Replying to Playful All-mountain ski for the Alps
Hi everyone,
This is my first post so apologies if I missed some rules.
I am 25m 6'2 159 lbs/ 188 cm 72 kg based in Austria. I come more from a racing background and used to ski world cup slalom and giant slalom race skis, before I wanted to explore a bit more playful style of skiing. I consider myself an expert type of skier and can confidently ski every terrain I encounter on my home mountains (no couloirs and no super steep techy routes).
I own an Atomic Bent chetler 120 in 184cm for touring and the occasional deep day in the resort, which I enjoy a lot.
I also recently got a Nordica Enforcer 104 in 191 cm for those not super deep days or when the snow is already chopped up.
Those are great carvers for their width and they track phenomenally through rougher snow but due to their weight I presume they can be a handful in the trees and they are less playful than I originally hoped.
I am looking for a playful all-mountain ski that I would use primarily on soft-snow days that, for their width, would give a surfy feel in moderately deep snow and which can easily slash and slarve in softer conditions (i think the E104 lacks a bit in that regard) and which I can use to venture a bit into freestyle skiing and learn how to ski switch, do spins and butters off side-hits. I dont think I will use it in the park at all (there is none at my resort) but it would be really more focused on looking for fun, creative lines all over the mountain.
I was considering the Atomic Bent Chetler 100, the Völkl Revolt 104, the K2 Reckoner 102, and potentially the upcoming Salomon QST 98 (although I couldnt find a lot of information on it yet)
For the Bent Chetler 100 I would consider mounting it +2 or +3 but it seems to be still a quite directional ski and I wonder if it would be playful enough.
The Revolt 104 is mounted quite far forward and there I am unsure if the ski has enough shovel for me.
And the K2 Reckoner seems very soft so I wonder how it handles (softer) groomers.
Also curious on length recommendations: in the trees I found the E104 in 191 sometimes a bit much but I wonder if, e.g. the BC 100 in 188 would feel the same or if it is significantly easier due to its lighter weight.
Sorry for the long post and very grateful for recommendations!
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