Is there ANY advantage to hiring anything but economy skis?

Chris

In fairness, you are the only person who can answer this question. I have been skiing since 1980 but seem to be more of an aggressive skier. For me, I would never be without my own skis and do my own ski repairs, tuning and servicing as the quality will far exceed that which a typical shop would churn out with their machines.

Anyway, I digress. The only way for you to answer the question is to hire the latest advanced skis, from the sound of it you wouldn't push a ski hard enough to need expert skis. Hire for the week but gain the agreement of the rental shop that you can try different models throughout the week. This is highly important because some skis will feel better than others for your style of skiing.

To highlight my point, I wrote my last pair off after a number of years of ownership when I ripped an edge out after 2 days of the holiday. I demo'd 4 different pairs over the next 4 days and skied my 2 favourites for 1/2 a day each on the last day before purchasing a brand new, still wrapped pair to take home unused. They deducted the total hire cost from the purchase price, so it cost me not a penny more than just buying them without trial.

What I can tell you is the difference is astounding! I even took a pair back after 2.5 hours as they were just wrong.

Bite the bullet and try it, that is the only way you will know for sure.

I've yet to find a ski hire shop that won't swap skis on request as and when my Wife has wanted to.....

On a scale of 1-4. (4 being the better) we normally go for 3's and choose a decent all mountain model that is guaranteed to be the one we choose, if we get it wrong we change until we get it right.....we obviously don't take the pi$$ and aren't too fussy. I only ski once a year so buying isn't a consideration at all.

Over my time skiing i have noticed that to some shops the level of ski you hire (beginner, intermediate, advanced) tends to mean new, older, oldest and little to do with your skill set or intended use.
I would advise you ask for the type of ski you need for the type of skiing you want to participate in and when presented with them assess the quality and value for money in your own opinion.

"I can ski pretty competently on all but the most vertical slopes."
"I pretty much ski non stop from the first lift to the last and I have a really good time doing it."

Kowal, what other activities do you do? Do all tennis rackets perform the same? All golf clubs and balls? All fishing rods the same? All carpenter's hammers or saws? Do all bicycles ride the same? There are huge differences in skis. The appropriate ski the the snow conditions and for the skier will make that skier better and the day more enjoyable. If you ski only on piste, that is one criteria for the skis. If you know how to ski with smooth rounded turns on the skis' edges, that is another criteria. If you just swing the skis side to side and skid the turns, you're right, almost anything will do.

Try some upper-mid level skis. If the shop has, say, five levels, try a level four ski. Keep in mind that as the skis are made longer, they're also made stiffer, so don't go too long & stiff. If you don't like how those perform, try another size or another brand of a similar type ski. If you don't like those, go down to a simpler, cheaper ski. I'm a very good skier, and my ski of choice on piste is the Head Supershape i.Rally. I'm not sure I'd like a comparable ski from Atomic or Blizzard or many other brands; the feel and response is different. That's me. You enjoy skiing so much that experimentation will likely be worth the cost to you.

Agysler is exactly on point, "...some skis will feel better than others for your style of skiing." "...the difference is astounding!"

Nice post KLS, and I think this demonstrates exactly why it is good to try different skis.

To me the Head is an OK ski, but for piste perfection I prefer the Volkl Racetiger GS.

Now the only way either of us can know what ski we prefer, is to get on to different skis and ski the heck out of them until we arrive at our own preference.

It may be that you prefer the type of ski you currently use, but I seriously suspect that you will find a whole new world once you start to try new skis.

I bought my skis after hiring a pair and finding they really suited me. I had struggled with hire skis up until then but went for a more expensive category and the difference was amazing. Perhaps I just got lucky? Having skied on them for a few years now I realise that technology has moved on and perhaps I should consider trying new skis again. I will definitely hire though until I find a pair that suit me again. Buying without trying is not sensible IMO.

Thank you all for your responses.

I returned 2 weeks ago from an intensive 7 days of skiing in Les Deux Alpes (easily the most skiing I have done in a week) and after so many years of not paying any attention at all to my (cheap) hire skis (other then their length and binding settings) I finally noted down what skis I was given and they were:

Atomic Variofiber 171cm 120 73 105 radius 15m

When I asked the hire ship about these skis they were classed as "economique" and 3-4 years old and here's the interesting thing: despite there being a total of 5 different priced categories to choose from when booking, there were just two categories to select from in the hire shop with a similar number of skis in each range. Unfortunately, I don't know at which price category you get bumped into the non-economique range.

I asked about the "other" range and they were younger and/or stiffer skis (and I was given the distinct impression that younger equated to stiffer as he suggested that they got softer with use).

I mentioned that I had never skied on anything but the cheapest and wondered what the difference felt like. I asked if there was any chance of trialling them for a day later on in the week but was told that there was a totally unreasonable upgrade cost for doing this.

In case I just got the wrong member of staff, I asked again on my penultimate day and was told the same - I even asked to borrow them for just one run down from the top but there was no budging them.

Whatever you may think of the skis I was given, as far as I was concerned, they were absolutely spot on and coped very well for just under 350 miles of skiing on a variety of slopes (every one that was open). Most were well-groomed, wide slopes, others were very icy but manageable. The only slope that was really tricky was the main blue run back down to the resort - but only at the end of the day when it was very busy and the snow had been pushed around to reveal the underlying solid ice bed. My skis had good edges that coped well on all other icy slopes but they slid on this slope which wasn't good when there were so many people around (most of who were also not coping well). Luckily I found an alternate way down later on in the week (an icy black that was so much easier and much less crowded).

Even though my cheap "bottom end" skis have always been excellent in my view, I am nevertheless determined to try out some "better" skis in the future. My cautious plan for my next trip is to again rent the cheap ones for the week but also include a pair of "second best" skis for one day towards the end. As I will no doubt be going to a new resort, this allows me to get used to the slopes and snow conditions in order to fairly compare the "better" skis against what I am used to. If I like them more then that is the way forward for future trips - otherwise, if they are worse for me or no different, then I'll be happy to stay with the bottom end skis knowing that they are well suited to me.

I remain somewhat baffled with this particular topic. You state that the skis were from the budget range, that they were spot on and that all your previous budget skis have been excellent.

I'm not sure what enhancements you are expecting over and above 'spot on' and 'excellent'?

If you are happy with budget skis, stick with them!