armada declivity performance/tuning question

[swissiphic]

Have a pair of 184's and having some issues with performance. They seem just a bit unbalanced in turns; in soft consistent 3D snow or firm no ski pen 2D snow they seem okay but just a hair too turny from tip. Love them in shallower ski pen good snow steeps for winter or spring snow. For spring skiing, in punchy moist shallower ski pen snow, catchy end of spring ski day refreezing corn or deeper schmoo, the tips just seem to engage too quickly and moving weight to center or heel doesn't improve the feel...it seems like most of the ski engaged 'feel' is ski center with a weak tail that doesn't support through the end of the turn; if that makes sense. Had a few scary outings where deeper punchy moist spring coastal storm skiing resulted in the downhill ski grabbing and flicking uphill mid turn knocking into uphill ski...and kinda unpredictably at that...shifting weight to inside ski caused similar weirdness in uphill ski. Had 'em mounted on the line, went minus 2, not much difference but did make them float really well and feel pretty sweet in various depths of non bottomless pow. Changing turn radius doesn't change the lack of finding a true sweet spot feel. Tips moderately detuned to just beyond contact point, contact point to tail slightly detuned. Skied with dynafit mercury and scarpa maestrale boots...anyone try them with heavy/stiff d/h plastic and binders? I had a few skis in the past where d/h gear made the skis feel more stable and predictable than with touring gear...wonder if that could be part of it if?

Anyone have any specific tips for mount point or potential tuning that optimizes the ski?

[tenB]

Use a gummy stone to aggressively detune the entire ski. It takes more passes than you think with a gummy stone to do much of anything. If that doesn't do it, consider adding a 1/2 degree base bevel to get some drift in your turns. Or...find a steep icey run and skid the shit out of all edges to detune.

[stuckathuntermtn]

Wait wait wait, the problem is in dust on crust or manky new snow? It's not gonna matter what he does to his edges in new snow. Sounds like tough conditions. The answer is going to be getting body language just right.

[swissiphic]

Update: Various forms of ski styles and body english were experimented with previously...Base is already beveled about 1-2 degrees previously (hand filed); latest mod was a full extreme detune with a coarse cross hatched file of entire shovel to about an inch aft of contact point then slightly less than extreme detune for the remaining length of edges. Performance has improved somewhat in sticky, tip yanking new snow (5-15cms a few days ago) with surprisingly little compromise of grip on exposed firmer patches (not true winter temp ice or hardpan). Probably have to wait till next season to really discover the difference in winterlike conditions...it's may, and though we got a bit of winter leftovers a few days ago, it's gettin' hot in here.

[swissiphic]

Multi year later update: Skiing the Declivities this spring with Vulcans modified for quite a bit more forward lean and progressive forward flex. Haven't skied 'em in catchy breakable crust so can't comment yet on if the tips still hook unpredictably. Skied in punchy wet dense coastal snow, perfect corn, hero schmoo, punchy rotted out schmoo and mank.

Seems like the Vulcans stiffer forward flex and dialed in stance angles really worked synergistically with the ski. I can ski with ball of foot pressure and pretty much feel in the sweet spot of the ski in all conditions that I mentioned above. More aggressive skiing with tip driving pressure were very pleasing, with good support from shovels, skis bending nice and roundly and give just the right amount of rebound...very nice med stiff roundish flex pattern and very damp feeling. Longer turn radius works well with the rocker profile and flex and allows for intuitive feeling and a wide window of natural feeling turn shapes...in 2D snow, skis are very easy to pivot and slarve, yet feel equally at home when working with the radius of the ski and carving med to longer radius turns.

I think most of my problems experienced in the past were due to the boots being too soft both laterally and fore/aft. The Vulcans solved that issue.

At this point the only unknows is if they still suck in catchy snow conditions...wonder if that demon still lives in the tips...will update when i find out.