by ts01 » Fri Mar 10, 2017 2:32 pm
Closing a long-open loop - I bought a pair of the Sequence from Telemarkdown a couple years back but lost a lot of time to injury and rainfall. Finally mounted them and have skied them since mid January in all sorts of conditions, with nothing but goodness to report. 5'9",175lbs, on 175cm; as others have noted they ski short, so I'd be curious to try the 182cm, but the 175 is fine for my day to day eastern skiing and in tight places.
First 3 days were mid January on mixed conditions - mostly terrible plus a few hours of perfectly softening corduroy and several long runs in deep loose man-made at the edge of the trail, and to quote a brilliant thinker on TGR, "Bamboo core, where have you been my whole life???" Light and lively, incredibly versatile with edge grip and confidence far beyond what you'd expect in such a light ski ("punches above its weight"); perfect for patrolling work. Carves just fine with a quick slalom feel on demand but will also run long without getting too squirrelly at "get to the accident" speed. Probably no good for "causing the accident" speed, but that's not my priority. Many more days in the east including a soft day with 6 inches falling on top of a perfectly groomed base and they play nicely in soft and 3D conditions.
Similar versatility on a trip out west that was mostly horrible boilerplate, imagine skiing a gigantic cue ball, but with freshly sharpened edges because I'm compulsive they held an edge fine. One day with 8" fresh where they really provided all the float I needed and were outstanding in moguls, trees, and good enough in light crud. If I were out west I'd definitely ski the 182 (but then I wouldn't be on telemarkeast.com would I?). They're probably the easiest ski I've ever had in tight trees.
Swapped them with my son for awhile out west. He is a little lighter but taller, faster, and partial to fatter, damper "charging" style skis. He could ski these fast and hard enough that he was waiting at the bottom of the run, as usual, but the smile was still on his face and he said the word for these skis is "nimble."
Durability looks good. I've had to ski into really sketchy eastern woods (rocks), heard some horrible sounds underneath, and came out unscathed. Every ski's a rock ski in my world, but these seem up to the task.
As to my original question - Liberty Sequence v. Voile V6 - I still have not gotten on a V6. But I've skied several times with a friend on the V6, similar if not better skier than me, and in solid crappy eastern conditions he was getting tossed around on the V6 while I was solid and swifter on the Sequence. (Could not trade skis because I'm on NTN and he's 75mm).
Re bindings and mounting point: Mounted it first with NTN Freedom on the center line marked on the Sequence, but I've skied it with both NTN Freedom and Freerides. Definitely prefer the feel of the Freedom; it's like the ski is playing with snow, not crushing it like the Freeride. I guess light is right after all. But I've had more days on the Freeride, which IMHO skis best in the furthest back set of mounting holes. So, next time I'd drill 1 or 1.5cm behind center line.