4FRNT MSP 187 east coast review

[skier0178]

Well, since a report on how these skis perform on the west coast has already been posted, I'll skip my experiences with these on the WC and give you my experiences this past week on the EC.

I was home for xmas and skied two days. I skied at Camp Fortune and Mt. Ste Marie (both within 45 minutes of Ottawa, Canada for the uninformed). These are small EC resorts, not a lot of vert, usually cold and not a lot of fresh. Knee deep powder happens only 1 or 2 times a year. First day saw about 3cm of new snow, so an EC powder day Conditions were hard packed with a dusting of new on top. Second time out, the conditions where boiler plate with a good mixture of straight up ice.

I was very surprised at how well these skis held on ice. Having only skied Mammoth this season, I hadn't skied any ice. They hold an edge very well on the ice and hardpack. Even when I decided to test them as GS race skis, they didn't chatter very much at high speed and were overall quite stable. They are a lot stiffer then most twin tips (the 187s are about 15% stiffer then the 160/170/180) and this probably makes them work better on hard conditions.

Overall this is not an EC ski. It's a fat twin (97mm underneath) that is meant for big mtn riding on the WC. However, they are probably one of the better twin tip skis as far as riding hardpack and ice. I wouldn't necessarily suggest these for EC riders because it's not meant to ski EC condtions. If you are on the EC and ski park, get a park ski. If you don't ski park, get Volkls or something else that is a known for it's ability to handle hardpack/ice conditions. Having said that, the MSP 187s are great and you can use them in the EC if necessary.

Hope this helps some people...

[glademaster]

the 180cm 4FRNT MSP's seem like they'd be a nice EC ski. Pretty fat, twinned, burly flex at least by twin standards. I see a fair amount of them on the hill out here.