Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Sherpa - best board for tough conditions

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Sherpa - best board for tough conditions

    Thought I'd share some impressions of the 2013 Sherpa (mountain graphic).

    I have had a pair at hand for only three days, so this first post here is more of an initial impressions review. As I add more days on the snow with them I might add more.

    I had three very different days, all typical of Mid-Atlantic East Coast conditions. Me, 200lb, 6'4". Used with DIY riser (0.5" wider than the Spruce Riser, with Tyrolia Attack 13 bindings).

    Day 1: frozen loose granular spread over smooth hard ice patches, with occasional deep pile of skied-off granular or powderized man-made snow. No issues, Sherpas handled it fine. On the other side of the mountain, nice packed man-made powder. Great conditions to try carving and other types of turns on the nice groomed slope - Sherpas did excellent there.

    Day 2: soft heavy man-made powder/granular/near-slush in 45F+ temps. No drama, Sherpas handled well.

    Day 3: Frozen corduroy, bare or covered with up to 10" of either fluffy fresh natural snow or heavy man-made snow (7F morning rising to 10F by mid-day, following a full day of heavy rain with 50F daytime temps). Sherpas offered a rewarding performance.

    For these conditions and my style if riding, the Sherpa excelled. I was especially impressed on Day 3, where I felt completely in control in what were challenging conditions due to the constantly alternating bare frozen corduroy with areas of light or heavy powder, on a long black diamond slope. Most people who skied that day there had one run and went over to the other side of the mountain in search of easier conditions. Very few made more than one run. I on the other hand thoroughly enjoyed it did 6 non-stop runs in 2 hours - the Sherpa not once lost their edge or got bogged down. On shorter boards I would have had to slow down more, make smaller turns, and use extreme caution and be more in the back seat on the transitions from hard to soft snow, leading to more fatigue. Not so on the Sherpas - they did go through or over and never faltered.

    These boards carve great and offer the most edge hold and fore-aft stability of any skiboard I have tried. I consider myself intermediate to advanced skier at this point, and found the Sherpa easy to handle, not requiring any special attention or having any particular bad traits. I can ski them in a very relaxed way or hard or in-between. They do ski like the big boards they are, meaning they need proper technique or they will get in the way, unlike shorter boards that might let you get away with poor habits in some situations. The only "bad habit" the Sherpas might promote is being in the back seat, because they are so stable and long. I think they would be most at home in the quiver of an experienced skiboarder or skier. A beginner I suspect might experience with the Sherpas some of the typical problems as they would experience when getting started with regular skis. But the Sherpa really rewards good skiing technique in my opinion - they are easy to manage, dependable, high-performance boards.

    I should mention that the pair I have now is well-turned, flat bases, sharp edges. It has what Jeff Singer from Spruce Mountain Skiboards calls "race tuned", which may have a slightly edgier feel than what usually comes out of the box, but has a super nice glide and edge hold. YMMV with different tuning. Your local ski shop can do a tune like this (stone-ground flattened bases, polished edges, hot wax, etc.), Then maintenance at home would be easier down the road to touch-up the edges with a hand tool.

    Stay tuned for more. Probably will need to wait until March, when I hope to get a chance to ski them on West Coast conditions and compare them better with my current soft snow favorite, the Osprey.

  • #2
    Here is a raw video of my first couple of days on the Sherpas. I am still just getting to know them, so I am a bit stiff and don't do anything too exciting. But you can at least see they can carve easy turns nicely

    https://youtu.be/Qidw_103les

    https://youtu.be/95Fo3tgxgEg

    Comment


    • #3
      Kocho, are the bindings rear-mounted?

      Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
      171cm/190lbs
      Current Favorites:
      RVL8 Yin/Yang Blunts, Spruce Sherpas (x2) & Ospreys, Coda custom Yetis v1 140
      Spruce Pro Primes w/Attack 13's (x 4), Bomber Elite 1
      Other boards I'm trying:
      Summit Custom Carbon 110, Dynastar Twin 85, Coda custom Yetis v2 145

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Fedfan View Post
        Kocho, are the bindings rear-mounted?
        Yes, in the rear set of inserts. I have not tried the front mounted position. Rear-mounted seems to be working just fine in all conditions that I tried so far.

        Comment


        • #5
          I've only set mine back once (on JJue's advice @ Sugar Bowl 2 yrs ago), to help in deep snow. I'll have to give them more time on groomers.

