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I'm late to trying these and a lot has been written about them by others, but I'm excited about them so I'll share my thoughts.
Conditions in Utah were spring skiing, ranging from week old groomed snow through well over a foot of new powder off-piste. I skied Alta and Snowbird so far in a great mix of conditions: groomed runs (green, blue, black), the wide open glades, trees and, bumps.
Given that I have very limited off-piste experience (1 day last year at Solitude on the 151cm Ethan Too in 14" of fresh powder, where I felt they were limiting me), I was not sure what to expect from the even shorter Ospreys. But the Ospreys really delivered - I'm really glad I got them for this trip. They allowed me to confidently explore the entire mountain. They proved by far the bet board that I have for all-mountain skiing. Out of the 4 days in Utah so far, I spent the last three of them almost entirely off-piste on the Ospreys (first day was on Sticky Icky Icky boards on groomed runs as there has not been new snow for a week and off-piste did not seem appealing). I also had at my disposal the Ethan Too 141 and 151cm, Head Supershape i.Titan 156cm, Head 94 skiboards, and the SII skiboards with risers and Attack 13 bindings (all other boards are with the Tyrolia PR system). The PR system is great - we had 5 pairs of skis with it and only 3 sets of binding for the three of us and we switched skis for the conditions. On the firm days my daughter loves the Head 94, on softer days she goes with the E2s -same bindings (I had installed PR rail on the Heads myself, creating a much lighter and more versatile setup than the original system that they came with).
I am 6'4", 200lb before gear, so the Ospreys were probably carrying close to 230lb on the snow. On groomers, they are faster than the E2s in 141 cm - when I was on the Ospreys and my daughter on the E2s I would pass her gliding down some green runs ant full speed. When she tried the Ospreys, and I took the E2s, she was passing me. Could be the magic wax that Macro used on them, but I think it is the added width and shorter running length that worked well in the packed powder.
For the entire first day at Alta, skiing a week-old groomed packed powder, the SIIs felt good. On Tuesday I went to Snowbird and started the day on the Head Titan to take advantage of the hard/frozen groomers early in the day. By noon things softened-up and I switched to the Ospreys. I ventured off-piste to explore some steep runs where bumps had formed in the soft heavy snow. Spent the rest of the day on the Ospreys exploring mostly the "groomed" runs, which weren't really groomed any more, with deep ruts and large piles of crud.
Wednesday a good amount of new snow fell and I was back at Alta with the Ospreys. I've never before skied in the trees, but decided to give it a try. Found out that I've been missing out
. With about a 8" of new snow there were a lot of places to explore. I pretty much did not set foot on the groomers on Wednesday. It took me a few runs to figure out how to handle the powder, which is new to me, being a Mid-Atlantic skier used to the small Pennsylvania and Virginia resorts that are pretty much 100% frozen or mushy man-made snow groomers only. The Ospreys were great for learning powder skiing techniques, as their short length compensated for my somewhat lacking skills in the powder. Their width was enough to float me and I had enough fore-aft stability. The rocker was behaving quite nicely, not letting the tips dive excessively and also helping with truning.
Thursday came with another 8" of new snow, so now we had well over a foot of fresh powder, albeit somewhat heavy (not the light fluffy stuff Utah is famous for, but not totally wet either). Many of then open areas were tracked on Wednesday, froze overnight in nasty bumps that got covered with new snow for Thursday. With continuous heavy snow and some fog I could not really see what I was about to ski over until it was too late to avoid, so I had to pretty much be ready to ski over/through anything. Not great, and in these conditions I found I wished for more length than the Ospreys have. The reason is that by the time the tips of the Ospreys hit a hidden bump there is really very little time to adjust. With long powder skis, the tips are a couple of feet more forward and are softer, they act like cat's whiskers warning you before you hit the obstacle when you can't really see it otherwise. Also, longer skis smooth-out such conditions a bit better. Still, I was glad I was on the Ospreys and not on something even shorter. I don't think something like the Blunt XLs would be able to give me the same confidence to go at speed through deep powder and tackle anything.
