unknownTue Feb 22, 2005 12:19 am
Took the brand new Kung Powders out for a day in the backcountry. The short pitch off the top of Plummer's peak was nice sun softened snow, unfortunately it was only long enough to make 2 turns. We headed for Plummer's crack and found variable breakable crust. It made for difficult skiing and I was able to get a few tele turns in, but most of it was survival skiing with parrallel turns. It was hard to get a good feel for the skis in these conditions, but when I didn't break through the crust, the skis seem stable and fairly damp.
The length and weight of the skis makes skinning and bushwhacking a chore and the width makes icy traverses a bit hairy. I would say these skis are more resort oriented than backcountry.
I was afraid the edges would blow since the edges separated in a few spots from the base during pressing. After several rock hits, including one that caused sparks to fly, the edges are still intact. Unfortunately, the topsheets of both skis delaminated at the tails. The polycarbonate does not seem to bond well with the epoxy. What started as small blisters at the tail was made much worse on the bushwack down. Everytime I stuck the skis in the snow, it would force a little snow into the blister and force more of the topsheet to peel away. By the end of the day, 12" of the left ski and 6" of the right had delaminated. I was able to re-epoxy the topsheet back on and will probably put some small bolts to stop it from delaminating again.
unknownFri Feb 25, 2005 7:03 pm
after skiing a few days at Whistler on the Ahmas (135-108-124mm), i decided to take them out for a ski tour with friends Amar Andalkar and Matt Swallows. we ventured to the Black Tusk area. the weather was incredibly clear and warm. our tour started out at ~2900 ft. and we skinned for ~5 miles on the microwave towers access road. by late afternoon, we topped out at 6600 ft. and decided to ski down from the towers. the snow along the west ridge leading to the Tusk was significantly wind hammered. the only good snow i found was on north slopes, but unfortunately, we didn't ski those slopes. instead, we survival skied back to the access road and descended on the road back to the car. overall, the descent was fun on the Ahmas, but climbing with them was somewhat of a chore. they weigh a lot and not the most idea boards for backcountry travel. so far i've skied about 10+ days on them and they are starting to show signs of wear and tear. most of the damage is occuring on the topsheet. the material we use isn't that durable. it chips rather easily, from sharp blows from the edge of the opposite ski. i think i'm going to have to consider using a different material, for example, p-tex, or finding more durable material. suprisingly, the camber is holding its shape well and the ski performs well inbounds. i skied them pretty hard at Whistler. anyway, here's a self portrait i made while ascending along the west ridge toward the Black Tusk (sharp pointy thingy). the terrain is amazing up there!
unknownThu Feb 10, 2005 5:07 pm
Kelvin Wu and i took the Ahmas into the backcountry for the first time. i skinned up on the Ahmas and Kelvin was on his Atomic Teledaddies. there was 12" of new unconsolidated powder. we each skied a couple runs and they performed well. the wide 135mm tip floats nicely as expected. the only problem we noticed was a little bit of tip dive. the reason we think is the skis' tips have too low of a curve profile, which occuried because we underestimated during the layup process. also, i think it would be nice to add more sidecut to the skis. right now there's a 25m radius on the inside edge and a 21m on the outside edge. shrinking the radius down a bit will make them quicker, especially through the trees. i like the Ahmas better than the Teledaddies, probably because i'm biased
. below is a shot of Kelvin on the skis:
image no longer available
