I'm 5'2 130lbs I also demoed the 179, and while it is a large ski it was much more manageable than the obsethed in the same size. (I wanted to demo smaller but that's all they had). I rode the petitor for a half day, rode 2013 hellbents and obsethed in the morning and the petitor from noon until close. I wanted to stay on the hellbents all day, but everyone kept fighting over them, if that tells you anything. The petitor was the second favorite in the group though. I did a group k2 demo day where we skied with a rep and a dozen or so of us just played musical chairs with the skis on the slope.
It was a heavy wet powder day we had about 2 feet fresh. The Petitor definitely liked to charge, but didn't float quite as well as the hellbents. On the other hand it did much better in the chop fields on the way to the lift than the hellbents. The obsethed by comparison I hated, loved to tip dive, hated to float (keep in mind this is in wet PNW snow).
I demoed a lot of powder skis over the season and the petitor was one of my favorites. Ultimately I personally prefer a softer more playful ski like the hellbent, but if you want something more stable in variable conditions the petitor is just the right mix of stiffness and rocker.
