fisheater wrote:
What about an Eon? I just found a 205 for $205.
The Eon is a wonderful ski- I myself put a ridiculous number of hours (and 1000s of kms) on first my waxless Eon Omintracks, and then my Eon Wax. We have a number of Eons- it remains my 12 yr-old daughter's favorite (she is very light and strong)- it is the first ski I put anyone on that is skiing with us and is new to backcountry XCD touring.
The Eon is very soft for a double-cambered (or rather camber-and-a-half) ski- and, the tips are slightly rockered and extremely soft- the tail is stiffer than the tip and straight. Despite being so soft, the Eon still has an effective "wax pocket" (that stiff low second camber is still there) and it tracks very well as a XC ski. Overall- I have always found the Eon too soft for my preferences- BUT, it is an extremely popular XCD touring ski, and for good reason. The waxless-scaled "Omnitrack" is finely tuned for XC skiing, not climbing.
The soft smooth flex, and the very soft, slightly open tips make the Eon very easily managed on the downhill.
The Eon is- IMO- very different than your Combat USGI. As a XC ski- you will find the Eon MUCH slower than the USGI (despite it being much lighter). As a downhill ski- you will find the Eon much more responsive and easier to turn than the USGI.
Despite the "made in China" paranoia- we have found the Eon well made, and very durable. It is wood-cored and therefore there is some variability in the flex from ski to ski.
I weigh 185lbs, and I find the Eon soft enough that I actually hate being on the shorter 195cm- I have two 205cm Eons (wax and waxless).
We have favoured the Eon and other Madshus XCDs for a lot of reasons- the fact that they are excellent value (even with a weak $CAN) is one of the biggest reasons.
I was out with a group of friends recently and we had the 205cm Eon Wax, the 205cm E-109 Tour, the 210cm Combat Nato, and the 210cm Combat USGI between us. It was fun switching between them. It's funny- although I always think of the Eon as having a lot of XC DNA- but out of all of the above group, it is easily the best downhill ski. But the Combat Nato is currently my favourite of the bunch...
But you know- if I had to choose just one distance-oriented XCD ski- I would have a hard time choosing between the Combat Nato/Ingstad and the E-99 tour Easy-Skin...