I am totally stoked with the 177 M Rocks. Mounted with Fritschi Freeride Plus they ski and tour really nicely. Apparently the same ski as the 07 Mantras, though its nice to have a something unique looking. Mantras are everywhere these days, and with good reason. The wide shovels float well, and the centre of chord is quite far back on the ski, making it much better balanced than the modern centre mount skis that make skiing so easy for snow plowing gapers. They do ski short, and I regret not going for 184s now. I'm 5'11'' and 145lbs, and limited the length for the weight saving and maneouverability. I ski 98% off piste and tour only for the pleasure of downhill, for which I have not tried a better ski.

Just mounted these up with some Naxo AT bindings and spent the past weekend up buzzing around the Whistler backcountry. The set up is a little heavy for AT despite the skis being designed to be a little more lean than the Mantras. But point these down the hill and they just sing in the powder, wind drifts and soft chop...once moving they feel light and playful and you forget about all the work to get up hill.

Back on-piste they carve well and hold steady as you throw down a big GS turn through the crud and on the ice. I went with the 170s in place of the 177s and so it's pretty easy to break into some short radius turns to avoid the human slalom poles.

I'm seriously thinking a one ski quiver may be possible with these as the Naxo's performed better than expected as well.