UKC

I've just returned from a week of piste skiing in the Portes du Soleil.  On a whim, I decided to take my 20-year-old Atomic skis: 190cm long, 104-62-92 profile.  Having not skiied on them since 2010 I was a little apprehensive as to how I would get on with them.  In recent years I've rented skis in the resort (largely due to not being able to be bothered with servicing and transporting skis), meaning that I usually ended up with more modern skis around 10-15cm shorter, and significantly wider both underfoot and at the tip and tail.

Somewhat to my surprise, from the first run of day one I felt more at home on the old skinny skis than I ever had on more modern ones.  For the first time in ages I was able confidently to put together a long series of short radius linked turns down the fall line.  Slicing through piles of snow was angst-free, unlike on the shorter, wider (and blunt-tipped) more modern skis, which always felt to me as if I was about to catch the tips and "trip over".  Even in deep snow I didn't sink out of sight but glided through serenely (well, as serenely as I am ever really likely to manage).

Long story short: I had a very enjoyable week feeling at one with my gear and with the snow in a way that I hadn't experienced in years.  Unfortunately the ski technician who serviced my skis for me before this trip just gone did say that the bases likely wouldn't take another grind.  I am therefore left wondering whether, when these skis finally reach the end of their life, I will ever be able to find anything that feels so 'right', given that everything these days seems to be shorter and wider (and less 'pointy') than the skis I've just fallen back in love with.

So to the point: is my future skiing going to be hamstrung by 'fashion', or are there features I should start looking for in a modern ski which would mean they will behave as much as possible like my newly-beloved but not-much-longer-for-the-slopes skinny skis?  Or do I just need to put more time & effort in to learning how to drive modern skis properly?

It always amazed me what we used to achieve on skinny skis which nowadays is deemed 'impossible ' !

Marketing hype.......

I clung onto my Salomon Force 9s in an unfashionable length, 197 cms I think, to the point where people were beginning to point and laugh. Shorter skis may be more turney (you only have to think "turn here" and they seem to do it on their own) but my long skis held a super straight line in a traverse and in the schuss, especially through cruddy stuff. To initiate a turn you just had to plant a pole and unweight them a little.  They were an absolute revelation when Salomon launched them.

In the winter of 1987 I spent a full season skiing in Savoie and used to ski with a local girl who had been brought up in the Alps. She used massively long skis, well longer than her height and I was always filled with admiration for the way she carved graceful confident GS turns, smooth as anything.

Man, you ride short stix...

I *loove* my pink 207cm Völkls (from mid/late 90s) mounted with tele-binders. Absolute h00t on sunny spring days.

62mm underfoot skinny? For years my 'do all' skis were 54 mm & I treated my 60mm skis as my 'wide' skis for the big mountains. How times change

(ps these were telemark rather than alpine skis)

I had a pair of about 1990 vintage, long, skinny K2 Triaxial skis until a few years ago. These were superb, tough skis. On the last ski trip I had them, I made a direct comparison with typical wide short modern skis. I found the latter were easier to ski on and less tiring over a whole day, but the old K2's were way faster. This was particularly noticeable when going straight on gentle slopes - I found I could glide past all the skiers on the latest skis.

Put more time and effort into learning to ski modern skis properly - particularly carving

as for base regrinds - service then yourself, most ski techs will always base grind when it’s not really needed

From one old skiier who has served his time on 2 metre straight planks to another.....think you been renting the wrong skis!

I have a pair of Hart aluminium skis, 215mm with Look N17 bindings. So stiff you can use them as car ramps.

I occasionally think about getting them out of the loft and giving them a run out for old times sake.

But then I remember how terrified I was as a teenager, stood on them in my lace up boots, at the top of the Nebelhorn, staring down the Gipfel run with moguls so large that my brothers were hidden from view when they went behind each bump.

I then go and rent modern skis.

Well I've got a pair of Salomon Force 9's in the loft if you're interested, in great condition.

Andrew

Which ones? The supers? And the blue 2S or the red 3S?

buy yourself a GS ski when you need to upgrade, will be the closest you can get to an old school ski, ok well actually a super G ski may be more similar but you get the point

I don't think that that is an imagined thing. Personally I still think skinny old school sticks have their uses and their advantages over highly waisted carving skis. If this were not the case, why would nearly all competition mogul skiers use a ski which is virtually an old ski? To me this indicates that the general wisdom in the knowledgable echelons of the sport is that when you need a ski which is intended for sharp, short turns, a non waisted ski is better. As soon as you can carve turns this changes. It's also reflected by powder skis, they have very little tip tail waist difference and this is logical - you need an edge to hold to be able to carve, so in powder there is no point in waisting the ski - the carving mechanism has changed due to snow structure! You don't need a waisted ski to make turns...