Here's a quick review of the Al Dentes for anyone interested:
I had the opportunity to test these out in Sunshine Village, Norquay, Kicking Horse and Lake Louise for these past two weeks. The snow conditions ranged from groomed pow, to crusty pow to 4+ feet of white gold (watching the weather channel anyone?). I skied 40% park, 40% on piste, and 20% backcountry. Going back to the previous discussion, these are very flexible, in a good way. The flex is mostly in the tip and tail (with the tail being stiffer), and underfoot is very stable. In the powder these floated fine, but naturally within the limits of the relatively thin (for powder) 98mm underfoot width, so some backseat action is necessary to get solid turns and keep the tips afloat. In the groomed pow (basically west-coast ice) they carved well, with most of the edge hold being unsurprisingly underfoot. This was fine, however, as even in icy patches the skis held well and I only experienced less traction when coming to a full stop from a high speed run on the crud. I bombed some runs hitting about 60mph (according to the iPhone) and felt very stable. The grip underfoot is fantastic, and I was leaning back the whole time so my tips were about an inch off the ground but didn't chatter as much as I had expected. Overall, they aren't race skis, but at 50+ mph they still inspire confidence on high speed runs. In the glades/moguls I absolutely cannot say enough good things about the ski's flexibility. It's so fun just bouncing back and forth from mogul to mogul with the skis absorbing every uneven bump. Literally, this was one of the funnest parts of my trip. Depending on your ski style, note that there is less "pop", but WAY more ability to just butter over every bump.
For the fun part: Park. I stomped 30 foot kickers without a problem in both powder and crusty conditions with complete confidence. The stiffer and wider rear end is simply perfect at taking abuse in soft or hard landings (pun intended), and the flex is VERY forgiving. Rails were fine (I didn't notice any drawbacks from the width, but that's just me) although there were only like three rails in all the parks I skied so most of my experience was on boxes so far. Speaking of boxes, nose and tail presses on these things are awesome, you can literally butter off the box ;)
Hope this helps anyone on the fence about the Al Dentes - feel free to shoot me a question if there's something I didn't cover. I plan on taking these up to Mammoth and Big Bear next month so will update with anything relevant.
Safe riding ;)
