salida
New member
About me:
190 lbs
5'11
Advanced/Expert Skier
Aggressive, mostly fast and muscled skiing
Volkl Katana, 183cm:
Tested last weekend at Killington in mostly mashed potato type conditions. Took them on groomers, steep iced terrain, in corn, in tight trees and bumps...
The ski is very interesting 111(or so) at the waist and even bigger in the tips and tails. Speaking of the tails, its a swallow tail with a ptex cap over it so you can still ski it switch. Very interesting design. The base material has some sort of weave in it... don't know exactly what for. The ski is zero camber as well. The ski in my estimation was not very stiff (pure powder I would say).
Skiing it on hardpack it did not hold an edge like the BD Verdicts, however it was very forgiving and landed exceptionally well on jumps/high speed air assaults. I hammered on these to see what kind of speed they would take. On hardpack and mashed potatoes they definitely chattered a bit, but did destroy most crud they went though. In deep powder I can imagine them being a weapon of choice. They performed remarkably well in tight situations (thanks to the swallow tail I think). Overall a good ski, but definitely a quiver option. I would have rather skied it in a 193...
Marker Duke
Sweet design, super burly from feel. Din to 16. Something I am seriously considering purchasing (that or trekkers for next year). By comparison to Fritschis (which we've broken three pairs of this season) they felt remarkably more secure. You have to release from the binding to get the heal to detach (thank goodness, I'm sick of rattling fritschis off). Many complain about this but I think its a terrific idea, because I'll typically be taking them on and off to attach skins. The binding is the same design as their new freeride binder just with a detachable heal... Overall it seems like a great design for someone who is looking for true alpine performance and does not mind the added wait.
190 lbs
5'11
Advanced/Expert Skier
Aggressive, mostly fast and muscled skiing
Volkl Katana, 183cm:
Tested last weekend at Killington in mostly mashed potato type conditions. Took them on groomers, steep iced terrain, in corn, in tight trees and bumps...
The ski is very interesting 111(or so) at the waist and even bigger in the tips and tails. Speaking of the tails, its a swallow tail with a ptex cap over it so you can still ski it switch. Very interesting design. The base material has some sort of weave in it... don't know exactly what for. The ski is zero camber as well. The ski in my estimation was not very stiff (pure powder I would say).
Skiing it on hardpack it did not hold an edge like the BD Verdicts, however it was very forgiving and landed exceptionally well on jumps/high speed air assaults. I hammered on these to see what kind of speed they would take. On hardpack and mashed potatoes they definitely chattered a bit, but did destroy most crud they went though. In deep powder I can imagine them being a weapon of choice. They performed remarkably well in tight situations (thanks to the swallow tail I think). Overall a good ski, but definitely a quiver option. I would have rather skied it in a 193...
Marker Duke
Sweet design, super burly from feel. Din to 16. Something I am seriously considering purchasing (that or trekkers for next year). By comparison to Fritschis (which we've broken three pairs of this season) they felt remarkably more secure. You have to release from the binding to get the heal to detach (thank goodness, I'm sick of rattling fritschis off). Many complain about this but I think its a terrific idea, because I'll typically be taking them on and off to attach skins. The binding is the same design as their new freeride binder just with a detachable heal... Overall it seems like a great design for someone who is looking for true alpine performance and does not mind the added wait.