Picking Your Next Skis: The Essentials
Picking your next skis is not as simple as it used to be.
When buying skis, choose a ski based on matching width and turn radius to the kind of snow you like.
Hard snow: select a ski with a narrow waist – 76mm or narrower.
Soft groomers (or general western front-of-mountain skiing): select a moderate waist – 75 to 85mm.
Resort powder (with firm surface underneath): select a mid-fat waist – 85 to 90mm.
Deep snow (with unpredictable base beneath): select a fat waist – more than 90mm. If you’re big and heavy or carry a heavy pack, go even bigger – 100mm+.
The remaining decisions are length and shape. Most men skiing at resorts can get along nicely on a 165cm ski; most women on 155cm. If you’re stronger than average, go a bit longer, but it won’t buy you a lot of additional stability. If you’re much lighter than average, go a bit shorter. It will pay off in improved agility.
Shape means sidecut. A deeper sidecut with a shorter radius carves a shorter turn. In general, this helps best on groomers. It won’t help in bumps, where you want the tail to release to avoid hanging up at the end of the turn. A good mid-fat has a shape close to 115-80-105, which gives a theoretical radius of about 14 meters and a bearing surface — the ski’s ability to “float” on soft snow — of 1350 cm2. Furthermore, the mid-fat’s agility — its ability to bend easily into a turn — is vastly improved because it has a short turn radius.
Each dimension can be varied in different ski types. Know your preferences.
Credit: Brittanica
What shape should you buy? Start with a “generic” 115-80-105mm shape at your length, then select a wider waist if you’re going to ski a lot of soft snow, or a narrower one if you’re going to ski a lot of hard snow. If you’re an expert who loves to carve, go for a shorter radius. If you want to be able to slide the tail a bit in bumps and tight woods (or if you have to skid a bit when you teach intermediates) opt for a slightly narrower tail.
Seth Masia, former technical editor of SKI magazine, heads the Ski Younger Now program at Vail Village. Ski Younger Now is a retraining program for older skiers, and skiers returning to the sport after recovering from an injury. It teaches low-impact, low-torque techniques to enable efficient skiing in all kinds of terrain.
The workshops are scheduled for December 15-17, 2015; January 12-14, 2016; February 16-18; and March 8-10. To schedule or learn more, email sethmasia@gmail.com or call Vail Village Private Lesson Desk (800) 475-4543 and ask for Seth Masia.
Gorsuch. Too Much?
Buy Stuff If You Can.
The 2016 Gorsuch catalog just landed on our desk with a cover model wearing $4,487 worth of ski outerwear. Inside are pictures of parkas costing in the thousands and a four-way stretch insulated “ski jean” for $2,399.
Fur hood parka by Bogner: $2,108. Doggie: Priceless.
Credit: Gorsuch
Choices for guys are pricey, but nothing like the trophy garments which, based on the Barbie-looking models, must be targeted at trophy wives.
It’s fun to thumb through the catalog and see how the tippy-top of the one percent is outfitting itself for the coming season. A knit neck warmer to stuff the stocking? $250. A black and grey zipper fleece? $498.
The 2016 Gorsuch has many luxury items for the carriage trade.
Credit: Gorsuch.
Photographed in Aspen, this is the 39th Gorsuch catalog. The company was founded by Renie and David Gorsuch who were members of the 1960 US Olympic Ski Team. According to their website, they fell in love, married, settled in Colorado and had three sons. Today, they have 13 stores at all the right addresses in Aspen, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Park City and Vail (one of which, appropriately, is on Wall Street).
Like most of the lifts at these areas, Gorsuch’s offerings are over the top.
To request a hard copy of the Gorsuch catalog, visit them here. Oh, by the way, it’s free.
Big Sky, Big Win For 3 Gens
Can Mom (74) Adapt To Big Sky Skiing?
Correspondent Heather Burke, her son, and mom have a knock-out three-gen ski vacation at Big Sky.
Credit: Greg Burke www.luxuryskitrips.com
SeniorsSkiing.com welcomes Correspondent Heather Burke, Ski Journalist LuxurySkiTrips.com and FamilySkiTrips.com
Big Sky is just as massive and scenic as it sounds, with over 5,750-acres and a skiable summit soaring to 11,166’ and dropping 4,350’ vertical feet to the base village. Boom. This Montana ski resort is as intimidating as it sounds, or at least it was to my 74 year old mom. She wanted to join us on a family ski trip, but she had serious alpine anxiety. Would she be able to keep up with us, my husband and me, and our 21 year old son? Would she remember all her skiing skills? Would it be like the proverbial bike after missing a season or two of alpine skiing?
She flew from Florida, a reverse snowbird, to meet us in beautiful Montana. Our first ski day together, I could tell she was wound up, and a bit winded from the elevation (Florida’s highest point doesn’t acclimate you to Big Sky country). As we walked to the Swifty high-speed quad (I carried her skis), I assured mom she had done this thousands of times before, and taught me to ski four decades ago.
As I made those first few gentle turns in sparkling soft snow on Mr K under brilliant blue sky, she followed. I looked over my shoulder to see her skiing fluidly, in perfect form, a pretty big smile on her face. She was feeling the elation of skiing, at 74, and I was feeling pride (and relief). To think that she’d been apprehensive seemed silly now. But her Florida friends had warned her, “don’t break a leg,” and “you’d better come back in one piece.”
Many senior skiers like wide groomers and big turns. Big Sky has some beauts.
Credit: Greg Burke www.luxuryskitrips.com
We skied four fantastic days on Big Sky’s gorgeous groomers—Elk Park Ridge to Calamity Jane. Mom had her faves—Sacajawea and Ambush. We skied with my son and husband on Big Sky’s Moonlight Basin terrain, three generations sharing comfy quads. Over lunch in the spectacular Moonlight Basin Lodge, we laughed about how our gear and technique had revolutionized during our three generations, and told crazy ski instructor stories – all of us had taught skiing at some point. Mostly we had a blast. I can’t think of another sport than can span 50 years age difference. Senior skiing sure has changed, so has age… 70 is the new 40 for skiers.
The other change, now I’m the over-protective parent, of my mother. I controlled my mom’s ski environment during our week in Montana, leading her down ego-pleasing, beautifully groomed boulevards—Big Sky has many. Our last day brought soft glittery powder and she skied it like a champ. “I have never skied such amazing powder,” she said. I’m pretty sure she had in her six decades, this woman skied on barrel stave skis with trap bindings after all. But who am I to correct my mom though.
Big Sky was the best venue for our three generations, big mountain terrain for the boys, big blues for mom and me, and a compact village at the base – so she could ski back to the slopeside condo mid-day and I could catch up with my guys for tram laps and steep chutes. At après ski, with well-earned scotch in hand at Big Sky’s Carabiner Bar, mom toasted to our skiing legacy.
We returned her rental ski equipment and returned her on a plane safely back to her cynical Florida friends (in one piece, no broken leg). Big Sky made a big impression on these three generations of skiers.
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