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Holy shit this ski is everything I hoped for and more. I got to test them out yesterday on a 6 inch pow day. Light dry pow on top of boilerplate crud, thanks to the rain received Friday that soaked in and froze. Even though it looked like pow everywhere, you could "hear" people skiing in the distance, yep that kind of day.
Despite the terrible conditions, the Two's were amazing, they made me feel like a better skier than I am. Confidence inspiring is the best way I can describe them. It's like the Hellbent and Gotama had a child. The surfiness was great, but when I'd bounce off the crusty bullshit just underneath the ski felt solid like my Goats, not in danger of wheelie-ing out like the Hellbent would in those conditions.
This ski wants to blast long arcs, and seems to have a huge sweet spot. I could ski it centered or I could drive from the tips, depending on my mood. The taper in the tips plus the long sidecut made it so I never felt the ski overhook, a problem I would normally have on most skis with the refrozen chop. I could also slam on the brakes if I needed to and not feel like I was going to get bucked, or hook a tip or tail. This was especially useful in the trees, which were extra crusty.
I found that they excel in the chop and crud, especially when using my preferred method of skiing through bad sections: just go straight. No pitching or yawing, they even let me recover easily if I got into the backseat. The worst they performed was on a slope that had perfectly smooth large ice moguls underneath, I couldn't see them due to the layer of pow, and the twos wanted to launch off each one I hit unexpectedly. That was a really weird slope though, and I can't imagine what ski would have done any better on it.
They take flight quite well, much lighter than some of my other pow skis, and that stiff underfoot zone makes you feel very solid on launches and landings, however you still have somewhat floppy tips to pop you over the random log or ditch. I was taking airs off stuff I haven't before just because I knew the Two's would ride out the choppy landings without a hitch.
Here's a clip; http://gfycat.com/BrokenKlutzyAxisdeer We had some brief sun for the first hour of the day before the clouds rolled in and it started dumping. Too bad that snow once again turned to rain overnight. That first slope stayed almost untouched for most of the day because people couldn't handle the icy crud layer, you can see my skis chattering off it.
The Volkl Two might be my new favorite ski. There are very few skis that I've gotten on where everything just instantly clicks and the ski responds exactly like I want. I can see why it's been such a favorite in the freeride comps.
Additional specs: I'm 5'2 130lbs and I'm skiing the 176 Two's mounted at +1
**Update**
I've since put another ten days on these skis and I am still in love. They absolutely slay choppy conditions. In this gif you can see me bouncing around on the faction prodigy, and the second clip is me on the Two's: http://gfycat.com/CreativeGoodnaturedAmericanindianhorse
Even though you can see the tips flapping I maintain pretty consistent contact with the ground and the ride is smoothed out for the conditions. I never would've charged that choppy chicken head riddled slope as hard as I did if I were on any other ski. A++ to Volkl.
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