I've been lucky enough to ski a dozen new skis in the last couple of weeks. All of them hand picked for possible inclusion in my personal "ultimate" quiver. No skito date more of a surprise or more impressive as a true "all mountain ski", than... the new Dynafit Hauscaran. This is truly one amazing ski. Helped to have 2+' (yes 2+ feet) of new, untracked hero snow today to play on. It is the Cascades after all so anything you can actually ski here that is 2' deep IS,almost unbelievable, hero snow. And it was snowing hard enough to fill it in all day long.Did I mention it was almost untracked from 9AM to 4PM because it kept snowing so hard? Just one of THOSE days :) Butliterally, from water ice, to cut up crud and a hard rain crust to some amazing POW;the Hauscaranwill rip fast GS turns or dance in the deep and steep stuff amid tight trees. Effortless in either situation, even for me! An amazing ski. And now I know why so many decide towear a helmet.
Even more impressive to meknowing that I was doing all thiswhileskiinga pair of light weight TLT 5 Performance boots and the new TLT Speed Superlite RACE Binding (185g). The same boot the original designer said it was "stupid to ski them off the lifts". They are that light. But they do ski well ;) Turns out, for no special reason, it was a Dynafit day. I hadn't planned it that way. This set up was to be my "lwt fat" ski for longer mid winter touring days. The Hauscaranis all that and a bag of chips! But I am rethinking what might be its other uses now and what it would do with a "real" ski boot bolted on. Something like the Mercury or Vulcan. may be even the One. I know my Zero4 Carbons are way, way too much boot for this ski, in a 177. No need for that much power!
These are short @177cm. Taking advantage of the size/weight ofthe binding these(ski & binding) weigh in at 8# 10oz. First time I have ever thought about buying a 2nd pair of the same ski...the next one in a 196cm. Two sizes, two different boots to drive them and two totally different usesfor the ski.
The 178cm is 134-112-123 and 1780g weights in at . The 196cm is 136-115-125 and weights in at 1940g. And yes, it was snowing :)
In the next few weeks hopefully I'll get the time to write up all the skis I've been ridingrecently.And my ideas behind the "ultimate quiver". Along with some old and new boots and some of the accessories I've found really useful this winter for skiing in bounds and out.
But as I mentioned this ski was a total surprise. I wasn't expecting much from such a big skis. And what the Hauscaran delivered was pretty impressive in my limited experience. Enough so thatI wanted to do an early heads up on it tonight. 'Cuz it is snowing like crazy at the house right now and likely a huge dump upon the hill for tomorrow!
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