On January 10, at Palisades Tahoe, an avalanche ripped down G.S. Bowl, a popular run right beneath the famed KT-22 chair, killing one person and trapping many others. As is almost always the case with inbounds avalanches, none of the skiers and snowboarders who were buried did anything wrong. And while investigations are ongoing, Palisades’ snow safety professionals—the patrollers that risk their lives in the predawn gloom tossing hand charges and ski cutting slopes to release avalanches before the public arrives—probably also did their jobs to the best of their abilities.

After a multiple-fatality slide at Silver Mountain, Idaho, in 2020, I gave some general advice about how to protect yourself inbounds. I also explained why inbounds avalanches happen in 2019 after a similar tragedy at Taos Ski Valley, in New Mexico. The unfortunate reality is that avalanche science is pretty good at assessing the likelihood of slides, but it cannot predict exactly where and when a slope will break loose. Nor will we ever know with total certainty that avalanche terrain—any ungroomed slope above 30 degrees, which includes pretty much everything above a blue square in the west—is 100 percent safe to ski. Mitigation doesn’t work that way. Resort snow safety teams live in a continuum where they can always be good, but they can never be perfect. In a 100 percent safe scenario, KT-22 would never spin.

The fatal slides at Palisades, Silver Mountain, and Taos highlight a disconnect in ski resort messaging that I’ve witnessed throughout my lifelong involvement with snow sports, including 25 years covering the subject as a journalist. Time and again, I see skiing marketed to the masses as , or as a luxury lifestyle choice for the wealthy. The truth, of course, is that skiing can be hazardous, and sometimes it can be deadly. But rarely have I ever seen resorts communicate the dangers of the sport to customers with the same vigor as they do plugging the fluffy accouterments. Ski resorts should start treating customers like adults, and stop pretending skiing and snowboarding are as safe as a fancy cruise—minus the hot tub norovirus.

There are reasons why approachability eclipses danger in resort messaging, of course. During my time covering the sport I’ve regularly seen executives promoted to the C-suite from marketing and guest services positions, but rarely have I seen ski patrollers rise to the same levels. Take a look at bios for executives at the two biggest resort companies in the world— and —if you want proof.

Yes skiing can be family-friendly and luxurious, but it is also risky to varying degrees. That’s true of that blue run you just dragged your rookie boyfriend up without a lesson, and it’s also true of the steep avalanche terrain that you’re standing on top of waiting for the rope to drop. After a few flurries of inbounds avalanche fatalities in the past two decades, I believe most seasoned skiers and snowboarders understand the avalanche risk. Everyone else should read the lengthy online waiver that greets you before you buy your pass.

Except nobody reads waivers. I’ve addressed the need for skiers to be a bit more self-reliant in previous columns. But I think that marketing departments for ski resorts also need to do a better job of acknowledging and even—egads—addressing the risks: collisions on overcrowded slopes; long falls on iced-over runs; tree well suffocation; and yes, inbounds avalanches. Scan headlines from local newspapers over the past few months you will see of at North American resorts. Communicating the dangers of skiing in an adequate way will require a cultural shift at many resorts. That’s because the business model is about attracting the highest volume of customers and resorts don’t want to scare anyone off.

Resort skiing has always been a volume play. Lift lines in the seventies were routinely an hour long. They used to sell hot dogs and beer as you waited, and you had time for a second beer. Today, the lines move faster, but the resort conglomerates carry on that volume-first tradition by selling cheap season passes. I’ve argued in the past that those products are good because they can help bring new users, and maybe someday, diverse users, into skiing and snowboarding, which otherwise would have gone into a steady decline. But high volume comes at the cost of the experience and the safety of the guests. Ask any patroller at a resort where you feel as though you’re dodging other humans like bamboo gates why most accidents happen, and off the record he or she will say, “It’s the crowding.”

Again, I’m not calling out any specific ski resort here, certainly not Palisades, which, besides a misguided notion to rebrand one of the steepest ski areas in North America as a family ski hill about a decade ago has a well-earned extreme vibe and, last I heard, one of the best snow safety teams in the business. (I was complicit in that softer marketing. I produced their marketing magazine, which was full of low angle skiing and snot-nosed kids and by edict from above none of the steep skiing the mountain is famous for.) What I’m calling out is this: Resorts can feel free to market the that they love so much in these days of massive income inequality, but they also need to message that skiing comes with challenges and struggle and self reliance and, yes, risk. Even mellow resort skiing requires as much dedication to skills training and fitness as mountain biking and surfing. Backcountry skiing comes with the gravitas of whitewater, big wave surfing, and alpinism. Skiing on avalanche terrain—no matter if it’s inbounds or out—should take years of skills development to get to that level. Skiing and snowboarding are epic because the sports beat you down. Mountains are iconic because they’re unforgiving.

Some resorts already get that. They tend to be the ones that market themselves as ski “areas” not ski “resorts.” Arapahoe Basin in Colorado, which was just purchased by Alterra, and cut skier volume a few years ago to preserve the experience, is one. I hope that management style will continue. Fernie, which is avalanche-challenged by slopes above the resort, is another. Alta, Utah, the birthplace of snow science and avalanche mitigation in the U.S., is a third. When the Alta sheriff tells you to move your car because it will get buried overnight, you tend to pay attention. In Europe, everyone knows that if you ski off-trail you are in the backcountry and you could die.

The corresponding spatial awareness, mountain sense, and self reliance you see at burlier ski areas can and should be encouraged everywhere. When Bridger Bowl, Montana, first opened the short and steep zones that runs above the lower ski area, they required skiers to carry avalanche beacons—the rest of the avy gear is advised. They carried on that tradition when they opened the steep Slushman’s zone in the 2000s. There’s a similar deal at Delirium Dive in Canada’s Sunshine Village. There’s only one way to access that legit extreme terrain, and you need gear and a partner to do it. Crystal Mountain, Washington, has a related, if grayer, policy for its Southback zone which they mitigate for avalanches but recommend skiing with avy gear and a partner at the access gates.

My favorite ski area in North America is Silverton Mountain in Colorado. The year Jenny and Aaron Brill opened Silverton, I skied and reported a story there for Powder magazine. The wider industry and avalanche community was predicting doom for the enterprise because every inch of Silverton Mountain is avalanche terrain in one of the most slide-prone parts of the world. The Brills sold Silverton recently, but the ski area they founded succeeded through endless mitigation, a guided-only policy in mid-winter, and a no-bullshit attitude that emphasized showing respect to the mountain. At Silverton, the guides will ridicule you rather than let you get cavalier. This is both hilarious and necessary. When it comes to unguided skiing and snowboarding, Silverton customers treat the terrain like backcountry. At Silverton, you feel a little nervous twinge before you ski. We shouldn’t turn that switch off at fancier resorts just because they have marble counters in the shitters.

It will likely never happen because of legal concerns and greed, but in my worldview, many North American ski areas should require avy gear and partners in certain zones. The requirement brings a lot of benefits. For one, it can reduce the stigma or perceived stigma of carrying safety gear inbounds. In Utah recently during a big storm cycle, I watched a few locals snicker at some vacationers skiing with packs inbounds. Yeah, one skier had a shovel strapped to a hydration pack and didn’t have high style points, but his mindset was correct. When gear is required for certain zones, more guests will be wearing beacons in transmit mode. That’s an easy win. And second, like the strenuous hike up Aspen Highlands’ eponymous bowl, gear helps to filter skiers. Meaning, the people that probably shouldn’t be skiing your gnarliest terrain might think better of it.

The timing is right for this cultural shift. Backcountry skiing and snowboarding are no longer niche pursuits. There are enough skiers with gear and training to change how avalanche terrain is managed. Hell, while requiring gear won’t bring your ski area more cash, it will bring more cachet. You can market adventure again instead of pots of molten cheese and those hot stones they put on your back at the spa.

But the bigger benefit in nudging this cultural shift forward is that in carrying gear and trusting in a partner, skiers also learn to trust themselves. If we as skiers and snowboarders do that, then maybe the insanity of an inbounds powder day can move subtly in the direction of smarter skiing, with customers having conversations about the hazards, buddying up, poking around cautiously at times, and looking out for one another. That last bit might be wishful thinking. But even if all ski areas do is require safety gear and partners in certain zones, at the least we’d be a lot faster on the rescues.

The post Skiing Isn’t Just a Luxury Experience. It’s a Dangerous Sport. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Earlier this year, the Wall Street Journal dropped what an called a “.” The story focused on the government-commissioned booking website and Booz Allen Hamilton, a private company the government contracted in 2016 to build, update, and manage the site and its 23 million active users.

The article came out hot and contrarian, as if the Journal was breaking news: “Visitors might assume,” read the piece, “that, like entrance fees, the reservation charges help pay for improving trails
or expanding the park’s volunteer program. But a chunk of the money ends up with consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.”

The story went on to detail that while Booz Allen’s original contract estimate was $182 million over ten years, between 2018 and 2022 the company invoiced the government for $140 million, far exceeding the original estimates. The hook for the story was a lawsuit filed in January by seven outdoor enthusiasts who are going after Booz Allen for so-called “junk fees.” The man-on-the-street interviews were feisty. ‘â¶ÄœIt really galls me that my tax dollars are going to maintaining that public asset, but then somebody is privately profiting off of it,” said Spencer Heinz, a 29-year-old mechanical engineer from Portland, Oregon, who uses Recreation.gov for backpacking permits.

So what’s the deal? Is our government in cahoots with a private firm gouging the shit out of Griswoldian America? Should we be as galled as Spencer Heinz from Portland?

The short answer is no. The rec.gov website that was built and run by Booz Allen Hamilton is perhaps the most effective tool the government has for keeping public lands, especially National Parks, from being completely overrun by me, you, and everyone else. But keeping the rec.gov tool up and running and processing millions of transactions is hard—and beyond the capabilities of the government.

OK, let’s dive into the weeds. First some background: if you haven’t been paying attention, people are loving our public lands lately and Recreation.gov’s numbers back that up. In 2019, 3.7 million folks logged onto the site to, among a range of other services, book RV campsites, river trips, backcountry access, or timed entrance permits. Sounds like a big number and it is. But for the website’s last fiscal year (2022) that number jumped to 10.3 million. And those are just the people that actually booked. Today rec.gov services approximately 23 million active users—people who book reservations and those that just search for them—and works with 18 agencies, such as the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Smithsonian Institution, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Part of the booking spike is because more agencies are using the website than ever before, but visitation to parks is also up. There are simply more people out there loving beautiful places, as you have probably realized if you ever cast a fly into a hatch of drunk tubers.

In the most popular places, the crowding is more than the land and existing infrastructure can handle, and it’s certainly more than our beleaguered public land managers can cope with, at least on the reservations front. It’s been this way for a while, and way back in 1998 six federal agencies started sharing campground vacancy information on a portal called recreation.gov. The idea was to make life easier on both field managers and the public. In 2007 the website began taking reservations. Booz Allen is the second contractor to operate the site, and the company began building the latest version of it back in 2016.

Throughout their involvement, Booz Allen has reported to a government interagency management team called Recreation One Stop, which is the body that oversees Recreation.gov.

Anyway, in 2016 Booz Allen won a five-year contract to run the site, then the contract went year-to-year for five years. There were five other bidders for the contract. Booz Allen won with the lowest bid (estimate is a better word) and what the Recreation One Stop team thought were the best services. Another key point here: the $182 million budget came from Recreation One Stop’s own revenue projections. It was based on a three to seven percent annual growth. Nobody foresaw the pandemic and the outdoor boom. The contract was of course challenged in court, but after much scrutiny, Recreation One Stop was successful in the U.S. Court of Appeals and Booz Allen was off and running. “We won at every stage because we did it right,” says Rick DeLappe, interagency program manager for Recreation One Stop.

Here’s how it all works at the field level. A manager at a National Park, Forest Service, BLM office, or the like decides that a user fee must be paid or that a site or trip is so popular that a paid permit or reservation is required to protect the resource and the experience. The consumer of those services—we the people—log into rec.gov and pay the designated fee or pay into a lottery to try to win a permit. That money goes to the Treasury Department. From that account, Recreation.gov pays Booz Allen for its work based off each transaction as agreed upon in the original contract, and almost all of the rest goes back to the individual agency. Over the past four years, says Delappe, 85 percent of what is charged goes back to the agencies. Recreation One Stop does not set those fees, nor does Booz Allen. But Booz Allen’s original contract did include specific fees for various transactions. It’s the managers in the field that set the prices. They of course try to cover their costs and the transaction costs for Recreation.gov.

It varies by agency, but you get the drift. Recreation One Stop and Booz Allen make all this possible behind the scenes. So, no misplaced funds there to speak of.

What the lawsuit and—by tone and tenor—the Wall Street Journal are objecting to, though, is a slightly newer dynamic that’s grown out of that sharp uptick in popularity of our National Parks. I’ll use Glacier National Park as an example because it’s near my home, and it was the main example in the Journal.

łÒ±ôČ賊Ÿ±±đ°ù’s Going to the Sun Road was practically a parking lot when I drove my wife and visiting parents up it in the 1990s. With the Covid bump, the traffic became untenable—like getting out of Foxborough after a Patriots game. The park’s fix was to follow Rocky Mountain National Park’s lead and require reservations to drive the most popular roads. That way they could control the traffic. A reservation for Going to the Sun Road is good for three days. And again, the agents in the field set the price. You book those reservations through Recreation.gov.

