The co-author of Snowbird Secrets, “Guru” Dave Powers, has been skiing the Bird 6 days a week since 1976, averaging 130 days a season. Somehow, he still has the same two knees he started with, but their best days are behind them. If he wants to keep skiing, he has to be ultra-protective of his most precious assets. His signature technique – you can ID the Goo the instant he looms into sight – is designed to intercept anything that could be interpreted as a shock and suppress it, pronto.
You might think that, given his infirmities, Powers would pick his way down this fierce mountain with the utmost caution. Not a chance. Powers is deceptively fast, and has no issues blazing into Silver Fox – we’re talking unavoidable bumps and choppy snow, interspersed with roads that will send your head between your knees if you don’t know they’re coming – or flowing down featureless Regulator Johnson in a whiteout. How on earth is this possible?
A large part of the answer is the Goo knows every inch of this mountain and its current condition. He never tries to overpower it. He’s the embodiment of flow, which is the highest praise I can extend to any Big Mountain skier.
By now you’ve surmised that the Goo skis on a Dynastar Legend X 96. Its entire forebody serves as a shock-sucking buffer, due to a 3-piece segment of sidewall that frees up the laminates in the core to sheer. This allows the ski to conform to terrain it would otherwise ram into, and is a particular pleasure in powder as it lets the ski bow without having to charge the fall line.
The absence of end-to-end Titanal laminates also plays to Powers requirements. (The Legend X 96 has a Ti insert underfoot to stabilize this critical zone.) No metal slabs means less weight onboard, means less stress on his ravaged knees. Absent the torsional rigidity of full Ti laminates, the 96mm Legend X skis narrower than it measures, which is a significant blessing for skiers with little to no cartilage left.
My talented ski technician Theron Lee is an active race coach with a recognizable, slalom racer’s stance, and it couldn’t be more different than Powers’ style. T Lee, as he’s known to his associates, spends a lot more time on groomed slopes, where he finds the Legend X 96 “skis well on firmer snow, chatter is a minimum for a wider ski. Quick turning, smooth and lively, not dead or clumsy. Good for a single ski quiver,” he concludes.
For providing a smooth, easy-flexing ride that won’t buck its rider, we again award the Legend X 96 a Silver Skier Selection.
