by Chris
Katana Skis Ready to go!
This ski blows my mind! I have skied a ton of the newer twin tips, rockers, and reverse cam skis and I believe that this ski is the ultimate in your big mountain quiver. This is the best resort pow ski around; It will charge through anything you point it towards and you will float you in some of the sickest pow that the world has to offer. Recently, at Brighton, Utah, we had a huge storm. They closed down Great Western lift on Friday due to too much snow (is there really such a thing!?!?!) and didn’t open the lift up until Saturday morning! I was lucky enough to procure fourth chair on the day and, needless to say, the pow was SIIIIICK. My Katanas floated like champs early on and were able to bust through some serious chop later in the day.
Keep in mind that this ski is made for the off piste shredder but will do just fine on the occasional groomer back to base. The Katana is a rocker ski in the style of Volkl’s ELP rocker design. It has a beefy dual titanium construction that makes them really stable at high speeds, and provides for super stable landings. It is really easy to initiate turns because of the reverse camber and is a very forgiving ski going both switch and forward. They also charged through crud and small moguls when you opened them up. I bought them as a straight pow ski but have been way impressed on how well they charge through chop, moguls, hard-pack, ice, groomers and about anything else you’d care to take them on! They do great in the tight turns on Tree runs in Eagle’s nest at Alta or dropping cliffs and huge pow fields at Basin’s Middle Bowl Cirque or Park City’s Jupiter Bowl. Needless to say, these bad boys have turned into my every day ski.
BOTTOM LINE: Although the ski is made for deep powder it also completely destroys any crud or cut up powder you encounter. The slight rocker design of the ski allows for easy, finesse turns while the dual titanium core lets you rally charge when you need to.