Having determined that skiing frozen ruts covered in new powder in low-visibility was not very enjoyable, I moved to explore some of the more challenging tree areas where fewer people go and I could find either untracked powder or deep tracked powder without big frozen ruts under it. The Ospreys were excellent there. On one particularly challenging steep and narrow trail I thought that something shorter, like Blunt XL, might have been advantageous. There I was going very slow, creating small avalanches with each turn, and trying to avoid some tree stumps and rocks with no bypass to an easier route. But that was the exception. In pretty much all other places I was happy to have the length.
Alta is great in that one can ski down pretty much any everywhere that's not closed. And that's what I did for two days of powder on the Ospreys. I tried the SIIs and E2s briefly just to compare, and found out the Ospreys float better and are much more confidence-inspiring in deep and difficult conditions, while being pure fun to rip down fast big turns on the powder on open slopes or zig-zag between large trees.
What pleasantly surprised me is how good of a carver the Ospreys are on packed powder groomed runs. With the short slalom ski-like turn radius, I worked on hard-carving short and medium turns. The short length of the Ospreys (compared to skis) and their forgiving nature gave me confidence to really toss my body down the fall line and let the skis go wide outside. The Ospreys held a solid edge, not feeling like I would over-power them easily. They could also carve big radius turns just fine - much like with the Stickies, the Ospreys manage from very short turns (side-cut radius) to medium to long turns easily and without any fuss. They engage and disengage the edge smoothly.
On icy areas the Ospreys did well enough too. Edge hold for carving was OK when the edge was pressured, and they could also slide predictably. They have a very short running length, so on icy areas their edge hold is not as strong as on my Head Supershape Titan skis, and while they would not be my first choice there, they were fine. The tips and tails flap and make noises on hard and frozen hard-pack, even with some edging. On normal packed powder, they are quiet even when flat, and there one can really lay them down on edge aggressively to engage the full length if desired.
I felt the Ospreys could be even better with a slight rear offset in the powder, but with my huge boots I have 0 adjustment on the PR rail as I mas out its 380mm length. I had to lean back just slightly in powder for best results. Not enough to cause me to tire excessively, but with a slight offset I think it would have been better. Most people would not have this problem, since the PR rail has plenty of length for offset with normal sized boots. My wife and daughter with a Mondo 26 boot could get something like 6cm offset back from center if desired.
I also felt that if the tip shape would be slightly different, the powder handling might have been even better - I thought a slightly longer running length with softer tips and early rise rocker might work better than the relatively stiff and short upturned tips with long rocker. I felt some resistance from the tips on occasion that I theorize would be less with tips like on the Armada Triple for example or most of the modern powder skis. But I realize it might be a challenge to incorporate such tip flex and geometry while keeping the overall length down.
Also, I wonder if a little easily compressed camber under foot might improve these even more? Maybe Wookie was on the right track dreaming of a long-board version of the Stickies as an all-mountain board...
Regardless, if I had to choose one board to take with me on this trip to Utah, it would have been the Osprey. The main reason I took the Stickes and the Head Supershape this year was that I did not know what to expect from the Ospreys - I had only ridden them for one short run with Macro at Elk Mountain on perfect groomed snow, so they were a relative unknown to me. I took the Ospreys with intention to ski them in powder, reverting to the SIIs or Heads for groomers. But the Ospreys were very competent in all conditions. While I did enjoy the Stickies and the Titan on the groomers and just to the side off-piste, the Stickes could not really handle the deep powder or give me the confidence to explore the entire mountain. And the Titan is designed as a groomer ski and can't handle off-piste deep conditions, plus it is not nearly as enjoyable as the Dtickie or the Ospreys when the groomers soften and the deep snow piles form or if it gets wet and heavy.