The reservation system—in the parlance they’re called Timed Entry Permits—immediately fixed the problem, and now people aren’t stuck in traffic on a mountain pass waiting for a car-sized boulder from above to crush them. But as you might imagine, with traffic on Going to the Sun restricted, it steers more cars onto other park roads, so in a game of whack-a-mole, the administrators put the reservation system in place there too.

Now for more wonk 101. (Government!) The National Parks already charge people to get into a park. For Glacier that’s $35 for a car full of humanity and all its cup holders. It’s good for seven days. So for the additional timed-entry fees they charge $2. I have no way of proving this claim—what Booz Allen charges is undisclosed—but I’m guessing the fees (set by the agencies) are only covering what they are contracted to pay Booz Allen for the service. Oh, and yes, you read that correctly, the three day timed entry permit is two bucks. That’s what the fuss is about.

I am not an apologist for privatizing anything when it comes to our public lands, but I’m not getting worked up about Booz Allen, Recreation.gov, and especially not these latest fees. Recreation.gov is a tool for the agencies, and Booz Allen is delivering that tool at a good value.

To get a second opinion on that I reached out to a web developer I’ve worked with. Rafael Romis is the founder and chief strategist of Weberous. His firm has built large e-commerce sites, and they’ve frequently been approached by state and city governments, but tend to turn down that work because the bureaucratic requirements are so daunting.

“From a web development perspective, 10 million bookings is an insane number,” says Romis. To operate a site like that is no small undertaking, he says. It begins with the servers, which have to be some of the best available just to process that much information. “Think about how much data you have with 23 million active users. And then you need a team of senior developers, designers, and server administrators to keep it running. That’s the 101 stuff, the hardware and the people. The second layer is security, which is huge. Ten million people plugging in their credit card information is not your typical Shopify site. Everything must be custom made. And then you have the final layer of making it accessible, which by law they must do…The thought of the government trying to do this is terrifying. It would be a disaster. [The site] would break down and it would always operate in the red. But with this site, while the design isn’t great, they did an excellent job with the functionality. I’m clicking on things right now trying to see if they break and they don’t.”

For perspective, from my reporting, the government has never built and maintained a website of Recreation.gov’s scale. A third party built the platform and then handed off the keys, but the third party still do the maintenance, support, and updating. Certainly anything of Recreation.gov’s scale or bigger, tends to rely exclusively on trusted government contractors like Booz Allen, which delivered on more than 4,000 federal contracts in fiscal year 2021/2022. Much of Booz Allen’s work is in defense and national security. Suffice it to say Recreation.gov is not their biggest project. Recreation One Stop’s DeLappe was actually surprised that they bid on the outdoorsy work.

I’m personally glad they did. And I’m not alone. Especially now, with so much traffic. When Arches National Park went to a —previously, visitors were turning around on the sketchy two lane road or parking wherever and hiking off trail in the desert—users could rate their experience of the new timed entry system. Of of them were four and five star reviews about their time in the park. Recreation.gov as a site also gets similar, overwhelmingly positive, feedback.

Meanwhile in the wonkiverse, the plaintiffs in the suit against Booz Allen are charging that a public review wasn’t incorporated into the decision to charge for the timed entry permits. (Booz Allen’s response is essentially that the plaintiffs need to bring that up with the agencies since they don’t set fees.) Others, like Congressman Ryan Zinke of Montana have said that in requiring timed entry permits Glacier National Park is locking out locals and tourists and hurting gateway businesses; a charge that seems spurious when you consider how popular the parks have grown. (Zinke’s office did not reply to emailed questions.) And then you have those who complain that their $2 isn’t going to the park. We can’t definitively say, with that one, but again, we do know that over the past four years 85 percent of all fees did return to the land.

Let’s get out of the weeds. Government runs off private partnerships. The biggest risk to our public lands is not nominal fees to keep the chaos at bay, the biggest risk is that we are the chaos. That’s not true everywhere and on all of our open spaces, but our National Parks—the envy of the world—are endangered. We must use the tools we have to protect them. And one of those tools is rec.gov.

An example helps: the Wall Street Journal story included a photo of The Wave in Arizona and Utah’s Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness. With its pelagic surrealism and extremely restricted visitation, the sandstone formation is perhaps the most sought after natural site in North America. But its fragility has long required that land managers meter the number of visitors. In modern times, you had to already be in the area to enter . And to do that you had to show up at a stifling gymnasium and stand there watching ping pong balls in a spinning basket. This happened five days a week. “It’s all the staff did all summer,” says Recreation One Stop’s Strategic Communications Lead Janelle Smith.

When the BLM asked rec.gov for help, the government interagency team and Booz Allen installed a virtual “geofence” in the area so that, in keeping with the policy, only people who made the trek could participate—which supports the local economy and ensures that no permits go to waste. Today, rec.gov delivers the lottery results to your phone when you’re out hiking. The BLM received only one complaint about the new system. Every agency has a story about how many hours they’re saving or the resources they’ve protected because of the tech tool. Rec.gov is also making camping better for a wider demographic of users. At its simplest, now you don’t have to worry about finding a campsite after a long drive.

The lesson we should take from all of this? As massive as many of our National Parks are, the flora, fauna, and landscapes that they protect are not equipped to handle this new, smothering, trammeling, YouTubing us. The natural world is resilient when it’s in balance, but it’s as frail as sandstone under a hiking boot when it is not. Just like a great restaurant, a busy museum, or a concert, the wonders of the earth now require a reservation. Deal with it.

The post You May Hate Recreation.gov. It Keeps Our Parks from Being Loved to Death. appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

When Jeff Wiguna, CEO and co-founder of the camp-coffee brand Kuju, was in his twenties a decade ago, he spent a lot of time in San Francisco among the tech crowd. From that time and place it looked as if social media were set to transform the world in an unquestionably positive way. Give voice to the voiceless. Democratize the autocracies. Remove the barriers to education and power. Untether progressivism at last. You might recall the zeitgeist. 

Today, Wiguna is not so enamored. Early on, he had a mentor at Kuju who told him that advertising on Facebook (now Meta, but we’ll call it and its holdings Facebook throughout) was at odds with the mission of the startup coffee brand, which is to “cultivate rejuvenation” through outdoor recreation, ideally with a cup of joe in hand. “I didn’t fully understand what he was saying at the time,” said Wiguna. “Now I do. Tech is not a savior industry. At best it’s capable of accelerating change, but it’s indiscriminate about what kind of change it brings
Facebook’s vision of a more virtual world is now a competitive threat to the outdoor industry.”

Wiguna does not buy ads on Facebook. Neither does Patagonia. And for a time, The North Face and roughly 1,200 other companies involved in 2020’s Stop Hate for Profit campaign also boycotted Facebook advertising. By the organizers’ own admission, the boycott failed to change Facebook’s policies in any significant way, and with very few exceptions, most companies returned to the platform after a single month. 

So now it’s time to ask: Why? If the issues that prompted the boycott still remain, why do so many outdoor companies continue to advertise on the platform? Are the exceptions—like Patagonia and Kuju Coffee—leaders or outliers, and what can we learn from them?

The Case for Quitting Facebook

When the Stop Hate for Profit campaign got going a couple years ago, there were plenty of skeptics who waved off the anti-Facebook crowd as fringe thinkers. That sounds like Patagonia doing Patagonia, the reasoning might have gone. How naive.

For many, that changed in 2021, when the year’s bolstered the moral case against the platform—and let’s be clear, there is a moral case. Take climate change as one example. There’s no greater threat to the outdoor industry, not to mention global human survival. But according to a study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate released last year, out of 7,000 misleading posts describing climate change as ‘hysteria,’ ‘alarmism,’ or a ‘scam,’ only 8 percent were marked as misinformation by Facebook. That same anti-hate group found that a mere ten publishers produce 69 percent of the climate denial content in the public domain, much of it of course metastasized via Facebook. That’s not an example of Facebook’s democratization of the media, it’s an example of how easily Facebook is weaponized—in this case by climate deniers. 

Refusing to take significant action against climate denial is but one knock. Facebook’s own Civic Integrity department, which was founded in response to the wave of provocateurs that hijacked the medium in the 2010s, found that the more negative comments a news story collected on the forum, the more likely Facebook’s algorithms were to promote it. That finding was uniformly true for all content, whether from left, right, or center publishers—and regardless of any adherence (or lack thereof) to facts. 

Hate for profit is no longer speculative. You know that angry-face emoji? By Facebook’s design, it gets five points in algorithmic “weight,” whereas a simple thumbs up gets one. Facebook wants you to see the stuff that makes your cheeks burn.  

Profiting off ; pushing to teenage girls via Instagram; failing to stand up for democracy while 40,000 “” posts an hour poured in on January 6, 2021; trying to get you to respond with anger to the comments of a high school classmate you haven’t seen in decades; in general making you feel kind of —the list of Facebook’s ills goes on. The whistleblower Frances Haugen testified about it before the U.S. Senate: “There is a pattern of behavior that I saw [at] Facebook,” she said. “Facebook choosing to prioritize its profits over people.”

Morally, the Stop Hate for Profit campaign was spot on. Facebook’s maladies aren’t in keeping with the positivity of the outdoors. Which explains Patagonia’s positioning. But even if Facebook reforms, its self-proclaimed future isn’t as a media platform, it’s as a universe unto itself, the so-called metaverse. And that is anathema to those that live and sell the outdoor life. As Patagonia’s CEO Ryan Gellert told me, “I like the natural world the way it is and wouldn’t want a synthetic version.”

Is It Possible to Divest the Outdoor Industry from Facebook?

The Russian novelist Anton Chekhov once penned a story about how real life and moral conviction are often at odds. In the narrative, the main character offers an anecdote about his brother’s pursuit of land to illustrate the moral failings of chasing wealth and comfort. The character tells his brother’s tale while sitting by a roaring hearth with soft slippers on, shortly after admiring a beautiful young woman serving dinner. A little earlier, he’d been luxuriating in a bath house.

The point is that while it’s easy to voice a moral stance, it’s harder to live by rigid positions. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign could be a modern take on Chekhov’s theme. Patagonia, The North Face, Kuju, and all the Stop Hate For Profit signatories object to Facebook’s malignant practices. This is unassailable. But it’s also true that these companies, like you and me, live in a world with Facebook—and other social media platforms with equally dubious underpinnings. The mediums are woven into modern life and business. And, like Chekhov’s character, it can be hard to divorce yourself or your business from daily life.

Although it buys no ads, Patagonia maintains 1.7 million Facebook followers. Kuju Coffee (2,600 followers) also pushes its products and messaging through the platform. This does not make Patagonia or Kuju hypocritical for continuing to post on Facebook while refusing to buy ads, it makes their executives human beings with internal conflict. 

For a taste of what that conflict feels like, here’s the only comment The North Face would offer in response to my question about why they returned to Facebook even though no changes were made:

“The North Face will always stand up for equality and justice and condemns hate speech of any kind—on any platform. We have continually reevaluated our position with Facebook and continue to push Facebook to improve its policies against racist, violent, or hateful damaging content and the spread of misinformation. The North Face will continue to lend our voice and support to those who are marginalized and advocate for policies that push for societal change.”  

Pursuing a similar thread, I spoke with a social marketer who, because he actively works with Facebook, remains anonymous here. For him, Facebook is especially challenging at the moment. But he also considers it entirely necessary. It is, after all, the most effective marketing channel in human history. The problem is that Facebook is now fraught with risk and antithetical trappings. “It wasn’t like this when I started,” he told me. “But now everybody in this field has these questions in mind all the time. Although I condemn the algorithms that deliver hate and disinformation as much as anyone, I see a future where social media is both more essential to business and more turbulent. There is going to be risk. Companies will have to develop more expertise to handle it. But eventually you will be compromised. I look at it like politics. I will not refuse to vote because I don’t agree with the current political atmosphere. For better or for worse, this is the way the world is. But to end your relationship with Facebook means your traffic drops, and nobody is talking about you—or thinking about what you’re doing right.” 

Of course, the equation might still change. It will hearten Facebook’s fiercest detractors to know that, for the first time in recent memory, the company is showing signs of weakness. When Apple restricted user tracking on its mobile devices in 2021, the marketers I spoke with told me Facebook lost some of its superpower—meaning that, without that data, it became far more difficult and expensive to target and acquire customers. They estimate that 50 percent of Facebook’s tracking powers are gone. What the actual number is has not yet been reported, but the takeaway is that, using Facebook in 2022, it costs more money to draw fewer eyeballs. More recently, Google announced that it will likely follow Apple’s lead in restricting tracking. Reports that Facebook is losing for the first time in its history have also hurt ad buying. Facebook says that it in 2022 as media buyers spend elsewhere. “They were the magic money tree for four or five years,” said an outdoor industry media buyer I spoke with. “You put money in and more money came out. But that’s changing rapidly now. Meta’s efficacy is gone.”

Not that it won’t remain absurdly powerful, obviously. But if the demands of the Stop Hate for Profit campaign ultimately fell flat because it didn’t hurt Facebook’s profitability enough, then perhaps a weakened Facebook, threatened by competition, will begin to listen to its partners—and ultimately take responsibility for its practices.

The post Is It Time for Outdoor Businesses To Dump Facebook? appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Our ski testing begins a year before the print version of the Winter Buyer’s Guide lands in your hands. First, our test directors sample a handful of new skis from smaller companies to see if they’ll be competitive. In December, we get a first look at all of the next year’s skis with an on-snow media event in Colorado. Then the real fun begins: our own editorial ski test in Steamboat Springs. Manufacturers from around 24 brands arrive at the venue with skis in hand. After skiing a million-plus vertical feet over three days, we crunch the numbers. Only the best powder skis make the cut. Here’s the best of the rest.

