So I just rode the hellbents for two days straight in uber pooder. 32 inches since thursday. I have had some neck issues lately, so I have been staying on the ground, so I dont really now how they land too well yet. But here is the preliminary review.
Me 5'9 or 10, 145. I ski a lot.
Skis: 179 Hellbents mounted +4.5 with s916
Other skis I like: tankers, goats.
Other skis I dont like: pistols (1st gen anyway), big troubles (mixed bag)
These skis are fat. They look like big snowlerblades. Very weird. Putting them on and getting into the lift line gets you some weird looks. Creepy ass graphics, but I bought the skis for the ride, not the looks.
These skis are HEAVY. Especially with the 9.16s. I havent weighed them yet, but they feel like more than my old ants w/ atomic 4.12s.
What I wanted out of these skis was the perfect bridger ride. We get a good amount of powder, and it gets skied fast. You are constantly traversing and hitting roads to get to the goods. Not only that, but by 11:00 the groomed getting back to the lift is choppy as hell. I felt that a praxis/spat type ski would suck on this stuff, and figured the sidecut of the hellbents would make it so I can hold an edge or skate. I was suprised to find that these hit all of my expectations. I am consistently passing everybody up on the really flat roads you have to skate on. (bridger mags: south boundary road) I have no idea how they skate so well, but they do. I guess that reverse camber helps you set an edge for your skating immediately. The traverses are cake too. Actually easier to ride than they are with my tankers because the roller coaster bumps dont jar you so much. They carve the groomers quite well too. Powder, I will get to later.
Construction:
Bomb. I thought K2 construction sucked after seeing my buddies P.E.s get coreshotted on the topsheets and the bases. Tops from the skis hitting eachother, and the bases from rocks that would barely scratch my skis.
Someone before us decided to sideslip heavenly blue (a run that chokes down to about 4-5 feet with all sorts of rocks on it. I sidestepped a couple of these rocks and I thought I was going to have some sort of edge damage. Not a thing. I skiied over a large pile of rocks at the top of the third finger, and that would have put a core shot in my tankers or big troubles, but I came away with a minor scrape. Topsheets ding quickly though.
Pooder:
I was worried about the ride at plus 4.5 because I am not flippy spinny, but I soon realized that these skis will float. I have been riding with my buddy (5'6 and 120ish) who is on the line elizabeths. Those are fat skis, but they float NOTHING like the hellbents. I always have to wait for him in the liftline. If you are skiing slowly in the pow, the tips can get a bit divey, and it is easy to get off weight. If you lean back while you are going slow, this problem is solved, but the dinky turns require some concentration. Still infinitely better than a "normal" (90-100mm) ski. Once you carry some speed though, it is really amazing. I have always thought it would be cool to snowboard in powder because they float so much. Well, so do the hellbents. You bring your toes up a little, and the tips are totally out of the snow. Rediculous. Accelerate like mad in the powder you would normally get stuck in. I did a 5 foot air or so, and landed frontseat into chop not knowing what to expect. On any other ski I have ridden, I would have gone over the bars. These things went from tracked to pockets of powder though without skipping a beat.
The extent of my flippy spinnyness:
I ride backwards every once in a while on the groomers just to keep things interesting. I never thought about riding backwards in powder. I tried it out and these things basically do it for you. Its quite fun actually. I can 180 off of a road into chop, and they land/ski comfortably. Once I want to turn around, there is minimal edge to catch so reverting is absolutely cake. I would imagine buttering is good, because when I tried to "nose press?" in the lift line (leaning forward flexing the ski) the tails just rose up.
Top speed:
I probably hit about 30 coming out of heavenly blue. This was a hardpack straightline into softer snow. That is probably as fast as I have gone on these. They feel fine. Set an edge and let them work for you when you want to slow down.
Moguls:
I have only skiied soft moguls, but they eat them up. Came down flippers today about 1 o clock, and had no troubles. Really fun because the platform is so stable.
Why they kick so much ass in powder:
These things float like crazy giving you a really surfy feel. But if you push into your corner, they will definitely sink in. If you ride them a little backseat, the tips will just float like mad, but if you lean forward a bit you can submarine the tips and instant face shot results. The tips dont dive, they just chill under there. Really fun jibby ski. If I was bigger, they would be tits for my play around pow ski. I could probably ride 169s as that. While I can mess around a ton on the 179s, they still ski like a real ski. Not the floppy noodle you would think they are. They are NOT THAT SOFT if you flex them correctly. The part that touches snow is a ton stiffer and damper than the tips and tails.
The negatives...
Tracked out bumpy groomers at the end of the day suck.
Hiking is more difficult because of the weight.
The graphics scare me.
Bottom line:
These skis rip in pow, and are not just flippy spinny sticks. I will get more info once I have ridden them a bit more.