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What J says: "The Metal has all of the high performance, powerful benefits you'd expect from a ski with Titanal metal in it, yet without the extra weight. The secret to it's award winning design is in the way we've optimized the metal laminate's geometry & location to add power only where you need it, and reduce weight where you don't. The result is exponential power & stability with a shockingly nimble, lively & fun feel. You've got a ridiculously fun cliff stomping, crud crushing, pow surfing ski that will also have you smiling ear to ear on groomer days laying down high-speed hip dragging carves like you just won a gold medal in Olympic GS. #JMetalSki" What I thought: I got the Metals from J last spring, and skied them about 10 days here in the PNW. It didn't take long to get used to them at all on my first day, a sunny, slushy day at Crystal Mountain. The dimensions are nothing crazy, neither is the ski really, but that's kind of why it's awesome. They do a really good job of balancing ease of skiing and stability. This balance means you don't need to think too much about the way you're skiing, which is cool, you can just go rip. They do have a 'top speed', and even though they have a metal laminate, as suggested by the name, they can feel a bit light charging hard on choppy snow. Though I may have noticed this more as I was coming off of 191 ON3P Billygoats, which are long and stable. The hard snow, and groomer performance was pretty fun. I ripped a couple laps on Palmer while at West Coast Sessions, and found that you can drive them well on groomers. I can't comment on durability, as I only got about 5 or 10 days on them, but the construction gave me no reason to worry. Who they would be good for: The Metal was fun, and easy to ski. I think It would be a great ski as an (almost)everyday inbounds alpine setup. The metal helps dampen the ski, so it can handle tracked snow easily, and the rocker makes them fairly quick to throw around. I'd imagine they'd surf and slash well in pow, and that the 106mm under foot would be plenty wide for most days. I'm not much of a jibber, and I'd say they lean more towards a traditional skier like myself, I don't see issues with popping around and launching airs though. They can still charge, and pop, but it's a ski your dad would love as well, because of the mix of stability and nimbleness. Plus, if you get your Dad on J Skis, he'll be the coolest Dad around.
183 7 Mile Floatie 135mm, 113mm, 131mm 30cm tip rocker, 20 cm tail rocker, 1.5mm camber Binding: Dynafit Radical STs on the recommended mount mark. Me: 6' 175lbs. Not a big hucker, but I like to ski fast and make some slashes here and there. I have been skiing on a 191 ON3P Billy Goat. What they say: With the Floaties on your feet you will be ready for the deep days. The Floaties are freaky light in weight, with a subtle tapered shape, easy rise functional rocker and traditional camber underfoot. This ski stays afloat and amazingly nimble in soft snow, trees, and chutes. Snappy hardwoods and carbon fiber reinforcement keep the ski stable in chunder and chop, and it is fast as hell and turns with ease even on hardpack. So get your Floaties, bring your snorkel, and schralp the deep gnar! My initial impressions: I was very unsure what to expect, I had never heard of 7 Mile, but the skis looked fun and seemed solid when I mounted them in the 7 Mile shop. Coming off the 191 Billy Goats to a shorter ski had me a bit worried, but the Floatie definitely still has plenty of beefiness to it. Day one on the Floaties for me was a pretty epic one, about 12" of fresh snow and blue skies at Vail. Our first run, getting to the backside, had us going through some soft skied out snow. The Floaties handled this very well, not being bounced around or deflected by the chop. The next run I really got to open them up on some wide open untracked snow. Needless to say, it did not suck. I was able to link nice bigger turns while being able to release into a slash at any time. While the rocker is subtle, I think it seems to really help keep the ski very nimble. The balance between the chargey bigger turns and the smaller and slashier turns was very nice. image: http://images.newschoolers.com/images/17/00/80/76/13/807613_600w_564h.jpeg The remainder of the day was filled with more pow stashes and jumping off small sidehits, chop and rolls. Here the Floatie provided a good platform for landing, no wheelies or sketchyness, although I didn"t step up to any bigger hits. A three day hut trip in the Gore range of Colorado brought more pow, but also some hard snow. We hiked a small summit above the hut with a decent filled with a mix of hard, chalky and wind affected snow. Although they weren't perfect on the hard snow, which the dynafits likely don't help on, they were easily controllable and handled the chalky and wind affected parts confidently. I imagine that the longer 191s could really rail on hard snow, especially paired with an alpine binding. The most recent five days on the Floaties have been in