Get Down with Down (skis)

[mall walker]

As an aside, I've been beating the everlasting shit out of my CD114L in what feels like a great Wasatch season but is realistically still a pretty lean one. Full speed rock hits, tree schwacking, dowclimbing rock slabs, everything goes. They are holding up like bosses. I'm still considering remounting them a couple cm back but at this point it's mostly out of nostalgia for the feel of the Lotus120.

I forgot to mention, my LD90s seem to be super soft on the bases. I've already done 4 or 5 small ptex replacements, luckily nothing to the core yet but it's just a matter of time. Not hitting anything particularly hard either; my Trab and Movement skis take nowhere near this amount of damage on similar hits. My only real complaint thus far.

Yell some obscenities next time!!

will do

[margotron]

Still can't decide if I should mount some 2 year old CD110s or sell. I'd be 3rd mount. They just hand flex crazy soft and it unnerves me. Otherwise seem like a nice powder touring ski at 186, 110 and 1900g.

[SiSt]

Still can't decide if I should mount some 2 year old CD110s or sell. I'd be 3rd mount. They just hand flex crazy soft and it unnerves me. Otherwise seem like a nice powder touring ski at 186, 110 and 1900g.

Which topsheet/year is it?

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[margotron]

Which topsheet/year is it?

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Yellow. Not sure year.
https://www.freeride.com/gear/skis/d...tdown-110.html

[SiSt]

Yellow. Not sure year.
https://www.freeride.com/gear/skis/d...tdown-110.html

Crazy soft sound different than how I remember those and makes it hard to make a recommendation as to what to do... Fun shape and model though, light, playful, quite turny and fun.

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[margotron]

Crazy soft sound different than how I remember those and makes it hard to make a recommendation as to what to do... Fun shape and model though, light, playful, quite turny and fun.

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Maybe 2/3 as stiff as my LD102s. Does that sound right? Anyway, I do like my touring skis to ski easy. room to mount them at -7 or -9 and would tour for pow

[SiSt]

Maybe 2/3 as stiff as my LD102s. Does that sound right? Anyway, I do like my touring skis to ski easy. room to mount them at -7 or -9 and would tour for pow

Recommended was -5, so go with -7 IMO. Should be great for your intended purpose!

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[JanIdar]

Two days in Norwegian trees with 104L (181 mounted on whatever recommended line was in mm). Perfect boot top to knee deep pow in trees and some dust on crust above treeline.
Love these skis! I was suprised by the float and how easy skis were to pivot when needed. Crusty parts no problem, no hookiness or anything strange. These skis do what you want and nothing else. Felt like skiing bigger skis, in a good way. Had 114's with me but kept them in a car.

Yeah, I might be a fanboi but life is too short to be on skis you don't like.

[galibier_numero_un]

CD114 Preliminary Report …

It’s been a weird Winter for me – 4 weeks with a nasty bug that I couldn’t shake (two rounds of antibiotics), and she who must be obeyed almost forced a cancellation of a trip to Utah last week … not that I blame her.

TL;DR: The CD 114s are my new daily driver for Colorado. Quick enough that they don't feel too wide, with a higher speed limit than my ability or inclination. They could be a one ski quiver for me if I was so inclined (but I'm not).

I only have 5 total days on my CD 114s and none in deep stuff. They feel like a scaled up version of my 104s, which is to say that I suspect Simen or Geo snuck into my house one night, planted a chip in the motor centers of my brain and did a download, ‘coz (along with the 104s) these are some of the most intuitive skis I’ve ever been on.

Searching for skis to compare them with (in my limited experience), I think back to a demo of some Steeples from three years ago – very traditional feel, perhaps a bit more nimble. They like a center/forward stance. Where my (now sold) Praxis Qs encourage you to stay the fall line, the Downs let you stay in the fall line. There’s subtle distinction in that I feel as if I can make tighter turn shapes on demand with CD 114s. At the same time, they beg for more than I'm capable of when I put the pedal to the metal.

Maybe I just don't know how to stand on the Qs. Most of you know my story with them. Alpy calls them “mental”, and for me, this is also the case. On harder snow, I’m always thinking about the right place to stand on them. I've made peace with the asym. in soft snow. Of course, I’m the outlier – the guy who couldn’t fully figure them out, and someone who has nothing good to say about Protests either. Are either of these bad skis? Of course not, but they don't work for me.

These days, if I get out 30-35 days, it's a great year, and I'm not going to spend 5-10 days adapting to skis. As @Janidar said above, life is too short to be on skis you don't like.

Monday – Snowbird (Mineral Basin): Bluebird day / chalky, hardpack.