The powder ski category encompasses two subcategories: pure powder and all-mountain powder. Pure Powder skis are true fatties made for ginormous storms, snowcat trips, Alaska, and deep-winter backcountry skiing. They’re ideal for spending 90 percent of your time off trail and 10 percent on trail.

All Mountain Powder, on the other hand, is anything around 105-millimeters underfoot. These skis are adept at floating on storm days and smearing turns in the trees or on steeps, but thanks to years of refinement, they also rip turns on hardpack with enough aplomb for daily resort skiing out west. Choose a ski from this category if you ski off-trail in soft snow 70 percent of the time and rip turns on groomers or hardpack the other 30 percent.

Best Unisex All-Mountain Powder Skis

Rossignol Black Ops Sender Ti ($900)

Dimensions: 137/106/128

The era of excessively rockered skis with floppy tips is over. Skis with gradual rocker, a bit less taper in the tip and tail, and deep flex but stout edging have one-upped the old status quo. Here’s why: That old banana rocker plowed through snow more than it would plane on top. And because it was nearly impossible to get such wildly elevated shovels and tails to engage (the rocker wouldn’t touch the snow even in a deep turn), all you could do on groomers was eke out half arcs underfoot. The Sender Ti—and to be fair, the top five skis in this category—is the fix. “Anyone who lives and skis out West will love this new-age powder ski,” said a tester. It’s almost as easy to smear around as the old Rossi Seven series skis, but when it’s time to charge, the Ti delivers with tip to tail edging. Beyond the new shape and silhouette mentioned above, the credit for this superb ride goes to the layers of viscous rubber material that bifurcates the wood core lengthways. The strip, which Rossi calls Line Control Technology, lets the ski contour and track on edge, while limiting the transmission of vibration across the width of the ski. The result is a silky ride at all speeds.

Gripe: This version with two sheets of titanium alloy isn’t as playful for slashier skiers.
Like: Rossi makes a Sender without the metal for that crowd.

Nordica Enforcer 104 Free ($900)

Dimensions: 135/104/124 

When this ski was introduced a few years back it upended the All Mountain Powder category. At our 2021 Steamboat test it was within a few decimal points of winning its class outright. Why so much long-lasting praise? To make skis over 100-millimeters underfoot enjoyable to ski on, the engineers and designers have to think about reducing overall weight. But Nordica’s designers refused to sacrifice brand hallmarks like stability and edgehold for the sake of playfulness and a lighter feel. Their fix was to run lightweight balsa wood cores from tip to tail for the weight savings, and then back that up with two sheets of titanium alloy. The Austrian brand was also at the forefront of scaling back rocker and taper, so that when the ski is put on edge it actually engages. Not that it doesn’t surf and slarve when you want it to. Those fat tips rise to the surface without plowing, which makes for a faster and smoother experience. Of the top three skis in the category, the Enforcer 104 Free is the one best suited to off-trail shredding, but it still rips a clean arc on groomers. “The versatility of this ski is off the chart,” said a tester. “Maybe it doesn’t carve quite as well as the Ranger 102, but in real-world resort powder, crud, and chop, it can do no wrong.”

Gripe: We’d like it to pull through the exit of the turn just a bit more on the groomers.
Like: But then again, that might diminish its smear-ability off-trail, so never mind.

Elan Ripstick 106 Black Edition ($1,050)

Dimensions: 143/106/120 

We loved the original Ripstick 106 for its accessible flex and silky but powerful ride quality. But truth be told it washed out a bit on true hardpack, especially at higher speeds. The souped-up Black Edition is just as fun as the OG, but to our testers it feels (roughly) 20 percent more energized and at least 10 percent more powerful on edge. That boost in performance comes from smartly placed carbon above just the inside edges—the Ripstick is asymmetrical, so there’s a dedicated left and right ski—that cranks up the torsional rigidity for edge bite and rebound, but not so much that the ski gets unwieldy. Internal carbon tubes that are about the diameter of a pencil also help keep the 106 hanging on at the apex of the turn—it doesn’t wash out—so you can ride that energy back across the hill. Off-trail, the 106 Black Edition is a shapeshifter. The rocker is more pronounced on the outside edges, creating shorter effective contact points that allow you to scrub speed with abandon in soft snow or crud. It’s hard to catch an outside edge no matter how hard you try to. “Absolute charger on the groomed snow,” said a tester. “But you can whip them around all day off-trail.”

Gripe: Our biggest and fastest skier detected a speed limit.
Like: “It has a crisp feel that’s all its own,” said a tester. “It makes you want to push harder.”

Völkl Blaze 106 ($700)

Dimensions: 146/106/128

The Blaze 106 was so well received in our Crossover category last year—it won the class—that Völkl entered it as an All Mountain Powder contender for winter 2022. Damn if it didn’t hold its own, despite the fact that it was originally meant for high-performance backcountry skiing. Designed by a former women’s World Cup racer with the backcountry bug, the Blaze is light enough for touring, but rips the descents too. Those traits technically make it a freeride ski (crossover to us), but it’s best not to get too prescriptive with the labeling. “The Blaze literally blazes turns, but it surfs too,” said a tester who had it ranked as his top ski of the day. What makes this ski so unique? If we had to guess, it’s the combination of polyurethane material in the tip that soaks up vibration, and a tip to tail wood core (no goofy inserts) that gives the Blaze a consistent and predictable flex. The twin titanal binding plates underfoot—it’s the only alloy in the ski—let the Blaze store and release energy from turn to turn. We’ve now skied the 106 extensively in backcountry pow and inbounds on the firmest snow. It’s the template for a crossover ski. Mount it with a Duke PT binding and the dream of the one ski quiver is real.

Gripe: If you find yourself on true boilerplate, you might want a ski with more metal in it. But hopefully you already have that in your quiver.
Like: “This is the best ski Völkl makes,” said our test director. “I’d ski it every day out West.”

Salomon QST 106 ($850)

Dimensions: 139/106/125 

The QST 106 isn’t particularly new, but that doesn’t matter. This fun and lively ski is still one of the best all mountain powder skis we’ve ever tested—for a certain type of skier. It doesn’t have any metal in it. Then again, if you ski in trees and well spaced bumps and tend to pop out of the snow on powder days, or if you spend your days after storms hiking for turns inbounds and searching for powder scraps more than you do arcing turns on groomers, then you probably don’t need a ski with two sheets of alloy anyway. That adventurous style of skiing is the QST 106’s raison d’etre. It’s damp but not dead, and it delivers a ride with some zip. “It just levitates out of crud and lets you change direction without mucking each turn,” said a tester. Credit rests with Salomon’s complex matrix of fibers intended to mimic metal’s dampening and torsional strength, without the added weight. “Possibly the most maneuverable ski in the All Mountain Powder test,” said a reviewer. “But it’s not just an off-trail ski. The edging is crisp and precise and the sweet spot is huge.”

Gripe: Our only complaint has to do with how we rank skis. Much of ski selection comes down to personal preference in regards to terrain choices and ski feel. For a large section of the market that likes to explore, the QST 106 is a top ski. For some former racers it might be a little too surfy and playful.
Like: “The best attribute of the QST 106 is how natural it feels to ski on,” said a tester. “You don’t need to figure it out.”

Stöckli Stormrider 102 ($1,249)

Dimensions: 135/102/125 

The Stormrider 102 is the counterpoint to the Salomon QST 106. Look to the 102 if you favor stability at cruising speeds over a sprightly feel. Not that the Stormrider is challenging to pilot: like most modern skis, this Stöckli features a deep and consistent flex that makes it approachable to a huge range of skiers, from lightweights with less skill to heavy chargers. But the Swiss refuse to trade stability, edge penetration, and dampening for weight savings. “I love the Stöckli feel when it’s time to cruise and send big arcs,” said a tester. “It’s best in class for high-speed turns.”  That performance is due to the company’s ultra-premium construction. It takes days to build a Stöckli ski by hand with this much attention to detail, which is part of the reason why these Swiss skis last longer than those of their mass-market competitors. They also employ the best materials available: everything from the species in the wood core (paulownia), to the edges (solid metal) and base materials (racing graphite) are sourced to to last longer while retaining performance. “As soon as you make your first turn, you can tell this is a quality build,” said a tester. “They’ll probably still feel fresh in year three.”

Gripe: Most of our testers would like a slightly more dynamic ride from the Stormrider.
Like: When conditions get firm, you won’t feel the need to go get another set of skis out of the truck. For such a user-friendly ski, the edgehold is also best in class.

Armada Declivity 108 Ti ($925)

Dimensions: 136/108/126 

Armada is the original park and pipe brand. But the Declivity is a kick ass, directional all mountain ski with two sheets of metal, stout vertical sidewalls, and full wood cores—a far cry from the twin tips the brand was founded on. That doesn’t mean Armada has lost its way. The Declivity 108 Ti, one of the most deeply rockered skis in the test, surfs and slashes just as adeptly as it carves and trucks. “Turns on a whim; smears at will, but holds a clean arc when it’s time to open it up,” said a tester. That versatility is due to modern footprint and construction. The rocker is deep, but not so deep that a skilled skier can’t engage the edges on groomed snow. And while the two sheets of titanium alloy boost the damping and stability, smart cutaways in the top layer of metal let the ski flex deeply into all sizes of turns. “You can open them up and shut them down effortlessly,” said a tester. “This was one of the more fun skis off-trail.”

Gripe: We would like a bit more life out of the ski through transitions on groomed snow.
Like: If you ski off-trail in new or chopped snow 80 percent of the time, you can’t go wrong with the 108. That deep rocker shines in mank, breakable crust, and tracked pow.

Faction Dictator 3.0 ($819)

Dimensions: 134/106/124 

There are lots of skis to choose from in this category, but they aren’t all the same. Take the Dictator 3.0 as evidence. The sidecut is less than most of the skis on this page—dimensions indicate a large, 23-meter turn radius. That straighter shaping is a boon off-trail (skis with less sidecut don’t hook as much in weird snow) and you can arc whatever turn shape you like depending on how hard you push. “Super dynamic and fun ski,” said our heaviest tester. “There’s a low barrier to entry: you can ski it slow and relaxed, but there’s enough power here for aggressive skiers too.” Faction got the balance correct. The rocker works with the camber, the flex matches the sidecut, and the torsional strength delivers a crisp feel and good feedback in soft to medium-hard snow. You can go full throttle on-trail or off-trail. “Holds an edge really well, but you can butter it around with ease too,” said a tester. “It has the accessible power that’s the hallmark of modern ski design.”

Gripe: It’s rare for us to want more sidecut in an All Mountain Powder ski, but just a smidge more up front would make it easier to roll this 108 into a carve. And we’d take a hair more stability too. There’s a bit of nervous deflection in chunder.
Like: We would not hesitate to mount this Dictator with hybrid crossover bindings like the Salomon Shift or the Duke PT and ski it in the backcountry.

Black Crows Corvus ($870)

Dimensions: 137/107/126 

The skis in this category typically excel at off-trail skiing in soft snow 70 percent of the time, but rip decent turns on groomers or alpine snow the other 30 percent. We’d put the Corvus at an 85/15 ratio. The Corvus is the only fully rockered ski we tested last year. The tip splay is more pronounced than any ski in the test. And the 21-meter turn radius is stretched out for off-trail skiing. As such, it skis like a powder specialty ski. “Very easy to pivot and maneuver,” said a tester. “Great for tree skiing or steeps; no speed limit in crud or old pow.” That’s all in keeping with Crow heritage: the brand was born off-piste in the French Alps. And if you live out West and seldom ski machine groomed snow, it just might suit you as well. A full wood core and vertical sidewalls plus a consistent flex make it predictable in wild terrain and all snow types. As for that 15 percent of groomer time? The Corvus is fun there too once you’ve figured out how to ski it. Reverse camber skis demand a subtle pilot able to baby the belly of the turn as you eke out gentle arcs.

Gripe: Babying the belly gets old.
Like: Skis like the Corvus are hard to find these days, but you can’t discount how they make bad snow good. “Tracks and blasts off-trail in chop, pow, or crud,” said a tester.

Women’s All-Mountain Powder

Fischer Ranger 102 FR ($799)

Dimensions: 136/102/126 

Fischer is of the school that skis don’t recognize gender. Which means that our team of women testers reviewed the same unisex ski that the men ran: the men scored it as the best in the test, and the women ranked it as their runner-up. Fischer is acting on what a lot of skiers have known for 20 years—gender doesn’t mean much when it comes to skis. “Snappy but easy to shut down; tons of stability and edgehold but surfy and fun at the same time,” said a tester. These powder skis don’t even need powder to be fun,” said another. This broad range of gender neutral appeal all makes sense when you have a little context. The goal of modern ski construction is to produce skis with accessible power, meaning the skis are forgiving and smooth at low speeds when you’re taking it easy, but they get progressively more powered up as you increase velocity and turn more dynamically. When you build such balanced skis, a huge range of skiers and body types can rip on them. That’s the Ranger 102 FR. Air channels in the core plus a carbon nose mean it’s light enough to swing around easily, but it’s also stout enough—two sheets of titanium alloy and vertical sidewalls—to edge powerfully on hardpack at high speeds. Just the right amount of torsional strength gives it good pop from turn to turn.

Gripe: In the deepest of inbounds powder days, there might not be enough width here to win the flotation award.
Like: There’s so much hardpack performance here that you may never want a skinnier ski.