Conditions in Utah were spring skiing, ranging from week old groomed snow through well over a foot of new powder off-piste. I skied Alta and Snowbird so far in a great mix of conditions: groomed runs (green, blue, black), the wide open glades, trees and, bumps.
Given that I have very limited off-piste experience (1 day last year at Solitude on the 151cm Ethan Too in 14" of fresh powder, where I felt they were limiting me), I was not sure what to expect from the even shorter Ospreys. But the Ospreys really delivered - I'm really glad I got them for this trip. They allowed me to confidently explore the entire mountain. They proved by far the bet board that I have for all-mountain skiing. Out of the 4 days in Utah so far, I spent the last three of them almost entirely off-piste on the Ospreys (first day was on Sticky Icky Icky boards on groomed runs as there has not been new snow for a week and off-piste did not seem appealing). I also had at my disposal the Ethan Too 141 and 151cm, Head Supershape i.Titan 156cm, Head 94 skiboards, and the SII skiboards with risers and Attack 13 bindings (all other boards are with the Tyrolia PR system). The PR system is great - we had 5 pairs of skis with it and only 3 sets of binding for the three of us and we switched skis for the conditions. On the firm days my daughter loves the Head 94, on softer days she goes with the E2s -same bindings (I had installed PR rail on the Heads myself, creating a much lighter and more versatile setup than the original system that they came with).
I am 6'4", 200lb before gear, so the Ospreys were probably carrying close to 230lb on the snow. On groomers, they are faster than the E2s in 141 cm - when I was on the Ospreys and my daughter on the E2s I would pass her gliding down some green runs ant full speed. When she tried the Ospreys, and I took the E2s, she was passing me. Could be the magic wax that Macro used on them, but I think it is the added width and shorter running length that worked well in the packed powder.
For the entire first day at Alta, skiing a week-old groomed packed powder, the SIIs felt good. On Tuesday I went to Snowbird and started the day on the Head Titan to take advantage of the hard/frozen groomers early in the day. By noon things softened-up and I switched to the Ospreys. I ventured off-piste to explore some steep runs where bumps had formed in the soft heavy snow. Spent the rest of the day on the Ospreys exploring mostly the "groomed" runs, which weren't really groomed any more, with deep ruts and large piles of crud.
Wednesday a good amount of new snow fell and I was back at Alta with the Ospreys. I've never before skied in the trees, but decided to give it a try. Found out that I've been missing out
. With about a 8" of new snow there were a lot of places to explore. I pretty much did not set foot on the groomers on Wednesday. It took me a few runs to figure out how to handle the powder, which is new to me, being a Mid-Atlantic skier used to the small Pennsylvania and Virginia resorts that are pretty much 100% frozen or mushy man-made snow groomers only. The Ospreys were great for learning powder skiing techniques, as their short length compensated for my somewhat lacking skills in the powder. Their width was enough to float me and I had enough fore-aft stability. The rocker was behaving quite nicely, not letting the tips dive excessively and also helping with truning. Thursday came with another 8" of new snow, so now we had well over a foot of fresh powder, albeit somewhat heavy (not the light fluffy stuff Utah is famous for, but not totally wet either). Many of then open areas were tracked on Wednesday, froze overnight in nasty bumps that got covered with new snow for Thursday. With continuous heavy snow and some fog I could not really see what I was about to ski over until it was too late to avoid, so I had to pretty much be ready to ski over/through anything. Not great, and in these conditions I found I wished for more length than the Ospreys have. The reason is that by the time the tips of the Ospreys hit a hidden bump there is really very little time to adjust. With long powder skis, the tips are a couple of feet more forward and are softer, they act like cat's whiskers warning you before you hit the obstacle when you can't really see it otherwise. Also, longer skis smooth-out such conditions a bit better. Still, I was glad I was on the Ospreys and not on something even shorter. I don't think something like the Blunt XLs would be able to give me the same confidence to go at speed through deep powder and tackle anything.