The wind was howling on the front side, so we ducked out back. This is where I discovered that these skis like to rip. I suspect they’d be real chargers in 187, but I’m always thinking about tight spaces, and the 182s have plenty of top end for me. Thanks to @dschane for pointing me in this direction. I'm 5'9, 165#.

Tuesday/Thursday (Soli & the ‘Bird): Two days of visibility that went from bad to worse – dust over crust conditions.

Tuesday at Soli was bad, but not whiteout conditions. Thursday at the ‘Bird wasn’t quite survival skiing, but darn close. The entire East side of the mountain (Chips, Peruvian Chair), along with Mineral Basin was shut down due to 45+ mph winds. I don’t have the best balance when just standing still (stopped) in a whiteout. I find it amazing that I can ski at all in poor visibility.

Flying blind like this is a great way to find out how intuitive a ski is. With the Qs, whenever I got thrown in the back seat, I had two things to deal with – recovering, along with the squirrely behavior when I wasn’t centered on the ski. I can find a spot to stand on them when I can see but not as easily when flying blind.

With the Downs, I just stood on ‘em and ripped. Total confidence with the CD 114s. Whatever else the Qs do well, this "where's the balance point" attribute is a deal breaker for me.

Wednesday at Alta –warm, heavy, almost maritime snow (3-12" depending on where and when).

Unfortunately, I didn’t find deep stashes during the morning with the Downs. In the afternoon, I switched to the Qs.

My sense is that the Qs float just a bit better but I need more time on the Downs to say this for certain. The Qs have a bit of “tip wiggle” in snow that's a hot mess. They're very similar to my GPOs - perhaps a bit better, and not terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but once you've been on Billy Goats, you're always thinking about this.

This is just a guess, but I suspect that if I still owned the Qs (and was guaranteed good visibility), that I'd pull them out over the CD 114s for conditions like this. It's a minor distinction, and not at all relevant to me, 'coz if the visibility goes to hell, I'd be wishing that I was on the CD 114s. My guess is that float differences are subtle, and proportional to the slight width difference.

I need more time on the CD 114s to comment intelligently.

Friday (almost) - a case of "you should have been here tomorrow".

22" overnight and we were snowed in (interlodge was in effect). By the time we dug out and the road from the 'Bird to Alta was open, we had to head back to Denver for my buddy to catch a plane back East. The fact that he received a flight cancellation e-mail when we were passing through Grand Junction did not put a smile on our faces.

More when I get out in "proper" snow. It's been almost a year since Billy Goats have been in my quiver (feels like a LOT longer), and today, I adopted up a pair of 186 cm 2014s in a tour layup from @lucknau (you don't buy Billy Goats, you adopt them). The comparison between the CD 114s and the BGs will be interesting. My previous pair were 2015/16 in 184 (std. layup).


... Thom

[mall walker]

Aggressive detuning to where the sidecut starts has worked nicely for me.

This. With all Down skis.

I finally got around to doing this, then took my LD90s out again, and wow. Thanks gents. They are now just as predictable and un-twitchy as my old CD102Ls were! Skiing on firm windboard with slick surface hoar on top of it in steep wooded terrain with full confidence. I didn't buy this ski thinking I was gonna do a lot of powder 8's, but this ski could easily be a quiver-of-one BC ski for me. Got their first 10k+ day also. I still wish the bases were harder, but hey I have ptex candles. No core shots yet anyway, knock on wood. What a killer ski.



^ these aren't the turns I envisioned laying down with these, but they do it so well. Incredibly versatile ski. With high pressure setting up and excellent low-elevation coverage round these parts we might be finally setting up for some proper steep skiing as well...

[doebedoe]

I really want to make a trip to SLC just to have mall walker show me around on a few Down patrols.

10K of snow and terrain like that would be a solid spank bank entry.

[doebedoe]

Sorry I missed you. My trip came together (and almost fell apart) at the last minute. My buddy doesn't tour, so we rode lifts. I'm gonna do my best to get out for BBI UT-19.

LD90s, LD102s, and CD 104Ls have been occupying my attention ;-)

... Thom

There shall be some CD104Ls nearby with Vipecs soon if you need to take a lap.

May need to pick your brain re:mounting vipecs/template.

[mall walker]

Sorry I missed you. My trip came together (and almost fell apart) at the last minute. My buddy doesn't tour, so we rode lifts. I'm gonna do my best to get out for BBI UT-19.

LD90s, LD102s, and CD 104Ls have been occupying my attention ;-)

... Thom

No worries! If you make to BBIUT (or make it out here for any other reason) definitely hit me up. We can hit up Boissal and my buddy skiATL and have a Down-skis-only mag tour

[galibier_numero_un]

There shall be some CD104Ls nearby with Vipecs soon if you need to take a lap.

May need to pick your brain re:mounting vipecs/template.