KĂ€stle ZX108 ( $799)

Dimensions: 141/108/130 

Here’s another unisex All Mountain Powder ski that our women testers loved. We think it’s simply because, with the ZX108, KĂ€stle got the flex right and paid attention to the overall weight of what is one of the fattest skis we tested. Unlike almost every KĂ€stle we’ve skied until recently, there aren’t two burly sheets of titanal alloy under the hood here. Instead, to deliver some guts, the Austrian brand’s designers trusted the damping and stability of its poplar and beech core. With the right blend of progressive, not abrupt, rocker and a longer shovel with less pronounced sidecut (what KĂ€stle calls “hook free” shaping), it has a comfortably loose feel. Vertical sidewalls give it plenty of edge bite. And trust us, we had plenty of hard snow beneath the fresh stuff in Steamboat to put this ski through its paces. “These ZXs feel so much easier to ski than KĂ€stles of years past,” said a tester. “Solid but playful, strong edgehold, but easy to break out of a turn. They love making an 18-meter turn, but you can squirrel around on them too. One of the most versatile KĂ€stles I’ve ever skied.”

Gripe: The classic KĂ€stle “hollowtech” tip makes for some tip flutter on hardpack. We understand that swing weight matters, but not at the expense of chatter. Maybe it’s time to ditch it?
Like: “Fluid from one turn to the next,” said a tester. “When I threw them sideways I could trust they were going to hold me.”

Völkl Blaze 106 W ($700)

Dimensions: 146/106/128 

The Blaze line was originally envisioned for freeride, which is Euro-speak for a ski that can cross over to the backcountry but still rip inbounds. There’s no metal in the Blaze other than a thin titanal binding plate. And the rocker is substantial, extending down the ski well past the point where most of the All Mountain Powder skis we tested reverted to camber. As with the unisex version of this ski, the Blaze 106 W was one of the best Völkl’s we’ve skied in years. Gone is the “glassy” twitchiness of the brand’s titanal frame construction. In its place is a silky ride with deceptive edgehold. As you’d expect for a freeride/crossover ski, the 106 W is also lightweight. The 172-centimeter length only weighs 1,670 grams per ski. “I cannot believe how well these things arc,” said one tester. “They feel super stable and stuck to the snow when edging, but loose and surfy when it’s time to pivot some powder turns or navigate tight terrain.” The Blaze’s versatility comes from the shaping of the ski. It sports a modern multi-radii sidecut (stretched out in the tip and tail for stability; more of an hourglass underfoot for belly arcs), but that type of differential only works well when, like in the Blaze, the rocker is pronounced enough to keep that wide, 146-millimeter tip from hooking.

Gripe: It’s more damp than it is lively, but for a ski with so little metal, that can be the tradeoff for stability.
Like: “This ski does everything so well I could ski it every day in Colorado—and tour on it too.”

Elan Ripstick 102 W ($800)

Dimensions: 136/102/115 

“Effortless,” said one tester. “Each turn runs into the next without a thought. Even in tracked up chunder, the skis never feel hooky and seem to slink down the fall line. It’s like the ski is on autopilot. But not in a dull way. The 102 delivers a lively and entertaining ride when you push into the flex and rail the sidecut.” That’s pretty much what Elan intended with this ultra-versatile ski. Mount it with a hybrid resort/backcountry binding and you could ski it almost everywhere all the time. It’s a shapeshifter by design. Elan’s unique Amphibio footprint means the skis are asymmetrical, featuring more rocker on the outside edges. This produces a loose and forgiving feel that is super easy to ski. But new carbon reinforcement over the inside edges means the 102 also rips on hardpack. The Ripsticks ski like nothing else on the market: Elan is in Slovenia, away from the incestuous ski manufacturing of the Germanic and Franco countries. Case in point, instead of metal, Elan installs carbon rods in the core of the Ripsticks to help the ski hang onto the energy of a turn through the transition.

Gripe: At top speeds on hard snow there is a speed limit. (Though, if you ski that fast they’ll pull your ticket.)
Like: The tip is wide compared to the tail, and once you set up a high edge angle turn it pulls you through.

Dynastar M-Free 108 ($800)

Dimensions: 138/108/128 

Looking for a true powder ski? The M-Free 108 was the surfiest, loosest big-day ski we tested in Steamboat. Another unisex ski—a trend in this category—the M-Free 108 features a hybrid core of polyurethane and wood, with no metal sheeting in order to save weight and offer a uniquely silky ride (the PU eats vibration). Pronounced tip and tail rocker make it easy to pivot, and a full sandwich construction boosts edgehold. “Smooth, almost polished, turns in all manner of soft snow,” said a tester. “This Dynastar is super agile and fun off-trail. You can mix up the turn shape, but you can also settle into a nice round arc.” Last year both test teams loved the 108 on soft corduroy and powder. This year, when the snow was skied off to reveal legit hardpack, the lack of metal and a full wood core hurt the M Free a bit.

Gripe: On the really firm stuff, the M-Free suffered from a bit of tip flutter, and while the edging was robust enough, it wasn’t best in class.
Like: A 108 with pure powder tendencies, the M-Free is built for good days inbounds and out. “I only break out skis this fat when there’s new snow on the hill or I’m touring,” said a tester. “And for those scenarios, I want a more playful ski like this one anyway. It will make the best powder days better.”

Nordica Santa Ana 104 Free ($850)

Dimensions: 134/104/123 

The Santa Ana 104 Free W gets the same footprint and shaping as the revolutionary Enforcer 104 Free, but to dial in the performance for lighterweight woman skiers, Nordica incorporated a laser-cut sheet of titanium alloy, which reduces mass, backed by a mix of carbon and fiberglass weave. The key point of all that tech is that while Nordica focused on saving weight—crucial in skis over 100mm—they also were careful to add performance enhancing materials back into the ski. It’s counterintuitive, but a ski that’s a few grams too light can actually take more energy to control, while a ski that tracks properly and carries a few extra grams will save your strength. On the hill, the 104 excels off-trail in all manner of soft snow, but its edging performance makes it way more adept at carving than one might think. Said our women’s test director: “You can ski it fast. You can ski it slow. You can charge through broken crud. You can lay it on edge and carve big turns. It’s one of the most versatile AMP skis of all time.”

Gripe: There was no consensus critique. But one tester thought it could ski a bit looser still.
Like: This was our women’s test director’s top ski. If you ski in the west and spend 70 percent of your time off-trail, the Santa Ana is an easy selection. “For an advanced to expert skier out West it does it all,” she said. “It will set you free from worrying about what ski to bring to the hill.”

Stöckli Nela 96 ($1,049)

Dimensions: 134/96/121

At 96 millimeters underfoot, the Stöckli Nela is 20 millimeters skinnier than the fattest skis in this category. But if you’re a petite skier who skis more six-inch storms than multi-foot dumps, this ski might be wide enough for you, since lighter weight people don’t need as much ski surface area to float in soft snow. Better still, when the fresh stuff is skied off, the 96 is easier to tip into linked turns on groomers. And now a caveat: It takes a bit more skill to pilot a 96-millimeter ski through snow that’s boot top or deeper. “I love skis this width in blower powder on top of corduroy,” said a tester. “Get those conditions and the snow will be spilling over your shoulders.” Other testers praised the Nela for its ability to carve big turns and slink through bumps. As for the price tag, it’s high because of quality, not marketing. You’re paying for titanium alloy, a long-lasting paulownia wood core, and the hardest/fastest graphite race bases money can buy.

Gripe: Many of our testers thought the Nela was better suited to the skinnier All Mountain category.
Like: The fact that a 96-millimeter ski performed so well here is testament to its capabilities. Our advice? Think carefully about your size and how much powder you typically ski in a season before deciding on a ski width.

Faction Dictator 3.0X ($819)

Dimensions: 134/106/124 

The Dictator line features full stout poplar cores and two sheets of metal throughout for stability at speed. The tails are flat, meaning they’re built for directional skiing rather than a slashy pivoting style. And the vertical sidewalls and rugged 2.5-millimeter edges spell edgehold and durability. All of which means that the Dictator 3.0X—the only difference from the unisex ski is the graphic—is made for those who want to ski fast and arc big turns. But don’t be intimidated, it’s not just a ski for elites. “This Dictator is super forgiving at the beginning of the turn, with a soft flex and easy turn initiation,” said a tester. “You can smear it around when you want, but if you’re feeling like charging off-trail the tail really holds on.” All of which is to say that the 3.0X is in keeping with modern ski design that accommodates a range of skier types on a range of terrain. At slow speeds it’s responsive and forgiving. At mach five there’s that tail and beefy construction to push off of.

Gripe: It’s actually well suited to bowl skiing or alpine snow, but on hardpack the turn really doesn’t engage powerfully until you’re pressuring your heels.
Like: “I ski off-trail 85 percent of the time and that’s where the Dictator shines,” said a tester. “The shovel is big and compliant and bashes through crud. The tail is all business. It’s a perfect mullet.”

Armada ARW 106 UL ($825)

Dimensions: 134/106/124 

Surf, slash, smear, pivot, float, pop: if you’re looking for the most playful of the All Mountain Powder skis, the ARW 106 UL is it. The UL stands for ultralight, and as to be expected there’s no metal in this freerider other than the edges. A feathery caruba wood core saves additional weight and makes those pivot turns still easier. And the pronounced tip and tail rocker means you can smear them around at will to change direction in the woods or dump speed in the big wide open. Those same characteristics make it welcoming to advanced skiers looking to explore bigger terrain. “Incredibly user-friendly,” said a tester. “The flex and rocker is ultra forgiving, but they do not waver at speed, especially in chopped up snow. You can plow and float through everything.” Part of that maneuverability, especially at slow speeds in soft snow, is from what Armada calls “Smear Tech:” the edges of the ski stop up near the tip so there’s nothing to grab as you whip the skis around.

Gripe: Yes, a ski this playful and off-trail focused naturally has to trade some carving attributes, and the ARW does, but in good snow it makes a surprisingly consistent round arc when you want to carve medium radius turns.
Like: By far the best tree-skiing tool in the test. That’s when pivot turns and smearing matter most.

Head Kore 103 W ($875)

Dimensions: 132/103/123 

Way back in 2017, Head became the first brand to make a lightweight ski that wasn’t skittery as hell. They did that by incorporating advanced materials like Koroyd (that honeycomb polymer you’ve seen in bike helmets) and graphene—the lightest, strongest material on earth. Despite the low weight—an impressive 1,750 grams per ski—their skis hook up and hold on in a tip-to-tail turn. And even when straight running, the skis don’t ping around like other lightweights. All that is true with the brand-new Kore 103 W, even as Head has moved on from Koroyd, which deadened the skis, and focused its efforts on reinforcing the lightweight caruba wood core with carbon. “Really stays the course at speed,” said a woman tester who skis exceedingly fast. “It’s stable and predictable and skis heavy, even though it’s not.” So who should buy the Kore? If you’re a lightweight and you want to cruise more than you want to pop from turn to turn, this damp but easy ski is perhaps the most approachable model in the entire test. Thanks to its forgiving flex and rocker, it accommodates pilot miscues while still offering a carved turn.

Gripe: The Kore 103 still favors the damp and predictable over the energized. Our most dynamic skiers thought it was a bit sleepy.
Like: For a huge chunk of the easy-skiing market—those mid-velocity cruisers on blue runs and gentle back bowls—the Kore 103 W is a trusted friend.

Unisex Pure Powder Skis

Head Kore 111 ($875)

Dimensions: 140/111/127 

Like the Salomon QST Blank, the new Kore 111 Freeride was built at the request of pro skiers from the big-mountain and film-skiing worlds. In a few ways the skis are similar. The Kore line also forgoes titanal in favor of weight-saving materials like graphene and multiple applications of carbon fiber. That space-age stuff reinforces a lightweight caruba and poplar core with a big, even flex profile. As expected, the tip and tail are more deeply rockered than in any other Kore. So, it’s another lightweight pow ski with enough sidecut (21-meter radius in the 184-centimeter length) for inbounds skiing where you’re actually engaging the geometry to turn as opposed to smearing the skis around on some Alaskan face. But that’s where the comparisons between these two Powder Freaks end. Where the Blank is lively and poppy in the QST style, the 111 is a Kore to its core. “Impressively damp and stable,” said a tester. “Especially in soft snow, this ski is unwavering. It excels on open faces and wide open terrain where the bashing power takes over.” And that speaks to who should buy this big-day ski. If you stick to open slopes and ski a lot of new snow each winter, the 111 is a stout and floaty weapon. Ditto if you’re keen to mount a pair with hybrid resort/backcountry bindings and head to similar terrain on wild snow. They’re big and easy to ski and never twitch or shudder. Just don’t look here if tight trees are your jam. The 111’s are light, but they ski kind of heavy.

Gripe: It’s not a critique, but that bashing power comes at the price of playfulness.
Like: Head made it in a 191, which is a much needed length for large human beings who shred.

K2 Mindbender 116C ($850)

Dimensions: 143/116/133 

We were frankly a little scared of the Mindbender 116C, which is nearly a centimeter wider than the widest ski in the test and gives off old-school big-mountain vibes. We were way off base. The Mindbender 116C wasn’t just nimble for such a fat pow ski, it was nimble by all standards. “K2’s best ski in years,” said a tester. “So supple and soft but at the same time the edgehold was amazing.” Blissfully, there’s no metal in this ski, which at this width would make the Mindbender feel like an anchor. Instead, K2’s unique weave of fibers (they call it Spectral Braid) incorporates carbon as a weight-saving device. It’s a tricky material to work with. Add too much and a ski gets nervous, add too little and you don’t see the weight savings or boost in torsion. K2 nailed it here. “Unbelievably easy to ski,” said a tester who was shocked that a 116 could be this sprightly. “It makes every turn shape from short swings to super-G.”

