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On the Col Cornu with the Kiwi’s

Testing out my new K2-Dalbello kit again today with a couple of Kiwi’s Mark and Pete both K2, Line, marker pro freeskiers and Scotish. We had a good few laps around Brevent and Flegere hitting some of the old fav’s. Snow conditions are firm and windblown but we still managed to find some old powder that was pretty nice to ski. The Hardside-Tour12-Virus combo is working super well, a good choice for these firmish conditions.

2011 K2 Hardside, Marker Tour12, Dalbello Virus

My set-up of choice at the moment is the new 2011 K2 Hardside teamed up with the 2011 Marker Tour 12 binding. I thought this was going to be my new touring set-up, but after a good rip around today I’m thinking it’s going to get way more everyday use. The Hardside is stiff enough so you get heaps of edge grip and dare I say it carvability. Wide enough for the soft stuff, its wide rocker tip makes light work of powder, crud and chop. The Tour12 is the new lightweight touring version on the Duke. It’s really a dream to use and just as solid as its chunky brother the Duke. I’m also on the new Dalbello Virus Touring boot and to be honest I was thinking ‘touring binding + touring boot = wishy washy no feeling and no fun’ but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The whole set up is just super solid and the best alpine ski performance I’ve had to date with this sort of kit. Its great, the gap between touring performance and alpine performance is closing fast. The Dalbello boot fits well once you get the liners heat moulded, the three clip system works very well holding the foot in place. The forward flex is progressive and lateral flex is nice and stiff.

CR Johnson

Chamonix Steep Skiing Camps

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My new page with details of the up and coming steeps camp this Spring.

2011 Head Supershape iTitan Test

I’ve been out on the new Head iTitan for the last few days, I wanted to have a really good ski on them in order to make fair judgment. Skiing a real mix of snow conditions from hard piste to powder bumps during this time has given me a real feel for the ski and the chance to soak up the graphics. The piste performance is somewhat similar to the Magnum although at 170cm in length and 78 under foot the overall feel is smoother and more stable. The iTitan will turn all day long, it just loves it and with such a smooth power steering feel their pretty much on auto pilot turn after turn. Torsionally they are quite soft which makes them very easy to handle at low speeds. The Kers system should kick in as you go faster, it is however pretty tricky to feel this happening. I ski on the RD slalom quite a bit and compared to the SL they are way more forgiving basically everywhere, they’d also get left in the dust when the going gets steep and firm. If you really crank the iTitan on firm snow they do have a limit. But then if you want a ski more all mountain than just piste then the iTitan has the extra width to keep you smiling all over the mountain. Graphically the iTitan is clean and simple but I think for a top end piste ski I’d want to see and bit more bling and a little less lego. Ski instructors the world over will love this ski for its fun easy going ride and snappy piste performance.

Jumping the new Lotus Evora James Bond style!

Here’s a few images from a photo shoot today at Les Houches here in Chamonix. The Retro James Bond livery sits really well in the snow covered mountains and the Head skis on the ski rack look very cool. I asked if perhaps they might lend me the car for the winter, I’m sure it would look super cool with the ski school logo down the side.
Today was all about jumping over the car, we found this big old wedge right by a road that seemed to work just fine. Can’t wait to see the final edit, should be awesome. The camera man was shooting with a very special slow motion camera, we should see some impressive Matrix style footage of the boys flying over the car as it speeds along the road. All good fun in the mountains!

La Tour Delivers!

La Tour was on fab form today, I hooked up with a good ski buddy Phil Ingle for a good blast around. First up we skied a line neither of us have skied before, down the South facing slopes of the Aiguille Posettes. It was a nice pitch that leads back down to the car park. There was a little fresh snow from the previous nights snowfall but it still felt a wee bit sketchy underfoot. For the rest of the day we stayed around the back of La Tour where we expected to find some better conditions. We certainly weren’t disapointed and found some spectacular fresh turns over the back side, a five min walk gets you into some amazing terrain. Boot to knee deep goodness!

Can you guess where this creep avalanche is?

Phil in the starting gate, but no rush its all our’s!

Chamonix in superb conditions

Wow what a few days. Blue skies and fresh snow, what can I say thats what it’s all about eh. A few of the Profeet staff hit town this weekend for a short break from all the boot fitting. I had a super fun time showing then around the valley, what a perfect weekend to visit the valley.

Me in classic pose pointing out the GM to Mike on a quick lap around to the ‘Hotel face’ at Brevent.

Mike and Garth enjoying some more Brevent Powder near the Cornu chair.