Gimme a jingle any time. Looking forward to re-starting the season. One thing I really like about Vipec's toe holes is that they're counterbored instead of countersunk, so any tech toe finagling/wiggling doesn't result in your fighting a countersink.

No worries! If you make to BBIUT (or make it out here for any other reason) definitely hit me up. We can hit up Boissal and my buddy skiATL and have a Down-skis-only mag tour

Definitely looking to getting back to the land of milk and honey ... or is that bee hives ;-)

... Thom

[dschane]

TL;DR: The CD 114s are my new daily driver for Colorado. Quick enough that they don't feel too wide, with a higher speed limit than my ability or inclination. They could be a one ski quiver for me if I was so inclined (but I'm not).

Two locals here would say the same, one with the CD114 and one with the CD104 -- both are fun to ski and impressively handle versatile conditions. I'm waiting for some Lynx bindings to mount up my 104s . . . Passed along my 102s to a happy ex-luddite who had been on some Atomic TMXs for way too long. Hoping/expecting the 104s to be as stable and fun.

[mall walker]

I really want to make a trip to SLC just to have mall walker show me around on a few Down patrols.

10K of snow and terrain like that would be a solid spank bank entry.

anytime man, hit me up!!

[mall walker]

I finally got seriously into the terrain the LD90s were meant to ski... 3k' of this, kinda tracked, variable, the best it got was chalky, the worst it got was tight jump turns and rocks. I am still really loving these, they are confidence-inspiring and just ski solid in all conditions. 14 days (of 51) and just shy of 50k' vertical thus far on the LD90s, and to say that these have been a good purchase would be a grave understatement.

[doebedoe]

Day 1 on CD104Ls

Gear:
- 181s
- Vipecs mounted at 797mm from tail. (Line is wrong on the ski)
- Detuned tip and tail to start of sidecut with file, tapering down to gummi stone to contact points.
- Hawx XTD 130

Conditions:
- Windfucked hardboard and straguszi
- Icy, and slushy, skin track out.

Opinion:
- Not too heavy on way up.
- Tail rocker is perfect for a touring ski -- enough to release tails easily at all times today (we will see in deeper snow), but minimal splay == easy to shove in the snow.
- Very composed in shit snow. Dead intuitive. Felt like a ski I'd been on way longer than 2000'.
- Enough edge grip for anything I'd ever likely see in the backcountry. Maybe not 40-degree completely hard shit, but I'm not rad enough to be skiing lines that require it.

More to come...

[margotron]

V nice man. What does 797mm from tail translate to?


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[mall walker]

loving these still

[doebedoe]

V nice man. What does 797mm from tail translate to?


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-10.

loving these still

Sick. Stability must be good in the Wasatch at the moment?

[mall walker]

Sick. Stability must be good in the Wasatch at the moment?

snowing again now, but we had a killer week of high pressure. booted a couloir mon thru fri last week

[JanIdar]

I think this might be a good place to ask if there is any change we are going to see that fat touring ski? There were protos (at least pictures) maybe couple years ago. Would love to see something like ~120 underfoot fullrocker at 187ish

[galibier_numero_un]

Day 1 on CD104Ls

Gear:
- 181s
- Vipecs mounted at 797mm from tail. (Line is wrong on the ski)
- Detuned tip and tail to start of sidecut with file, tapering down to gummi stone to contact points.
- Hawx XTD 130

Conditions:
- Windfucked hardboard and straguszi
- Icy, and slushy, skin track out.

Opinion:
- Not too heavy on way up.
- Tail rocker is perfect for a touring ski -- enough to release tails easily at all times today (we will see in deeper snow), but minimal splay == easy to shove in the snow.
- Very composed in shit snow. Dead intuitive. Felt like a ski I'd been on way longer than 2000'.
- Enough edge grip for anything I'd ever likely see in the backcountry. Maybe not 40-degree completely hard shit, but I'm not rad enough to be skiing lines that require it.

More to come...

Thanks for the update. Intuitive is the word that first comes to mind about everything I've skied from Simen and Geo - like meeting someone for the first time whom you feel you've known for multiple lifetimes. Deja vu. Cue up David Crosby:



... Thom

[SiSt]

I think this might be a good place to ask if there is any change we are going to see that fat touring ski? There were protos (at least pictures) maybe couple years ago. Would love to see something like ~120 underfoot fullrocker at 187ish

If you're ever passing through Hamar, I have a pair you can borrow.

Incidentally, it's the the stiffest and probably best of the protos. It's not really fully rockered, more like the profile of a lotus 138, flat underfoot for about 55cm and massively rockered in both tip and tail, 120mm at the narrowest and about 43-45m radius, 193cm measured along the base and sub 2kg.

I have no ETA for this model making it into production, if ever, though.

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