Gripe: It’s not a gripe, just a distinction. Skis this wide, no matter how deft, are more suited for the best days of the year when the canyon is closed behind you and the snow keeps on coming. On hardpack, that extra width isn’t all that good for your knees.
Like: There is no doubt that owning a ski with these dimensions can make the best days better and at the same time make the worst days (breakable crud) fun too. The 116c rounds out a quiver.

The post Runners-Up Review: These Powder Skis Almost Made Our 2022 Winter Buyer’s Guide appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

With waist dimensions of 95 to 100 millimeters underfoot, our all-mountain skis are the most versatile boards you can step into. Like to mix up your day carving groomed snow, navigating bumps, ripping chalky snow in the trees, and searching out old powder? Start here. These skis are made for skiing 50 percent on trail and 50 percent off trail.

At our annual ski test, we ride 15 to 20 new all-mountain skis to determine which ones will make the cut for print. Only one unisex and one women’s model wind up in the magazine, but there are always many more that come very close. Here’s the best of the rest.

Unisex All-Mountain Skis

Nordica Enforcer 100 ($850)

Dimensions: 133/100/121

Last year, Nordica updated the Enforcer 100 with a new tip construction and carbon chassis, which cemented its spot as a constant podium finisher. It’s still the benchmark for our take on an all mountain ski. “You can carve turns at eye-watering speeds on all manner of hardpack,” said a tester. “But off-trail it transforms itself and lets you slink through jumbled terrain, third-buckle-deep powder, and trees.” It’s hard to pin that versatility on just one feature. Like all great skis, it’s the parts that create the whole: two full sheets of carbon-backed titanal that sandwich a wood core. A new profile yields a deep flex that’s progressive but approachable. Just the right amount of torsional rigidity lets it bite deeply on edge but release in a smear. It’s damp without being dead. And there’s enough rocker for real-world resort skiing without sacrificing edge contact.

Gripe: Nordica builds its skis for people that like to ski fast. The Enforcer 100 skis fine at a jog, but you’re missing out if you don’t grab some throttle.
Like: “Considering how stable this ski is, it’s lively as hell,” said one tester who ranked it with the and  for hauling ass. “A true on-trail, off-trail tool.”

Salomon Stance 96 ($850)

Dimensions: 132/96/114

Salomon is famous for its loose and surfy of all mountain skis, but has decided to show the ski world that it can build burly skis too. The Stance features two full sheets of titanal, a powered up wood core thanks to a thicker profile, and vertical sidewalls—the hallmarks of a bomber ski. Add in a flex profile that’s stiffer than most of the skis in the category, and a 20-meter turn radius built for sweeping arcs, and you get a mid-fat ski with legit frontside chops. “This ski wails!” said a tester. “It rides like a fat carving board when you want it to, but you can just as easily scrub speed and bang out short swing turns too. The balance of flex and sidecut is perfect.” So who should buy it? If you spend 85 percent of your time arcing turns (as opposed to slashing around in a more upright style) but still want some width for those six-inch dumps, you should start here. Just don’t expect it to ski like a QST. There’s no overlap. The Stance is the hardest charging ski in the category.

Gripe: More of a warning than a whine, but this style of skiing isn’t for everyone. If you don’t know how to lay a ski over, you might want something looser.
Like: “At first it looks and feels like an oversized carving ski, but there’s way more versatility here,” said a tester. “You can scrub it around off-trail or take it in the trees too.”

Rossignol Blackops Escaper ($700)

Dimensions: 128/94/118

The top four skis in the All Mountain category sport two sheets of titanal for maximum stability and torsional strength. This Blackops Escaper does not, but it’s still a hoot to rip around on. “It was my top-ranked ski for off-trail skiing,” said a tester. “You can smear them around in bumps and old powder at the edge of trails. And on perfect corduroy they carve it up.” That off-trail performance speaks to the positioning of this ski. It’s built to explore off-piste or get mounted with a hybrid resort/backcountry binding to serve as a low-snow touring ski. But back inbounds on soft to medium snow it’s plenty capable. The brand’s hallmark Air Tips—an ABS-resin honeycomb—keep the swing weight low for pivot turns, and viscous (rubber) layers add damping without the weight of metal. It’s not ideally suited to man-made white ice or refrozen early morning snow, but it’s plenty burly for many skiers in Colorado and Utah. “For a ski without metal it just rips,” said a tester. “You can ski it like a racer on fresh groomers, or slink through bumps, or blow-up pow.” So who should buy the Escaper? The category is for skiers that ski equal parts on-piste to off-piste. The Escaper is a 70 percent off-trail, fall-line ski.

Gripe: If you ski hardpack all the time at high speeds, you’d be better off on a ski with alloy.
Like: Damp, silky, and quick, it’s built for exploring.

Head Kore 99 ($800)

Dimensions: 134/99/120

Head took the out of the Kore 99. The result? A livelier ride quality. “It’s still damp and powerful, like we’ve come to expect from Kore skis, but the 99 was far more sprightly,” said a tester. If you haven’t skied a Kore, they’re worth checking out. There are now several contenders for the “we don’t need no stinkin’ metal” throne (see the Rossi Escaper and Ripstick 96 BE in this category). But to date, nobody has made skis this damp and silky without alloy. The Kore ride quality is unique. We’ve always related it to 29-inch wheels with low pressure rubber on a mountain bike: you don’t always feel the advantage of an absorbent ride, but you know it’s there. With the Kore 99s, you get impressive hold and stability on edge, from an undemanding ski that’s more smooth than it is dynamic. Credit must go to Head’s use of graphene, a space-age material capable of mimicking some of the properties of metal. A caruba wood core keeps it so light that the 99 could easily be a daily backcountry ski.

Gripe: In the backcountry and off-trail inbounds we love this ski’s predictability over edge-to-edge spirit, but back on the groomers we like more zip.
Like: “Big smear turns and a nice comfortable flex,” said a tester. “They float really well and you can pivot turn them effortlessly off-trail.”

Elan Ripstick 96 Black Edition ($1,000)

Dimensions: 136/96/110

We’ve loved the original Ripstick 96 for years. But we always felt that the ski lacked a bit of feedback (kinetic energy) as you released the turn. The Black Edition is Elan’s fix. Here, carbon above the inside edges creates just a bit more bite and torsional rigidity to energize the ski. “Of the skis without metal,” said a tester, “the 96 BE is the most lively. It’s just as damp and stable, but when you push it into high edge angles on groomed snow it feels like it’s pushing back.” Take this as testament that, to date, Elan has the best handle on how to incorporate carbon without overdoing it. And that last point is crucial. Over-apply or miss-apply carbon, even by a dozen grams or a few millimeters, and skis get nervous. Elan has figured out how to go subtle. Credit its proprietary carbon rods—pencil thin tubes embedded in the ski to help it contour the snow instead of chattering—and a dedication to building specific left and right skis. The build means Elan is only infusing the 96 with the carbon it needs for torsional stiffness, but not to the point of nervousness.

Gripe: Even the souped-up Black Edition skis get a touch skittish at highway speeds.
Like: “The asymmetrical build with the extra rocker on the outside edges and the reinforced inner edges makes for an intuitive ride that can best be described as autopilot,” said a tester. “You can rip with very little effort.”

Fischer Ranger 99 Ti ($799)

Dimensions: 130/97/121

We’re big Fischer fans. The Austrian company isn’t afraid to experiment with new materials and construction. In the Ranger 99 Ti that innovation includes a “Carbon Nose” to reduce swing weight and “Aaeroshaping” to reduce the ski’s mass, and therefore drag, in deep snow. At the same time, Fischer doesn’t hesitate to go traditional with the sidewalls (vertical for edging power) or metal (two sheets of titanal for stability). On the test hill, only the Salomon Stance outperformed the 99 for carving turns on machine-groomed snow. But the Ranger 99 Ti is far more versatile off-trail. “The coolest thing about these skis is the ability for them to knife through crud and chopped snow and sustain an arc,” said a tester. That low profile shaped shovel really works. So who should buy the Ranger 99 Ti? For starters, anybody with a technical skiing background that’s looking to power up a ski from tip to tail and achieve high-edge angles on groomed snow. But because of that low swing weight, subtle rocker, and overall weight savings (Fischer mills air channels into its cores), the 99 is nearly as adept off-trail.

Gripe: Mixing up the turn shape off-trail is easy, but once it’s railing on corduroy it wants to stay there.
Like: “The Fischer rewards aggressive skiers,” said a tester. “You can sluff it around off-trail, but when it’s time to charge it comes to life.”

Dynastar M-Pro 99 ($800)

Dimensions: 127/99/117

In 2020, we had soft snow at our Steamboat tests and this Dynastar, with its hybrid polyurethane-wood core and elongated but subtle rocker, was a standout for its loose and surfy feel and silky ride quality. This year, with truly hard snow topped with death cookies, the easy and light skiing feel of the 99 was a mild demerit. Those are the types of distinctions consumers should be thinking about as they shop for skis. The M-Pro excels on medium to soft snow. “This was my top off-trail ski of the day,” said our test director. “I love that silky feel of Dynastar’s hybrid cores. They seem to contour the terrain better while at the same time shaving just enough weight for slashed and smeared turns.” That’s the off-piste stuff, but as adept as the M Pro is there, it’s also no slacker on machine-groomed surfaces. Full length vertical sidewalls, a unique application of titanal (rather than full sheets, strips of it extend from beneath the bindings) and a smooth transition to the sidecut in the tail means you can set them on edge and they’ll hang on.

Gripe: This may or may not have to do with the PU in the cores, but the ski gets a hair nervous when you’re hitting chunks on groomers.
Like: If you live out West and ski off-trail 65 percent of the time, you’ll have more fun on this all mountain freerider. Said a tester: “Killer float, tons of rocker, easy to pivot, and a damp but easy character.”

Völkl M6 Mantra ($825)

Dimensions: 135/96/119

If the Dynastar M Pro 99 is the most powder-focused ski in the category, then the new Völkl M6 is the most groomer-centric tool. “Best edgehold of the day,” said a tester. “On groomed snow it was perhaps the easiest ski to get on edge. There’s enough torsion here not just for hard snow skiing, but for dynamic energy return too. It rips with confidence.” That performance comes from a new multi-radius sidecut that gets quite short underfoot (19 meters) but doesn’t demand that you ski like a racer to enjoy it. Instead of “shin it to win it” pressure on the forebody, you just sink into the belly of the arc naturally. Stand up and pivot your turns in bumps and crud, though, and the M6 feels like you’re on a longer radius ski, meaning it remains plenty agile without feeling hooky. Add that sidecut to a ski reinforced strategically around the perimeter with titanal and again at the tip with a web of carbon, and you get a precise carving machine that’s also capable of fun off-trail skiing. We’d run it on groomers, alpine chalk, and spring corn 70 percent of the time.

Gripe: We’ve dinged Völkl’s titanal frame skis in the past for delivering a “glassy” or “hollow” ride quality that can be disconcerting at speeds, even if the skis don’t really waver. In the M6, Völkl nearly cured this problem, but we were still picking up high frequency vibrations.
Like: The M6 Mantra gets back to that classic Völkl groomer feel, but with a modern sidecut that lets you mix up the turn shapes.”

Scott Slight 100 ($850)

Dimensions: 139/100/129

The Slight 100 isn’t technically a backcountry ski—it was designed to cross into that world from the resort—but if we were skiing 7,000 vertical feet of corn snow on a PNW volcano, this is the ski we’d want under our feet. It’s so easy to tip into a smooth, round carve that we’d pilot it in soft AT boots. The resulting arcs are so predictable and effortless that it takes a layer of complexity out of backcountry skiing. Back inbounds, the Slight 100 excels on moderately angled groomers with freshly tilled corduroy. “These were the easiest carvers of the day,” said three testers. “You can make big turns or short swings with subtle changes in pressure, and when you want to break free from the carve you can throw them sideways. Ski tourers or advanced resort skiers that keep their speed in check will dig them.” And that’s who we think should buy these skis. The Slights weighed in at 1,700 grams in a 178. And while they aren’t the burliest skis we tested, they make confident carves on hard snow if you drop speed. Credit for that in-bounds, out-of-bounds versatility comes from Scott’s robust but tempered use of carbon fiber—there’s a weave of carbon paired with dampening aramid fibers in lieu of metal.

Gripe: The Slight was not intended to be the stoutest ski on the hill, and it’s not.
Like: Said a tester: “If you live to make metronome turns at moderate speeds inbounds and out, the Slight is a sure thing.”

Women’s All-Mountain Skis

Elan Ripstick 94 W ($750)

Dimensions: 136/94/110

One of the most technically advanced skis on the market, the Ripstick 94 W features thin carbon tubes embedded in a lightweight wood core to give the ski a zippy feel while allowing it to contour the terrain. Up in the tip, advanced composites sit in cutaways in the wood core to boost damping while shaving swing weight. In the belly of the ski, in addition to the carbon tubes, strips of carbon fiber reinforce the inside edges for extra torsion and bite. Even the shape of the ski is unique: the outside edges (the skis are dedicated left and right) are kicked up with more rocker for a loose feel in soft snow, while the inside edges, which are easier to control, get more camber and edge contact. On the hill, they ski like nothing else on the market. “It’s nearly impossible to catch an edge,” said a tester, “but when you tip them into a carve they hold, letting you leave trenches. Head into the crud, though, and you can smear your turns.” The versatility comes from the 94 W’s deep and easy progressive flex that allows you to butter the ski around at slow speeds (like when you’re skiing with the kids) or push it as you advance your skills.

