I finally got a couple days in on my AM77’s with Speedlock Pro Light plate. It was not a glorious sunny day yesterday at Summit Central, rather it was foggy all day. Also the snow conditions have been weird and funky, after several epic snow storms at the end of December, it has been warm and rainy for several days while the mountain passes were closed due to avalanche slides, which means the ski areas were closed and slopes weren’t getting skied.
Most skiers were sticking to groomed runs, and groomed runs here get cut up pretty quickly.
So how’d the AM 77’s handle it?
In heavy deep breakable concrete off-piste, not so much. Maybe part of it is my still-recovering knee, nonethless it was difficult to initiate turns in heavy wet snow. Maybe in places with lighter snow, these can be an all-mountain ski in everything up to 4-6” of powder, but not with PNW maritime crud that’s infused with rain.
Everywhere else, very composed, easy to initiate and release turns, large, medius and short radius. Pretty much what everyone else has posted. Very confidence inspiring, which was important because with the fog there is a common tendency to ski defensively, however with the AM77’s I didn’t feel the need to hold back. With bumps, easy and compliant, just ski right through them, no adjustment needed. Uneven surfaces with ruts on cut up groomers, very composed. No chattering. Just feels planted. I haven’t been trying to go mach schnell yet due to prevailing conditions but from slow to medium to almost-mach schnell they have been effortless.
While the edge grip was excellent, I was in a clinic during which we were working on keeping the skis flat and drifting a lot, as de-edging is part of edge control. Some of the drills would have been super easy on park skis, or on my wider all-mountains with tip and tail rocker. No matter, I was easily able to control the AM77’s and engage or de-engage, grip or drift. This ski is a nice blend of energy and grip when on edge while being able to be playful and pivoty when desired.
I didn’t get the sense of “WOW” like some reviewers describe. I don’t tend to get that way. Maybe I’m not that discerning a skier. I can usually adapt to any ski. OTOH one of the best attributes of a ski to me is when you can just click in and ski, as if you’d always been on them, and the AM77 definitely has that going on.
At this point I don’t see the need to having a narrower front side oriented ski as the AM77 is “outstanding enough” for the groomers that I ski, and probably much more fun in bumps and variable conditions than a narrower ski. I haven’t had the chance to try the AM77’s off piste in the conditions I would normally be skiing, so more to report on later.
I’ll have to play with with how much they can be a daily driver for me compared to the Z90. Obviously if I know I’m sticking to skiing on the frontside, the AM77 is the obvious choice. Except, the Z90 is a frontside-shaped ski which I find is versatile off-piste and bumps. I also have a 102, which is kind of a daily driver width around here. Last year I alternated between the Z90 and 102 as the all-mountain tool for the day, and brought the 116 instead of the Z90 when it was a powder day.
Maybe I just need to close my eyes, do an “eenie-meenie-minee-mo” and just pick one of these at random. Nah, that would deny me the opportunity to obsess about which ski to use.
OK, so the takeaway is the AM77 with a Vist Speedlock plate is the perfect ski and you should just get one.