Having determined that skiing frozen ruts covered in new powder in low-visibility was not very enjoyable, I moved to explore some of the more challenging tree areas where fewer people go and I could find either untracked powder or deep tracked powder without big frozen ruts under it. The Ospreys were excellent there. On one particularly challenging steep and narrow trail I thought that something shorter, like Blunt XL, might have been advantageous. There I was going very slow, creating small avalanches with each turn, and trying to avoid some tree stumps and rocks with no bypass to an easier route. But that was the exception. In pretty much all other places I was happy to have the length.
Alta is great in that one can ski down pretty much any everywhere that's not closed. And that's what I did for two days of powder on the Ospreys. I tried the SIIs and E2s briefly just to compare, and found out the Ospreys float better and are much more confidence-inspiring in deep and difficult conditions, while being pure fun to rip down fast big turns on the powder on open slopes or zig-zag between large trees.
What pleasantly surprised me is how good of a carver the Ospreys are on packed powder groomed runs. With the short slalom ski-like turn radius, I worked on hard-carving short and medium turns. The short length of the Ospreys (compared to skis) and their forgiving nature gave me confidence to really toss my body down the fall line and let the skis go wide outside. The Ospreys held a solid edge, not feeling like I would over-power them easily. They could also carve big radius turns just fine - much like with the Stickies, the Ospreys manage from very short turns (side-cut radius) to medium to long turns easily and without any fuss. They engage and disengage the edge smoothly.
On icy areas the Ospreys did well enough too. Edge hold for carving was OK when the edge was pressured, and they could also slide predictably. They have a very short running length, so on icy areas their edge hold is not as strong as on my Head Supershape Titan skis, and while they would not be my first choice there, they were fine. The tips and tails flap and make noises on hard and frozen hard-pack, even with some edging. On normal packed powder, they are quiet even when flat, and there one can really lay them down on edge aggressively to engage the full length if desired.
I felt the Ospreys could be even better with a slight rear offset in the powder, but with my huge boots I have 0 adjustment on the PR rail as I mas out its 380mm length. I had to lean back just slightly in powder for best results. Not enough to cause me to tire excessively, but with a slight offset I think it would have been better. Most people would not have this problem, since the PR rail has plenty of length for offset with normal sized boots. My wife and daughter with a Mondo 26 boot could get something like 6cm offset back from center if desired.
I also felt that if the tip shape would be slightly different, the powder handling might have been even better - I thought a slightly longer running length with softer tips and early rise rocker might work better than the relatively stiff and short upturned tips with long rocker. I felt some resistance from the tips on occasion that I theorize would be less with tips like on the Armada Triple for example or most of the modern powder skis. But I realize it might be a challenge to incorporate such tip flex and geometry while keeping the overall length down.
Also, I wonder if a little easily compressed camber under foot might improve these even more? Maybe Wookie was on the right track dreaming of a long-board version of the Stickies as an all-mountain board...
Regardless, if I had to choose one board to take with me on this trip to Utah, it would have been the Osprey. The main reason I took the Stickes and the Head Supershape this year was that I did not know what to expect from the Ospreys - I had only ridden them for one short run with Macro at Elk Mountain on perfect groomed snow, so they were a relative unknown to me. I took the Ospreys with intention to ski them in powder, reverting to the SIIs or Heads for groomers. But the Ospreys were very competent in all conditions. While I did enjoy the Stickies and the Titan on the groomers and just to the side off-piste, the Stickes could not really handle the deep powder or give me the confidence to explore the entire mountain. And the Titan is designed as a groomer ski and can't handle off-piste deep conditions, plus it is not nearly as enjoyable as the Dtickie or the Ospreys when the groomers soften and the deep snow piles form or if it gets wet and heavy.
, and the Ospreys got me thru fine. The double-black diamond ungroomed run at Brighton, on the other hand was a conscious decision and was fun. As were the groomed runs where the Ospreys offered an effortless ride, somewhere between skis and skiboards, combining the best of both.
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