Gripe: At the highest speeds, skis without metal in them tend to get nervous even if they’re still tracking.
Like: Said a tester: “They ski so intuitively that they feel like an extension of the body.”

Nordica Santa Ana 98 ($800)

Dimensions: 132/98/120

This one came close to winning its category, but then again the most versatile ski isn’t always the one that comes out on top—and that’s exactly what the Santa Ana 98 is. It’s our top pick for a true 50 percent on-trail, 50 percent off-trail ski back East on bigger hills like Killington or out West in places like Summit County, Colorado. It’s not especially narrow for carving, or fat for powder. Rather, it’s the Goldilocks width, capable of arcing turns on hardpack or floating turns in resort powder. “You can carve or smear ’em at super slow speeds” said our women’s test director, “or you can dial them up and just charge. An intermediate could ski them and end up an expert a season later.” The performance comes from Nordica’s unique take on ski design. Instead of making a hundred specialized skis, they favor versatility. And to get there, they don’t chase trends. Take weight savings for example. With the Santa Ana, Nordica saved weight in the wood core by incorporating lighter species, so that they could strategically add vibration-eating metal back into the ski. The result? A model that doesn’t ski heavy, but is stable and confidence inspiring on edge. “Damn, this ski is super strong, but it skis easy too,” said a tester.

Gripe: They aren’t as playful as some would like. If you want a surfier ride, step up to the Santa Ana 104 Free.
Like: Even on true hardpack days you won’t feel the need for a dedicated carving ski. The 98s slice it up.

Völkl Secret 96 W ($825)

Dimensions: 135/96/119

This brand new Secret crushed its competition. “Makes any kind of turn at any speed,” said a tester. “But it’s even easier to control than the old version. All that and the 96 offers killer edgehold and top stability.” Credit for improvements in ease of use and power come from the re-tuning of Völkl’s titanal frame construction, which places metal over the edges for power, but avoids full sheets of alloy to save weight. In the smaller women’s lengths, that titanal frame is tuned for lighter-weight skiers. A new web of carbon fiber in the tip makes turn initiation both more positive (the edges engage more seamlessly) and less vibration inducing (the carbon ties the tip to the rest of the ski better for a smoother ride). So who should buy it? As with its unisex counterpart, the M6 Mantra, this Völkl is built for people that know how to ski from tip to tail and execute a clean arc—or those who aspire to that goal. The Secret 96 had the highest carving scores in the category. You can, however, take it off-trail and have a good time, you just need to keep it edging—despite the width, this is not a powder ski, it’s a true all mountain tool for the crowd that likes to lay a ski over.

Gripe: This is a precise ski, which is positive until you want to smear turns in grabby crud. That requires attention.
Like: Back on the groomed snow it’s “crisp, lively, light, fast edge-to-edge, and seems to know where and when you want to turn,” said a tester. “I would ski it on-trail 70 percent of the time.”

Dynastar M-Pro 99 W ($800)

Dimensions: 127/99/117

It scored well in our all mountain category, but to be clear, the M Pro W is designed to excel on soft snow above all else. Think first tracks after a six inch storm in the bowls, or a day spent poking around in the trees for powder scraps, or even a morning ripping perfect corduroy. At those tasks, the 99 was best in class. “This ski is so smooth it butters and floats off-trail, but you can flat out charge on it too,” said a tester. That makes sense: the M Pro skis feature unique hybrid cores crafted from a blend of lightweight polyurethane and energizing, long-lasting poplar. The result: a damp, silky ride. They seem to contour the terrain and at the same time allow for a deep consistent flex. Tip and tail rocker extends deep into the ski, but the splay (height of rocker) is subtle, so the ski planes on top of new snow instead of plowing through it. Back on groomed runs, the M Pro is more of a mixed bag. In 2020, we loved it on soft corduroy. At our 2021 test, we got legit melt/freeze hardpack with high moisture content, and the ski chattered a bit in those conditions. Even on that frozen snot, it cut a clean arc on edge. There’s strategically placed titanal for torsional rigidity—it extends fore and aft of the bindings.

Gripe: It skis light on boilerplate.
Like: “Off-trail you can pivot, smear, or send it,” said a tester.

KĂ€stle FX96 W ($849)

Dimensions: 133/96/119

Looking for a true crossover ski capable of inbounds ripping and out-of-bounds touring? That was the intent behind the easy skiing FX96. There’s no metal here. Instead, an inner torsion box (wood fully wrapped in fiberglass) is inlaid into the surrounding wood core. The design delivers the torsional strength of metal layers, without the weight penalty. On the test hill at Steamboat, the FX96 surprised testers used to ultra burly KĂ€stles of old. “This is easily the mellowest KĂ€stle I’ve ever skied,” said one. “At normal speeds, it’s smooth, damp, light, and easy.” So who should buy a set? If you ski inbounds and like to keep your speed in check, the 96 will make short arcs all day long (16 meter radius in the 172). On the other hand, if you’re an occasional out-the-gate backcountry skier and you’re looking for a mid-fat plank to mount a hybrid AT/Alpine binding to, the 96 is ideally suited.

Gripe: On hard snow at high speeds, torsion box construction—even scaled down as in this ski—can result in a “glassy” or “tinny” feel on chattery snow. We experienced that high frequency vibration here, even if the ski didn’t noticeably chatter.
Like: In soft snow it really impressed: “Wow, such a buttery and consistent feel in chopped-up powder and old crud,” said a tester. “It instills confidence.”

Stöckli Nela 88 ($999)

Dimensions: 127/88/113

By North American standards, the Nela 88 is an all mountain frontside ski with a width better suited to ripping turns on groomers 70 percent of the time. But to the Swiss, the 88 is a true on-trail/off-trail weapon. So how did it fare? Quite well, actually. We had hard and fast conditions in Steamboat (a rarity there), and the svelte but stout Nela 88 was well suited to the snowpack. “Holy shit, I loved this ski today,” said a tester who arcs short swing turns in the fall line. “It’s stable as hell, but not punishing at all. It engages with knife-like precision, but it’s subtle and buttery too. You can ski it slow and easy, or you can jump on it and lay the turns way over.” Stöckli used to be famous for madly powered-up skis that required technical training and off-season quad work to pilot. But like the rest of the ski industry, the new Nela 88s offer accommodating flexes (deep and easy) that an intermediate can enjoy. You can scrub speed or wash turns in a pinch. Put that same ski on the feet of an expert though, and the deep flex allows for big, deep arcs.

Gripe: This is only an all mountain ski at certain areas back East, in the Midwest, and depending on the hill, parts of Colorado. It’s not quite fat enough for the broader North American market.
Like: “It’s not heavy at all,” said a tester, “but when you’re going fast it skis like a heavier ski—the edgehold is astounding and the stability doesn’t waiver.”

Rossignol Stargazer ($700)

Dimensions: 127/94/117

Rossignol says the Stargazer lets you, “Answer the call of first tracks.” We’d agree with that assessment. This is a lightweight (no alloy), smartly rockered ski built more for off-trail exploration than linked turns on groomers. By design Rossignol says the Stargazer features a “lower pop factor,” meaning it favors contouring the terrain more than it does delivering a ton of rebound. That smooth ride quality, paired with just the right amount of rocker and tips built from a lightweight honeycomb polymer, make the Stargazer effortless to pivot turn, smear on steep faces, or slink through the trees. “This was by far the most playful ski of the day for me,” said a tester, “but it’s by no means a liability on hard snow. You can crank out medium-radius turns all day.” Again, in modern ski construction it’s hard to point to any one thing for that versatile performance, but because Rossignol got the flex pattern right, a huge range of skiers with a huge range of styles can enjoy it. A layer of viscous, rubber material eats up vibration in lieu of metal.

Gripe: A few testers thought the ski wandered a bit at top speeds.
Like: We’d ski these like we ski an all mountain powder model—off-trail 70 percent of the time. The Stargazer is wide enough to float small- to average-sized women in all but the deepest of days, and they’re so nimble they excel in chutes and hike-to steeps, too.

Faction Dictator 2.0X ($779)

Dimensions: 127/96/117

As ski designers focus on creating balanced skis that all sorts of body types and ability levels can rip on, it’s getting hard to tell the difference between unisex skis and women-specific skis: skis don’t know or care who’s standing on them. That’s relevant here, because the Dictator 2.0X is the same ski as the unisex Dictator 2.0. The only difference is cosmetic. That means women buyers get the same lightweight paulownia wood core backed by two sheets of titanal as the men do. The key, as always, is to buy the right length to tap into that flex. “Super stable blasting through crud or straight lining cat roads,” said a tester. “It skis like an all mountain powder ski built for charging off-trail. But you can pivot and smear it too. I don’t ski a ton of groomers. This would be my go-to resort ski for anything but the big and deep days.” Now back to that flex. The 2.0X favors skiers of all sizes as long as they like speed. It takes some g-forces to really bring it to life.

Gripe: It can take some extra input to get them to link carved turns on groomed snow. In keeping with Faction’s worldview, the 2.0Xs excel off-trail.
Like: “This is one stable ski,” said a tester. “I would love to be blasting down a bowl on windbuff on them. They charge off-trail. The tip is unwavering.”

Head Kore 97 W ($800)

Dimensions: 131/97/118

Head reinvented its Kore line of skis, and the all-new Kore 97 W is a standout. It’s just as light as ever, but in pursuit of a livelier ride quality, Head ditched the inserts of Koroyd of years past in favor of some carbon above and below the core. What feels unchanged is the edgehold; all the Kore skis grip with eerie precision. The skis are so lightweight that you feel like you need to actively control the edges—but you don’t. “Turns just happen with these Kores,” said a tester. “They just sink into a medium radius arc without much input. They would be super confidence inspiring for intermediate and advanced skiers.” Damp but light is hard to come by. We’re convinced that Head’s success comes down to micro applications of , the lightest and strongest material known to science. If you’re looking for a lightweight plank that makes skiing easy, the 97 W is an easy choice. The flex profile of the caruba and poplar wood core is also incredibly inviting. A less skilled skier can make mistakes on the 97 W, but an expert can get it arcing from tip to tail.

Gripe: We were hoping for a bit more life out of the new Kores when they dumped Koroyd for carbon. The skis still feel a touch too damp to us.
Like: The amount of rocker in the tip is spot-on for the all mountain category. The rocker to helps the ski plane and ease turn initiation, and doesn’t act like a plow. Head nailed the shaping.

Fischer Ranger 94 FR ($699)

Dimensions: 126-92-117

Here’s another unisex ski that—no surprise—rips equally well for men and women. A twin tip with a carbon nose to reduce swing weight, the 94 FR boasts a wood core reinforced with carbon and two sheets of titanal. But it’s no heavyweight. Thanks to all that carbon, it weighs 1,850 grams per ski, light enough to mount with a hybrid binding like the Salomon Shift, Marker Duke PT, or CAST system. And don’t let the twin tip fool you. The 94 FR is a directional all mountain ski that’s truly up to the challenge of chunky groomers and chalky chutes. “Forgiving off-trail and solid back on, it favors big sweeping GS turns,” said a tester. “Off-trail there’s just enough rocker to handle piles of harbor chop and let you smear turns in the trees. I’d ski it most days when it hasn’t dumped for a while, but the off-piste stuff is still soft.” Built down to a 153-centimeter, there’s a length and a flex for all body types (except large human beings—there’s no 195).

Gripe: On paper the 94 FR sports a 17-meter turn radius. In reality it’s more stretched out than that. That’s a bonus in weird snow off-trail, but it demands a bit more muscle back on piste.
Like: Because Fischer didn’t take the metal out of the ski to meet some weird standard for women’s specific skis, the 94 FR was the most stable ski of the category.

The post Runners-Up Review: The All-Mountain Skis That Almost Made Our 2022 Winter Buyer’s Guide appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Do you spend the majority of your time on the hill carving groomers, snaking through bumps, and skiing packed snow off trail? With waist widths in the 86- to 90-millimeter range, all mountain frontside skis are your jam. They’re built for everyday ripping back east, or out west in places that see average snowfall but above average skier traffic like Summit County, Colorado. These skis are for spending 70 percent of your time on trail and 30 percent off trail.

At our annual test we check out more than a dozen of the newest skis in this category. Over the course of three days and thousands of feet of vert, our testers fill out feedback forms to help us identify the very best options. But, in a field this stacked, all of the runners-up are fantastic as well. Here’s the full rundown.

Unisex All-Mountain Frontside Skis

Salomon Stance 90 ($800)

Dimensions: 126/90/108

The Stance 90 delivers off-trail versatility thanks to a full 90 millimeters of width underfoot and just enough rocker to let you easily break through turns. But make no mistake, this is not a loose and lightweight bushwhacker. Two sheets of titanal reinforce a substantial wood core (smart cutouts in the shovels ease the torsional stiffness) while a full sandwich construction with vertical sidewalls adds still more edgehold. The resulting ski was our test director’s top ski of the category, just above the Experience 86 Ti, which won the men’s frontside category this year. “This Stance just rips,” he said. “I like it far more than the Stance 96, which is a bit fat for the amount of carve it offers. The 90 got that balance right.” It’s damp and stable, but super easy to ski—perfect for arcing carved turns 70 percent of the time. On groomers it’s best to just settle into that 18-meter turn radius and hold on.But we wouldn’t hesitate to go ski a chalky chute or some wind-buffed snow up in the alpine.

