:: View topic - Feb 27,2005 Steven's Pass Ski area, WA

Elli and I decided to take our chances and head up to Steven's pass. Considering the amount of snow they have to work with, the groomers did a really good job of keeping the runs skiable, just don't go off the trail. Snow conditions varied from refrozen granular to spring mashed potatoes.

The kung powders completely rocked. They are damp, stable and just plow through anything. They also carve and hold an edge pretty well. The width and length requires a bit more work for short quick turns and moguls; I think a hair more sidecut would be perfect. These skis ski so well, I'm selling my commercial skis.

My delamination repair seemed to be holding up, only a couple of blisters in the topsheet.

It turned out to be a great day of spring skiing, too bad it is February.

Kelvin and i finished the Ahma BCs earlier in the week. this is the second pair of asymmetric skis we've built. in addition to having different sidecut dimensions for the inside (24m) and outside edge (21m), we made the shape of the tips and tails asymmetric, too. the reasoning for shaping the tip/tails is to help reduce scraping of the topsheet material near the tip/tail area by the inside edge of the ski. but if anything, the shape looks pretty cool.

the Ahma BCs were designed more for the backcountry. what do we mean by this? basically, we wanted a ski that was fairly lightweight for touring. the original Ahmas were quite wide (135mm at the shovel) and heavy, and so we wanted the new pair to be narrower, hopefully lighter. but for some reason, we didn't pay much attention during the drafting phase and our template came out to be 132-105-119mm! in the end, the Ahma BCs were a bit lighter, but not by much. anyway, here are the basic specs of the skis. the core is made of poplar and maple. mixing poplar helped reduce the weight. at cord-center, the core is 11mm thick and 2.5mm at the tail and 2mm at the tip. we used a thin sheet of black ABS for the topsheet. to improve bonding of the topsheet, we abraded the ABS, but i don't think we abraded enough. i won't be surprised if they delam soon. the other materials include two layers of triaxial braided fiberglass (22 oz.) and rubber damping strips. i used three damping strips, one over each edge and one strip down the middle. and finally, we used black base material. compared to the original Ahmas, we left out the two layers of flannel material. this really helps make the skis lighter as the flannel soaks up a lot of epoxy!

the Ahma BCs look pretty cool overall and they have a nice even flex. the first test ride was in the backcountry in the north cascades. i skied them on my birthday, on The Birthday Tour to be exact. below is a photo of the skis near Early Winter Spires at Washington Pass. notice the shape of the tips, but they are actually skied with the right ski in the photo on the left side, and the left ski in the photo on the right side.

snow conditions ranged from soft corn (on sun-direct aspects) to bullet-proof refrozen corn (on shaded and north, northest aspects). when i was making the first set of turns, i immediately noticed the difference in sidecut between the inside and outside edge. the skis were very quick edge-to-edge; they were very responsive and held a great edge (probably because i had them tuned). they felt lighter compared to our original Ahmas, and this made somewhat of a difference, both during the ascent and while i was trying to whip them around on the descent. overall, the skis performed really well on an icy pitch that we had to ski to get back to the car. the only thing that i did notice is they seem to resonate a bit. it's not a big deal, but i think the skis need more damping elements to make them feel more

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!