Hi guys: I Demoed this ski at Liberty's Demo Day in the January rain storm. After finding a killer deal ($300 Mounted) I have had a chance to try the ski a few days and am writing this review.
Ski Make: Fischer
Ski Model: Big Stix 7.6 FTI
Binding: Rossignol Axium 110
Year Made: 2003 - 2004
Ski Length: 175
Snow Conditions Used In: Powder, Crud, Trees, Groomed, Hard Pack, Ice, Moguls, Whales, variable conditions, spring conditions
Number of Days Used: 4
Your Ability Level: 8: proficient in most eastern type terrain.
Other Skis You like: Volkl 5* T50s, BigStix 8.0
How Many Years Have You Been Skiing: 13
Avg. Days per Year Skiing: 20
Your Height/Weight: 5' 10" / 200 lbs.
Comments:
The is a cap ski with a carbon fiber core. This makes it both very light and quite stiff. The stiffness is slightly less than my T50 5* however the weight is probably only about 2/3 and that is a 175 compared to a heavier 168cm ski. The ski has a ton of energy and really needs to be worked. However because of the lighter weight it has a very interesting feel. So far I ahve skier one powder day at White Tail a coupel of Thursdays ago and also last weekend at T-Line.
Carve / Long Turns:
At 175 CM the Radius 21M is printed right on the top sheet. You know what it wants to do. With very little shape compared to the other skis in my quiver I found the change difficult at first. After my first 4 run at White tail on crud covered blue runs my quads were in agony. On my 5th run I finaly dailed into the sweet spot and got to work.
The ski The ski is very stable and powerful. There are a few different skiing styles that work with the Big Stix... the can be driven hard at mach 1 in railed long carves or skidded more conservativly in medum radius turns. My favorite way is to treat them like a hyper carver and cance down the fall line in a serries of quick long radius turns always keeping the skis close to the fall line. This works superbly on more shallow slopes or in powder where speed control is not an issue. Diverging the skis does wonders to vary turn shape and bring these longer board arround quickly. As for finding a speed limit I am not sure at this ponit... all the groomers have been soft and covered with Hero Snow... I am sure in harder conditions we will see what they are made of.
Rebound / Energy / Short Turns:
As I said earlier this ski ahs a ton of energy. However they do not carve as short turns as a cross ski or a hyper carver. You cna make nice carved shorter turns though if you work them properly. The stiff tials provide a lot of rebound to bring the skis arround quickly. In generally though short turns will be skidded, not carved.
Steeps:
This ski is great in the steeps. It has a ton of torsional stiffness for quick speed cheks. Due to the straight profile the ski skidds pretty well too. It is light enough to throw arround in hop turns and when you do pick up some speed it will keep right up with you. On off the wall for example I was able to ski 3-4 whales at a time with out stopping.
Bumps:
The ski is sweet in bumps. The nice rounded softy bumps at T-Line were a blast. And the larger more challenging bumps on WhiteTail's exhibition, Powder covered as they were, skied great too. They aren's as great a bump ski as my K2 Mod 7/8s. However the ski is soft enough up front to make the ride comfortable comfortable and the graphite core is not going to break on you. The even flex and striaght profile make is a sweet bump ski.
Trees:
In the trees the ski is awesome. The light weight makes for a very manuverable ski that can be thrown arround at will for quick hockey stops and other unorthodox manuvers that are sometimes necessary in the trees. The ski is wide enough to provide a stable platforms but light and quick enough to turn prety well. this si what I bought the ski for and I am very impressed.
Ice / Hard Pack:
Well surprise surprise. I have skied 3 spring days and still haven't seen much ice. I am sure they won't compare to my 5*s, but I was able to stop and get an edge on some pretty gnarly terrain, like the whales on OWT. I am going to give them a qualified nod in the Ice department. The ski is stiff enough to deliver on hard pack as well. the only issue may be if my edges are torm from skiing the glades in these alot.
Crud:
Given the stiff flex, nice width, and long turn radius I think the real purpose of this ski is clear. Its a crudder pure and simple. These babies are so stable at high speeds in rough snow its riddiculous. This is a very good crud ski. I talked about how good the 5*s were in crud.. well guess what... these are better. I don't know if I will have to go much wider to tackle the spring slop we get arround here. We will see... So far the handled chow, crud, and light sping conditiosn afternoon with grace.
Powder:
These skis are wide enough to give stable platform and light enough for good float and high manuverability. Still I would have to say that there are better powder skis out there at just slightly wider widths (Dynastar 8000, Salomon Scream Limited...). This is primaily due to the stiffness and the resulting difficulties in decambering the ski in powder. However the light weight makes up for it a bit and the ski does better in powder than many others because of this. It is a middle - top of class ski in powder... but how often do we see that condition? Err... Well 2/3 so far.
Pros: Amazingly light and stiff. Very energetic for a mid fat and stable at high speeds. Its a fun ski on the groomed and versatile enough to be a one ski solution arround here for someone who isn't a short turn fanatic. It skids well and is great on the steeps for speed control. It is also a great crud ski. Moguls perfomance is also excellent. Becuase of the weight it will also make a great jibber / park ski... or a climbing ski. It shines off piste and in difficult conditions.
Cons:
Not great in real powder, Not the best in short turns. It is a better 2nd Ski than a first ski...the conditiosn where it really shines are exactly those
most people don't like / dont ski that often (Crud, Chop, Bumps, steeps, trees)...
