius but the opposite of the manaslu, ie. shorter radius shovel, longer radius tail so as not to hook up in soft snow.

Fuck, maybe I'm too old for new skis.

My setup is Wailer 95, Comforts and Megaride's. I picked these up last year towards the end of the year but I do have about 7 days on them. First off they are so light it's retarded. I skied these in everything from deep blower to corn. These skis did really well in the wind buff, deep powder, and corn. I have never skied them in cut up stuff so I can't really comment there. At times the skis seems a little slow from edge to edge but this maybe also due to my boot. This year I switched over to a Spirit 4 so I hope this solves that problem. Overall if you can get a deal on this ski GO FOR IT.