Gripe: One tester thought it was just a hair too grippy for the category, but incredibly that was the only real critique in the test cards.
Like: “More than confident—cocky,” said a tester. “Stable as hell at top speeds, but executes at a walking pace too.”

Nordica Enforcer 94 ($800)

Dimensions: 127.5/94/115.5

This year, the all mountain frontside category was stacked. The Enforcer 94, which was new last year, is proof. “If this category was intended for 50/50 on-trail/off-trail skis instead of a 70/30 ratio, the 94 would have won,” said a tester. “The balance of the construction, the flex, the power, and the ease of use make it ready for a huge range of conditions.” This is a no-bullshit ski. Two sheets of metal back a full wood core and vertical sidewalls for edge bite. But the oomph doesn’t end there. Strategically placed carbon fiber—strands, not sheets, run the length of the ski—ups the torsional stiffness without overdoing it, allowing the ski to release energy back to you in transition between turns. In other words, the harder you push it, the more alive it gets. The 94 definitely favors advanced to expert skiers that can bend a ski from tip to tail. But despite the scary name, most of the skis in this family are user friendly and can accommodate a wide range of abilities.

Gripe: You need to really get after it to put the 94s into a short turn. They excel at those 16 to 19-meter radii.
Like: “Smashes everything in sight,” said a tester. “The edge grip is money. Carries speed out of the end of the turn.”

Stöckli Stormrider 88 ($1,049)

Dimensions: 128/88/114

It’s no surprise that the Stormrider 88 finished with such a high ranking, Stöckli builds some of the highest quality skis on the planet. The Swiss builder mills its own wood cores to find the balance between weight savings and durability. In the Stormrider, that balance is bolstered by two layers of special pre-impregnated fiberglass (they don’t just glop the resin on) that weigh 25 percent less than standard fiber. Designers even save grams at the edges by reducing the mass of the part of the metal that inserts into the ski. This allows them to keep two sheets of titanal—one doubles as the top sheet instead of plastic—so they don’t sacrifice stability. The result flexes deeply and is as stable as any in this class. “For what seems like decades, I’ve always loved the feel of the Stormrider line,” said one of our most seasoned testers. “But in keeping with modern ski design, you don’t have to scream at them in Swiss-German to turn anymore.” Most brands now make skis that perform well for a season or two. The Stöcklis price is high because of the stellar craftsmanship and materials, which mean the brand’s skis retain their life for years.

Gripe: Similar to the Enforcer 94, the Stormrider 88 favors medium to large radius arcs.
Like: Unlike the Enforcer 94, it comes to life at slower speeds. “So easy to ski,” said a tester. “The flex is compliant, but they flat-out rip when you push them.”

Armada Declivity 88 C ($700)

Dimensions: 131/88/112

The “C” in Declivity 88 C stands for carbon—a tricky material. Add just a touch too much and it will over-juice the torsional rigidity, giving the ski a tenuous and hollow feel. Underplay your hand and you don’t get enough torsion, resulting in a dead ride and insufficient edge bite. Armada got it right. Even on the hard melt/freeze snow we had at last March’s test, the 88 C was a tip-it-and rip-it ski. “Damp and silky ride,” said a tester. “It’s powered up, but it’s fun too. Carves a nice round turn.” Beneath the hood, a caruba wood core saves weight, while stout carbon stringers run tip to tail. But it’s the shaping and balance that makes the 88 C work. The relatively deep rocker, middle-distance sidecut, balanced flex, and torsional rigidity all work together to deliver smooth arcs. At this width, it’s also capable of slinking around off-trail in trees and bumps. So where does it excel? It’s light and nimble and features a fairly tight turn radius, so we’d ski off groomed runs—bumps, steeps, corn—most of the time. But if there’s nothing decent to ski beyond the machined groomed stuff, this Armada is not a liability. It out-skied a half dozen metal skis on piste at Steamboat.

Gripe: We didn’t have much to complain about, but a few testers wanted a bit more zip in transitions.
Like: “Fun and playful for an all-mountain frontside entry,” said a tester. “Surprisingly stable at speed, but it packs a ton of all mountain versatility.”

Atomic Maverick 88 Ti ($800)

Dimensions: 124.5/88/109.5

Here’s another 88-millimeter wide ski that isn’t built with just groomers in mind. The Maverick 88 is a true all mountain ski capable of ripping turns on groomers and off piste in soft but not deep conditions. “Super easy to carve, but nimble and fun off-trail too,” said a tester. But take that comment with some more context. It came from one of our bigger testers who might have been overflexing the Maverick. A few of our lighter skiers thought it was more of a burly on-piste tool. (Choose your length carefully.) At 1,800 grams per ski with two sheets of metal, there’s a ton of versatility baked in. It’s light enough to shoulder for a hike and pivot around off-trail, but it will carve a big arc on groomers, too.

Gripe: The Maverick 88s need to be broken in before they ski their best. Our test skis weren’t, which might be why a few testers found it hard to settle into the sweet spot of the flex.
Like: “Super powerful in a big sweeper turn,” said a tester. “The energy return is robust.”

Fischer RC One 86 GT ( $999)

Dimensions: 130/86/116

In Europe, The RC One is an all mountain ski. In the US, it’s a fat carving ski. Either way, its racy graphics are spot on. With its wood and metal layup, relatively short 16-meter turn radius, and wide tip and tail, the RC One is best suited to carving on groomed snow. Forget what you think you know about skinny skis outperforming this width on hardpack (outside of a racecourse). With tip rocker to ease initiation and a hourglass shape that wants to pull you through each turn, the 86 flows seamlessly on boilerplate. Plus, the wide platform makes the ski less nervous (you can make more mistakes), and it cuts through soft surface snow to engage with the base for a powered up carve. Look here if you come from a technical skiing background and like to put your skis on edge and arc, on trail and off. If you already own a set of fat skis, the RC One will build out a quiver.

Gripe: It’s not as easy to pivot or smear as most of the skis reviewed here.
Like: That said, for a carving ski it’s incredibly user-friendly. “You can break them from a carved turn on hardpack with very little effort,” said a tester. “And you can get them arcing at all speeds.”

KĂ€stle MX83 ($1,199)

Dimensions: 126/83/112

Some people like to arc medium to long radius turns at high speed all day. The MX83 is built for exactly that style of skiing. It’s as stable and confidence inspiring as the Enforcer and Stormrider here, but it offers a dynamic carve on hardpack. The performance comes from the build. Two sheets of titanal back a poplar and beech wood core with most of the denser beech positioned underfoot for added power. Vertical sidewalls round it out. And what does that get you? “Holy hell—velocity.” said a tester. “This KĂ€stle is powered up when you want it to be, but you can dump speed and sluff turn it too. My top pick for GS cruising.” Even better, the MX83 doesn’t need to be driven at eye-watering speeds to come to life. The flex is welcoming and the tip dives into mid-range turns on low angled runs. As with the Stöckli in the all-mountain frontside category, you pay more for the best materials and craftsmanship in skiing. The payoff in this case is durability. Some of our testers have skied their KĂ€stles for years with no notable drop-off in performance. “There’s no arguing that a beech core sandwiched by metal and equipped with high-end base materials and edges lasts longer,” said a tester. “And you can feel those materials as you ski.”

Gripe: They like to make medium to large turn shapes, but small turns require dynamic input.
Like: Look here if the word “cruising” means something to you.

Elan Ripstick 88 ($750)

Dimensions: 130/88/105

Only two all-mountain frontside skis without alloy sheeting survived the hardpack of this year’s test hill to earn inclusion here. The Ripstick 88 is one of them. It excelled off the groomed snow. “Quick, nimble, and forgiving off-trail,” said a tester. “If I was going out to ski bumps, chutes, and soft corduroy all day, this would be my top pick.” Meanwhile, they still performed shockingly well on white ice. The inside edges of these dedicated left and right skis are reinforced with carbon for a boost in torsional strength, which creates tons of edgehold. When you’re skiing edge to edge, the Ripstick 88s don’t wander or waiver. And they hold on at the apex of the turn too, thanks to carbon tubes embedded in the core that act like metal, keeping the ski contouring the snowpack as opposed to chattering out. “Excellent control and energy return in such a lightweight ski,” said a tester. “They’re so nimble and deft that on soft groomers I felt like I was saving energy.” Off-trail, it’s easily the quickest ski we tested, making it well suited to bumps and exploration in soft or shallow snow.

Gripe: At high speeds on hard and chattery snow, there was some minor tip flutter.
Like: “When the snow softened up, the Ripsticks ripped,” said a tester. “On good snow they have a silky ride quality that’s damp, but nowhere near dead.”

Völkl Kendo 88 ($775)

Dimensions: 129/88/111

This German brand took a different approach to the metal or no metal debate—it went with both. Instead of two full sheets of titanal, a perimeter frame of the alloy adds torsional power for edging and rebound, while strategic cutaways shave weight. Add in some carbon in the tip for smoothness, and the Kendo 88 is one of the most innovative layups in skiing. The goal is a ski that’s stable on hardpack, but loose and light enough for off-trail slashing in soft snow. It actually works. The Kendo is nimble and surfy off-trail, but stout on edge. “Super crisp feel on hard snow,” said a tester. “The torsional power and edgehold match anything in the test.” Our testers also praised the Kendo for its precision. “It feels like you can turn it on a snowflake,” said one. “The initial turn shape is gradual, but the pull underfoot makes you feel like you’re on rails,” said another. Our final take? The Kendo excels at moderate speeds on all groomed snow and is plenty deft enough for occasional forays into bumps and narrows.

Gripe: Völkl’s titanal frame skis have a glassy feel that seems to transmit high frequency vibration. That can be disconcerting—but does not affect performance.
Like: “The energy return from turn to turn is classic Völkl. Skis this lively make groomer days a blast.”

K2 Disruption 82Ti ($1,000)

Dimensions: 125/82/111

Another chubby carving ski, the Disruption 82Ti proves that K2 is back in the game after a long period of disappointing results. “Tons of energy through the entire turn and it seems to contour the snowpack exceptionally well,” said a tester. “It just refused to chatter even though we were skiing on marbles on top of formica.” Credit for the damp and stable ride goes to the usual suspects: a full aspen wood core backed by two sheets of titanal with laser cuts to save weight. But the magic comes from the two chevron-shaped patches of carbon fiber that sit below the upper layer of titanal and allow the inner layers to move against each other as you flex the ski. This is called shearing. Skis that don’t shear well deliver blocky rides. But get it right, and you wind up with a ski that flexes naturally and that a wide range of body shapes and ability levels can pilot. That’s the Disruption 82Ti. You can carve big turns at high speeds and feel like you’re cruising.

Gripe: A few of our testers wanted to see a touch more pop in small and medium range turns. But if you love a damp ride, the Disruption is a Cadillac.
Like: The flat tail and the torsion from the metal serves as a booster when you want to accelerate during a big sweeper turn.

Women’s All-Mountain Frontside Skis

Nordica Santa Ana 93 ($750)

Dimensions: 126.5/93/114.5

Nordica positions the Santa Ana 93 as an equal parts on-trail/off-trail ski for expert women. Our team of expert women skiers agreed. A few key words on the test cards: strong, predictable, versatile, powerful, stable, responsive, aggressive, carveable. Given that feedback, it makes sense that the 93 led the class for its stability and carving rankings. But it’s also an easy ski to smear and pivot when conditions demand.  This versatility comes from the balance of footprint and build. There’s just enough rocker to ease turn initiation and offer a touch of float in soft snow, and a full wood core topped by layers of carbon and judiciously laser-cut titanal (designers pull the material back from the edges) adds torsional strength (for edging) and longitudinal stability (for hauling ass). A middle-distance 16-meter turn radius (in the 172 cm length) makes it adept at transitioning from short swing turns to big arcs. “It makes a range of turn shapes, but it just loves big beautiful arcs,” said a tester. “The 93 rewards aggressive skiing, but it doesn’t punish you for getting lazy.”

Gripe: Our testers thought some lighter weight advanced skiers could struggle to handle the Santa Ana 93.
Like: For anyone that wants to advance all aspects of their skiing, the 93 is an ultra versatile tool. “It’s a model that 80 percent of strong skiers should be on 80 percent of the time,” said a tester.

Rossignol Experience 86 ($700)

Dimensions: 132/86/120

If the Santa Ana 93 is all about big sweeping turns, the Rossignol Experience 86 is all about short swing and medium range carves. “Whee!” said a tester. “What a fun little number. It’s full of energy and loves to dive down the fall line from edge to edge.” That about sums up this 86-millimeter carving ski with just enough rocker for some off-trail exploration. But we’ll extrapolate. When Rossignol went to reenvision their strong frontside-focused Experience line, the goal was to boost all mountain versatility while retaining dynamic carving properties. In this version of the 86, that meant replacing the two sheets of titanal with basalt, an igneous rock that acts like a metal and is capable of quelling vibration. Then Rossignol focused its efforts on balancing the deep flex, torsional rigidity (firm but not overbearing), and rocker (just enough in this width) to let the ski transition from groomers to bumps to chalky alpine snow without getting nervous or hooky. Add all that to a 12- to 14-meter radius ski and the result is a fall line dynamo for short swing turns.

