Colorado ski partners wanted

I noticed Gillespie and Rinella were ripping on skiing again on this weeks ME podcast. You should send that map to them, maybe they'll stop the griping. Well done
Elbert is the highest mountain in Colorado, but I’m pretty sure it’s one of the easiest 14ers to climb.
Kinda just a big hill.
All class 1. No hands required.
 
Elbert is the highest mountain in Colorado, but I’m pretty sure it’s one of the easiest 14ers to climb.
Kinda just a big hill.
All class 1. No hands required.
Yep, it isn’t technically demanding, but as I mentioned over text, virtually zero skiing visitors to CO would/have hiked and skied a 14er in winter. You’re in a small club. You’ve earned another ORB 4-pack from me for the gumption. I was gassed climbing the 200 yards up burnt mt at snowmass last Saturday and I live here :)
 
Either Nordica Enforcer 100’s

I have Atomic Backland 107 @ 182s
I demo’ed both of these today @ big sky (but the Backlands were the 100mm waist version since I’m looking for an all mountain ski). Caveat - It was a horrible day to demo all-mountain skis given the powder conditions and I should have stuck to my Icelantics but was too late to cancel. Also tried a pair of Volkls but I forgot the model since I hated them.

As you would expect, the Enforcers were good in powder/trees, they were the first pair in the morning so besides cat tracks there wasn’t much to try out their non-powder performance. I found a couple skied out bump runs in the afternoon and the Backlands were impressive on those shorter radius turns, mostly given how much lighter they are, but they also seemed to fit the style of an 80’s skier like me better (e.g. getting “keep those knees tight together!“ yelled at me constantly in my youth).

Aside: BS is really thin this year. A couple of my favorite glades were borderline dangerous with logs and rocks 2” under. The above tree line stuff is buyer beware territory with exposed rocks. I hope this spring squall weather keeps coming for all you SW Montanan’s.

Aside #2: if any of you local MT folks are up (down) this way tomorrow, or craving a beer @ Map Brewing Tuesday at noon (our traditional pre-flight lunch stop), give a holler.
 
I demo’ed both of these today @ big sky (but the Backlands were the 100mm waist version since I’m looking for an all mountain ski). Caveat - It was a horrible day to demo all-mountain skis given the powder conditions and I should have stuck to my Icelantics but was too late to cancel. Also tried a pair of Volkls but I forgot the model since I hated them.

As you would expect, the Enforcers were good in powder/trees, they were the first pair in the morning so besides cat tracks there wasn’t much to try out their non-powder performance. I found a couple skied out bump runs in the afternoon and the Backlands were impressive on those shorter radius turns, mostly given how much lighter they are, but they also seemed to fit the style of an 80’s skier like me better (e.g. getting “keep those knees tight together!“ yelled at me constantly in my youth).

Aside: BS is really thin this year. A couple of my favorite glades were borderline dangerous with logs and rocks 2” under. The above tree line stuff is buyer beware territory with exposed rocks. I hope this spring squall weather keeps coming for all you SW Montanan’s.

Aside #2: if any of you local MT folks are up (down) this way tomorrow, or craving a beer @ Map Brewing Tuesday at noon (our traditional pre-flight lunch stop), give a holler.
My daily drivers are Enforcer 100s if you're skiing lifts with mixed conditions those would be the only ski in my bag. They're just too heavy for touring.
 
My daily drivers are Enforcer 100s if you're skiing lifts with mixed conditions those would be the only ski in my bag. They're just too heavy for touring.
I need to try both of those models again on a bluebird day. I was also mentally sulking because I had the perfect pair of skis for the day‘s conditions sitting in the hotel 7 miles away.
 
After skiing race skis pretty much my whole life, the Enforcers took some getting used to on the groomers. Takes a bit more efffort to get them on edge and they are not nearly as quick on turn transitions. But that being said, I find myself going to them more and more as my daily choice. Since getting them I actually enjoy popping into non-pristine terrain, and the slalom skis are completely worthless for that. If I could only have one pair of skis, I’d be pretty happy with the Enforcer 100’s.
 

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