          Btw, tell your camera person I'm going to submit video 3 to The Voice as an audition. [emoji6]

          Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
          171cm/190lbs
          Current Favorites:
          RVL8 Yin/Yang Blunts, Spruce Sherpas (x2) & Ospreys, Coda custom Yetis v1 140
          Spruce Pro Primes w/Attack 13's (x 4), Bomber Elite 1
          Other boards I'm trying:
          Summit Custom Carbon 110, Dynastar Twin 85, Coda custom Yetis v2 145

          Comment


          • #6
            He-he! My daughter was singing some song from a play they had at school the week before. I whish she'd provide more soundtracks

            Comment


            • #7
              I like how they get on the edges , just dig in and move on


              Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

              Comment


              • #8
                One more video (last from this trip), going down the Western Territory black diamond run. Fun conditions as I mentioned above, but somewhat challenging. Filming one-handed with my phone so the footage is rather shaky and jumpy, and the perspective not the greatest, sorry. But I think it shows the conditions and just how few people were out skiing on that day on a popular holiday weekend (where it would normally be much more crowded)...

                https://youtu.be/DazB3ir7btc

                Comment


                • #9
                  Did another hour or so Sherpa-ing at Whitetail, PA today. Good firm manmade conditions, which are normally conductive to good skiing. I got there early, pretty much first chair ( a few minutes before official opening time, with few people braving the single-digit morning temperatures (7F). Started as usual with a run on the wide green slope to warm-up. The Sherpas laid down beautiful clean carved tracks all the way down to the bottom of the slope. Moved over to the blue slopes and made a few more runs while the corduroy was still mostly intact. All good.

                  But, a few runs later the corduroy was gone, revealing very hard packed man-made powder. The kind that is almost as firm as ice and does not get disturbed much by skiing on top of it. The Sherpa had too much edge hold for this type of snow - very hard to skid and slarve, resulting I'm chatter or skipping on harder turns. And on the steeper portions of the blue and black slopes one has to skid a bit, can't clean-carve 100% there...

                  The only way to make them work was with quick dynamic turns that don't cross the fall line at more than about 45 degree. But these turns tire me too fast, so can't do too many of them on each run. I could make tiny smeared turns at very low speeds, but that's it - did not feel comfortable opening-up for wider and faster turns. The Sherpa would either carve or skip/chatter, and that was tiring and not fun.

                  I did a few runs, picking lines on the sides where there was some fresh snow or chopped corduroy (avoiding the impenetrably hard packed powder), and had no issues there, quite enjoyable in fact on the black and one double black diamond slopes there.

                  Switched to the Ospreys for the majority of the rest of the day and enjoyed them very much - on the packed powder that defeated me on the Sherpa, and just as much if not more on the softer sections where the Sherpas worked well. The Ospreys required more angulation and more pressure to hold a good edge than the Sherpa, but would release easy and in a smooth controlled way, allowing me to do any kind of turns without fear of chatter or any other I'll behavior.

                  I think I found the one type of snow that these boards could not handle satisfactorily for me. But these are considered "good" conditions, so the original title of my top post still holds true - the Sherpa handled the tough conditions great ... Could be the aggressive tuning on these boards, which made them such great carvers and solid on ice that made them quite challenging on the tightly packed powder...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Tom91381 View Post
                    I like how they get on the edges , just dig in and move on


                    Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
                    The Sherpa and Ospreys are my favorite boards for difficult conditions. If they aren't working for me, time to head to the lodge for a beer. The Ospreys turn quicker, ride harsher on the rough. In the powder, I like the springy bounce the softer tips yield. For top speed, nothing except a ski is more stable than my Sherpa. Both boards are powder killers. I ride both set back. I tune them with flat base egdes and an 88 degree side angle. Both of these boards are the most ski like of all the skiboards I've skied.

                    Kocho,
                    Thanks for posting. People who have not tried these boards need to know what great boards they are.
                    Now: 08 Sherpa's (2), Atomic 120's, 2013 125 Protos, 125 LEs, 2014 Sherpas, Osprey protos, 2015 Blunt XL's, 2016 Ospreys, Ethan Too twintip skis,2017 Shredfest One of kind Spliffs, 2018 Crossbows
                    Bindings: Spruce Risers and Tyrolia LD12's
                    Boots: Full Tilt Booters, Tecnica Agent 110
                    History: Atomic shorty's, Sporten, Groove Taxis, Head 94's, ALPs, Spruce 120 Blue boards, Custom Lacroixs, Rocker Condors, 08 Summit 110's, Hagan offlimits 133's, Rossi 130's, 2011 Summit Marauders

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X