Not a review: Dynafit Denali

[milotrain]

Backstory:
I haven't been on skis in perhaps eight years. I used to ski alright-well, good enough to know that you can't tell people how well you ski and have it be worth anything. Last pair of skis were Volkl P30 RCs, and a pair of P20 RS Supers. I had lusted after those P20 forever and then found them for sale a year after I bought the P30s for $75 in BigSky. They are 205cm (I'm 170lbs and 5'11), they are monsters and they are wonderful. Friends and family who ski pretty much do so in the BC now, and even though they live in Colorado don't have season passes anywhere. I've learned that in southern California I'm closer to more BC than I am to good resort skiing.

After a little googling and reading threads on this forum I bought a pair of Dynafit Denalis (184) from bossass, mounted them with radical st 2s and went to ski Mammoth yesterday. I had gone to Colorado to learn what BC skiing was all about from a friend who lives out there, rented some RMU CRMs from Neptune and proceeded to suffer for three days on a brand new pair of Scarpa Maestrales. It seems I had forgotten how to ski and had no legs after an eight year break.

Good news! Life got way better once I was on the Denalis, despite the fact that Mammoth was more like east coast ice skiing most of Friday (when it wasn't mashed potatoes). Took me a few runs to figure out how to set up the Scarpas, but once they were there everything was golden and I was skiing better than I had any reason to expect. I was really impressed with how well the Denalis held up to ice and slop, the combination certainly skied better than I remember the P30s skiing.

So the not review is that Denalis, Maestrales (mangos), and Radical ST 2.0s ski as well as I remember my old alpine setup skiing, and they come in around 7.5lbs a foot with skins. I didn't know what to expect, but I'm pretty fucking happy with how this worked out. Especially having bought most of this stuff without actually using it or anything like it before.

[bfree]

The mangos are certainly more limiting than the skis and bindings on that setup. Glad you're enjoying them!

[milotrain]

That's what I figured (after reading) but they fit me perfectly and they are stiffer than my old alpine boots so meh. Assuming at some point they are found to be too floppy I might get a pair of RSs.

[XXX-er]

I sometimes take my denali's out on corduroy groomers ... not a noodle

[alive]

Still one of the top touring skis out there. Always amazed with its weight and performance every time out...

[m62462]

These skis are amazing indeed. They're super solid for how light they are, although it always seemed to me that the shape of the ski gave it a tendency to hook in upside down snow. I broke one of my skis after about 9 months (no big airs, just broke skiing powder) and dynafit replaced it.