An update, not from me, but from my wife. She had her first ski on the Eons today and I noted her impressions.
Unlike some, I like ALL feedback from different skier and different skill levels. My wife has the least experience with XC and DH of anyone I know that skis BC Nordic or XCD.
Some background but she had been skiing on either Epochs or Glittertinds, and before that E99s.
I decided I would mount these up with the pin line the same as the pivot line I have on my Eons. I liked the way they handle and despite her smaller boot, I though she'd like them that way. IIRC it's +1cm from chord.
Her skis are mounted with Rotte ST pin bindings as all her boots are pin boots. She feels most comfortable with this system so I've not tried to deter her from what she likes. She'll decide in time if she wants to try something different.
Anyway she was really impressed with the skis. I told her they should be right in between her other two in terms of performance and her length is kind of in between the other two. The Eons are 195, the Epoch and Glitt, 200 and 185 respectively.
She thought the glide on them was excellent and did quite well on the downs. At one point today we skied down a closed road and she was turning them back and forth nearly parallel with little effort. The surface was really smooth and a bit icy underneath, so they don't quite handle that way in BC conditions, but she did well there as well.
She tested them with her Crispi Svartisen boots, and I expect she'll ski the Eon with these boots all the time.
Her one complaint was the same as mine. "They are damn slippery." Yeah, in certain snow they just don't seem to grip very well. We were on that snow today. Seems whenever it is slightly granular or cold, the Eon struggles (the Epoch struggles too, same pattern, but slightly less due to more width under foot).
Her comment regarding this was, "Man I wish they climbed like my Glitts!" Not often you hear someone say a narrower, DC ski grips better than a wider, "1.5" camber ski. I agree with her 100%. I've skied both quite a bit and the Glitt grips better. It's a different pattern than the Eon, Epoch and Annum. And it seems to work better in the snow in NY.
I'm going to pay careful attention to how the S78 performs compared to the Eon in this respect. If it's a better climber and has no other bad traits, I'm going to switch her over. So far the only issue I've had with S78 and grip on really icy, refrozen stuff. And it still held up pretty good. And maybe even we forgo the waxless and go for wax for this width ski class. Although today I would have been concerned. Started off 22°F and ended at 33°F 3.5hrs later. Typical NY, even in the mountains.
Overall her impression was they were her favorite skis so far. "They seem to do everything well compared to the other two, other than the grip." I think if we find a ski that grips really well in this width, shape, weight; we'll have an all around workhorse winner.