Japan. Here they continued to impress me with their agility in the trees and the balance they're able to achieve between making big turns and slashing them. Overall impression: For me, the 183 Floatie is a great one ski pow quiver. Mounted with touring bindings, they are great for the majority of my in and out of bounds soft snow days. That being said, if you were to be skiing resort only, I think the 191 may be a better choice, to give some better hard snow and crud performance. They are not the poppiest/jibbiest skis on the market, although they are definitely poppy and have that elusive "fun factor." Where they shine the most is in their balance and the ability to charge while remaining nimble and Floatie enough for the Japow. Read more at http://www.newschoolers.com/news/read/Who-7-Miles-Skis-Floaties-Review#z4updIykDb0tUhwU.99
These pants are pretty awesome. They come out with me on any day with new snow, cold weather, or anything wet. The bibs themselves are pretty bomber. The fit is pretty baggy, I'm about 6' 170lbs and the Medium fits me really well, but they are definitely still baggy. The waterproofing is great, super dry. I've had a couple durability issues, the "superfabric" on the cuffs has torn a little bit, one of the pocket seams blew out and some of the fabric is delaminating. These are all things Trew would probably warranty, because they're awesome, but I like the khaki color too much. I've heard these issues ave been taken care of in the newer years.
These are great little pipe gloves. I use them all the time when it's warm out, when I'm touring and when I'm shooting photos. They are a little bit more substantial than some pipe gloves, which I think is great. The orevurved fingers make for a nice tight fit and good dexterity, I can easily use all my camera controls with them on. The print on the palms also helps with grip and are WAY more durable than similar print on the older Dakine pipe gloves I had. They aren't very waterproof, but that's not really what they're for.
This is the older model, the pack has been updated for 13/14. This is a super nice pack to take inbounds on pow days or for smaller day touring trips. The pack has one main pocket and another front pocket for avy gear. The avy gear pocket is just a touch too short to hold the handle of my voile tele pro shovel, so I have to split that into two pieces. The pack A-frames skis very well, no problem with my pow skis. The main compartment is big enough to hold plenty of gear for a day tour. extra layer, snacks a shell etc. One thing that kind of bugs me is that there is no good place to put a water bottle, so i think I'm going to get a bladder for it.
I got this helmet and used it all of last year. It has been great so far, no complaints. The padding is relatively thin, but the little screw tightener in the back keeps it fitting snuggly. The padding and internal tightener system and padding are difficult to take out and the helmet looks a little bit silly without the ear pads, so I would not recommend it for those looking to take the padding out and wear a beanie under.
I've had a bunch of goggles over the years, mostly Oakley, but I made the switch after I broke a pair of airbrakes. These goggles fit me great, although I've never had fit issues with goggles. The field of vision is great, I haven't noticed any deficiencies. The lenses are pretty good, although I still think I prefer Oakley's lenses, replacements are pretty easy and chap to come by. The clip in the back of the goggles is nice to have and is pretty low profile for those who wear the strap underneath their helmet. They fit great with my Smith Variant Helmet.
Overall overall, they work well for what i do, but some features are a pain, and they are heavy Performance They work pretty well for what i do, i ski about 70/30 inbounds/out of bounds with them. They are pretty heavy, but for how i use them, there isn't anything else you can ski inbounds like that, and tour with Design having to take the skis off to switch to tour mode is kind of a pain in the ass, and the plate on the ski and the rest of the binding get packed with snow a lot when touring, it's not too bad though Value bought them used from tgr fo a good deal Characteristics I've had 0 pre-release issues, and have always ejected when i should have Durability they have held up fine so far
Overall They took me a while to get used to coming from a super wimpy ski, but they rip. They destroy crud and chop, not super playful, dont like to make small turns, but you can if you need to Performance i've written this 4 times and ns has messed up, so i'll keep it brief they rip, like to go fast, make big turns, float but not surfy, own groomers, Destroy crud/chop don't like to turn much, don't like trees, but they can be whipped around when needed. They are incredibly stable, especially when you get them up to speed. Fit I'm glad i went 191, it seemed like a lot of ski, coming from a 175, but once you get the feel for them, they kill it Durability all good, only normal cosmetic chipping. Typical bombproof on3p construction