Gripe: There’s a touch of chatter at high speeds.
Like: “This ski is so intuitive that an intermediate could learn to carve on it, and an expert could elevate their technical skiing. Makes groomer skiing fun.”

Dynastar M-Pro 90 W ($700)

Dimensions: 120/90/1010

In an age where ski shapes and materials are growing more similar, the M-Pro line from Dynastar stands apart. The skis have a feel all their own, thanks to the core construction. Instead of going with full wood, Dynastar incorporated a hybrid core of wood and polyurethane. And that PU changes everything. First, it saves weight so that Dynastar can place a layer of strategically cut titanal in the ski for stability without heft. Second, PU is naturally supple, which allows the ski to better contour the snowpack for a silky ride. “On edge, you never feel like the ski is chattering, which means the edges are getting more bite,” said a tester. “That really boosts confidence.” Off-trail, that lightweight feel, plus tip and tail rocker, let you slink the 90 through bumps and tight places with very little effort. The width makes it nimble, and when the snow isn’t too deep, that makes it versatile. “Arcs nice round turns on groomers, but turns into a fall-line all mountain ski when you explore,” said a tester. At our test we were skiing on death cookies on top of frozen snot. In those conditions we want as much wood and metal as you can throw at us. The 90 is best suited to soft corduroy.

Gripe: Wanders a bit at high speeds on the hardest of snow.
Like: “They ski mellow when you want them to, but you can get aggressive too,” said a tester.

Elan Ripstick 88 W ($700)

Dimensions: 130/88/105

Elan says that the Ripstick 88 W is “wide enough, strong enough, and bold enough to handle whatever the mountains dish out.” As such, the brand asserts that the 88 is a gateway ski for skiers looking to expand their skiing world from frontside groomers to back bowls and hike-to terrain. Our test team agreed. Thanks to its proprietary “Amphibio” design—dedicated left and right skis with more rocker on the outside edges and more effective contact with the inside edges—the 88-millimeter Ripstick is loose and forgiving off trail in all conditions up to boot-deep powder or breakable crud. But take the 88 off trail on windbuff, alpine chalk, or corn and it slinks around terrain seeking the fall line like running water. “It’s nearly impossible to catch an outside edge on these skis,” said a tester. “The performance is top-end, but it’s approachable for most skiers.” Back on trail, those elongated inside edges distribute your weight better, making for a confident edge set despite the fact that this ski has no metal. An extra strip of carbon over the inside edges makes for still more torsional strength and pop.

Gripe: Our testers would have liked a little less rocker since, realistically, this ski will be skied 70 percent of the time on groomers.
Like: “You can carve. You can smear. You can slarve,” said a tester. “There’s crazy versatility here.”

Armada Reliance 88 Carbon ($700)

Dimensions: 130/88/111

Last year Armada expanded its worldview with a line of unisex directional all-mountain skis called Declivity. This year, the new women’s specific Reliance line comes to the fore. Directional skis—as opposed to center-mounted twin tips—represent a big departure for a brand with such strong free-skiing roots. But a closer look reveals that this line is in keeping with the Armada ethos. Yes, you ski them from tip to tail and lay the skis over on edge, but there’s enough rocker and weight savings here for a playful ride when the mood hits. “Great edge grip in an arced turn, but you can shut them down and transition to pivot and smear turns, too,” said a tester. “There’s both latent power and latent playfulness that you can tap into.” That versatility rests in part with Armada’s dedication to rocker. Here, there’s more than enough for groomer skiing, and plenty for adventure. But the construction is just as key. In the 88 Carbon, Armada incorporated stringers of carbon fiber to reinforce the wood core. The fiber gives the ski some extra torsional rigidity and pop. The progressive flex (soft in the tip and tail but incrementally stiffer the harder you push against the belly) is approachable for advanced skiers just getting a feel for their carve.

Gripe: Because there’s no extra metal in it, the 88 got a touch nervous at high speeds on hard snow.
Like: “Super maneuverable off-trail,” said a tester, “but holds a steady carve back on. I’d ski it off trail 65 percent of the time.”

KĂ€stle MX83 ($1,199)

Dimensions: 126/83/112

Skis don’t care about gender: Our male testers ran this same ski in the unisex category and had much the same feedback as our women’s crew. And almost all of that feedback was positive. “Smooth flexing and easy to turn, but stable as all hell at top speeds too,” said a tester. “For the do-it-all groomed-snow skier, the MX83 is a marvel.” There are no cutting edge materials here. What you get is a poplar and beech core backed by fiberglass and metal—the essence of ski construction for half a century. The innovations all have to do with how those simple materials work together. With the 83, the inner layers shear as they’re supposed to, allowing for a consistent and predictable flex. The sweet spot is big and intuitive—it’s hard to be too far forward or too far back—which lets you settle in and push your limits as opposed to fighting to flex the ski. So who is the ideal customer? Someone who spends 80 percent of their time on groomed snow at cruising speeds, but loves to mix up the turn shape, too.

Gripe: Because it’s a unisex ski, getting the length correct is vital. Go too long and it might be too stiff.
Like: “I was expecting it to be unforgiving with a flex built for heavyweights,” said a tester, “but that’s old thinking. Any advanced to expert skier can pilot it.”

Stöckl Nela 80 ($949)

Dimensions: 121/80/106

Our women testers fell in love with this ripping frontside ski. “This Nela just wants to move!” said a tester. “Lightning quick from edge to edge when you want it to be, but it makes big sweeping turns too. It hugs the snow and never wavers, even though it’s not heavy. It just makes you want to link turns all day long.” The secret sauce is in the construction. Stöckli has a reputation for building unforgiving skis, but that baggage is close to 20 years old now. The Nela has more welcoming features built into it than any women’s specific ski. The core profile is specially milled to offer a deep flex. The layers of fiberglass offer 25 percent weight savings over traditional fiber. Even the edges are specially formulated to save weight thanks to reduced “keys” or tabs that attach the edges inside the ski. Ultimately, though, the ski makers only saved weight in some areas so that they could add performance in others. In the Nela, that means two sheets of titanal—the uppermost layer of which serves as the topsheet. The build delivers a unique Stöckli feel. “Damp and confidence inspiring at high speeds. Easy to turn and forgiving at slow speeds,” said a tester.

Gripe: At 80-millimeters underfoot, this Nela is not built for more than a few inches of powder.
Like: Because it’s narrow, it’s easier to tip on edge.

Fischer RC One 86GT ($999)

Dimensions: 130/86/116

Here’s another unisex ski that Fischer submitted to the unisex and women’s specific tests, and it turns out that its two sheets of titanal, wide waist, and race-bred core worked just as well for the women as it did for the guys. (The only difference was the test lengths.) “Glued to the snow!” said a tester that arcs fast turns. “Super damp and performs best at speed, but a strong skier can get it to make a range of turn shapes.” At the risk of being redundant, the carving acumen comes from the traditional build (wood and metal) and a deep side cut that pulls you through the entire turn from tip to tail. But like any good ski that nailed the flex both longitudinally and torsionally, the pilot gets to decide which turn shape to make. Really get after it and you’ll be cranking 12-meter turns. Ride it out a bit more and you’re at 18-meters. As the graphics suggest, this ski wants to be on packed snow 80 percent of the time. The bonus is that, because of the ample width, it’s easy to engage the edges through soft surface snow and into the firm stuff below.

Gripe: We don’t really have one! Just take heed: to the Europeans this is an all mountain ski. but to North Americans it’s a fat pure frontside ski
Like: It looks intimidatingly racy, but you can scrub speed on a whim. It’s a forgiving carver.

Atomic Maven 86 C ($600)

Dimensions: 121.5/87/105

Most of the skis we test are designed for advanced to expert skiers. That’s based on the premise that an expert can rail a ski that an advanced skier can smear around. Our tests have validated that idea over recent years. The brand new Maven is a bit of a departure. Here, a beginner skier can learn how to put the ski up on edge and start feeling the carve, while an advanced skier can push the ski to its limits. (The thinking is that a true expert woman would opt for the fatter Maven 93 or buy the unisex Atomic Maverick with some metal in it.) Each ski weighs just 1,450 grams. “It’s a lightweight ski for sure,” said a tester, “but it makes a crisp, round arc that’s really easy to get the feel for. The flex is progressive without being daunting. And the on edge stability is top notch.”

Gripe: It’s the nature of a ski built for advanced skiers, but at high speeds this ski wanders a bit.
Like: “The ability to make long and short turns and dump speed when things get dicey is a huge plus for advancing skiers,” said our women’s test director, who taught skiing for years. “The Maven 86 C hits the mark.”

K2 Disruption 81Ti Alliance ($950)

Dimensions: 124/81/110

The sister ski to the Disruption 82Ti, the Alliance shares a lot of similarities with its sibling. That list includes two patches of carbon fiber beneath the titanal in the tip and tail to enhance internal shearing. Here again, a laser cut sheet of titanal tapers forward and behind the bindings for added stability. Beyond that, the highlight is a dense aspen wood core. How did it run on the test hill? It’s closest competitor in our test is the Fischer 86GT, but with the Alliance, the focus is on a damp ride, high-speed stability, and a very predictable turn shape. “Roar!” said a tester. “Holds like a honey badger on hard snow, but it’s super easy to turn at all speeds. There’s a giant sweet spot here. High-speed cruising types will love it.” Look here if you tend to avoid short swing turns in the fall line, but love big sweeping arcs. We’d ski it 85 percent of the time on groomed snow or smooth off-piste surfaces.

Gripe: As much fun as it is to cruise on, it could use just a bit more spunk for fall line skiing.
Like: K2 once made a name for itself by building smooth and consistent skis that performed for the bulk of the market. That’s the Disruption.

The post Runners-Up Review: The Frontside Skis That Almost Made Our 2022 Winter Buyer’s Guide appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Have you heard of the new color-popping sunglass lenses that make grass greener and roses redder? Lately, that light-filtering technology has also infused the goggle market. Every brand now has some buzzword for “tuned” lenses, but the benefit is the same: enhanced contrast. On the hill, this means you can see nuances of terrain and snowpack better, especially on overcast days or when the sun dips behind a cloud. To really put this crop to the test, we ran every pair on a broad range of days, from full sun to cloudy, throughout a western Montana winter.

Giro Contour RS ($270)

The Contour RS is one of the most fully featured goggles we’ve ever tried, but we’re awarding it Gear of the Year status for its lens. For starters, it’s toric, i.e., slightly convex, to mimic the shape of the human cornea and thus reduce distortion. It also boasts Giro’s proprietary spherical curvature, which allows for enhanced peripheral vision, so you can be more aware of the skier approaching from behind your left shoulder. On top of that, proprietary light filtering technology boosts contrast, meaning it’s easier to discern features in shadows or poor light. This is especially noticeable—and vital—when you’re moving from a sunny face to a shady gully at 25 miles per hour. Combined with a compact frame, all those features offer a sharp but massive field of view to people with smaller than average faces. (Those with big heads should look to the Contour, which sports the same features in a regular-size frame, for an equal price.) Still, the Contour RS fits over all but the chunkiest prescription glasses. We also love the magnetic lens-change system, which is reinforced with self-locking tabs for quick and secure swaps, and the proprietary foam along the top of the frame, which allows moist air to escape while still keeping snow out. Even ski touring in a sleet storm, we couldn’t get the goggles to fog up.

Anon WM3 Perceive ($235)

Best Lens-Swap System

The WM3 (and the men’s M3) is one of the better-performing magnetic lens-change goggles we’ve tried. Its lens is specifically tuned for more contrast under gray skies, and is coated with a water- and grease-shedding treatment, which adds durability and impressive exterior smudge resistance. We were able to swap tints on a chairlift in three seconds without leaving fingerprints. Because the magnetic lens sits snugly inside the frame instead of resting on top of it, the connection was always secure. The frame is ideal for small to medium faces (the men’s version is designed for medium to large faces). Like the Radium Pro Signa, the WM3 also features cutaways for prescription eyeglasses.

Glade Challenger ($94)

Best Value

When we review goggles, we tend to look for the latest technology. That often means top-shelf pricing. But Glade proves you don’t need to drop more than $200 to have a high-quality experience. The Challenger doesn’t have a fan, a digital display, a magnetic lens-change system, or photochromic lenses. It’s just a simple goggle. But then it only costs $93. What you will find are essential features like comfy three-layer face foam, silicone anti-slip strips on the band, and a crisp, cylindrical lens with loads of peripheral vision. (Cylindrical-lens goggles wrap faces well for big fields of view.) The Challenger also resists fogging as well as any modern goggle without a fan or defroster. For optics, a gray lens is treated with a purple mirror coating to reduce glare. I was so happy with its versatility that the Challenger became my default goggle. I kept waiting to see when it would disappoint me. It never did.

POC Zonula Clarity Comp ($250)

Best Large Frame

POC built the Zonula Clarity to provide an extra-large field of view, but it’s also great for people with bigger faces. The frame incorporates plastic wings that extend beyond the sides of the lens like outriggers to help distribute pressure from the strap, thus creating a uniform fit. This detail is particularly notable since the Clarity Comp is fairly rigid, which can offer a bit more protection in a crash but often compromises comfort. The competition-oriented Zeiss Clarity Comp violet lens is tuned for POC’s highest contrast on snow in a mix of clouds and sun. Sure, the old-school lens-change system is a bit cumbersome and best implemented indoors (instead of using magnets or levers, you press the lens into dovetail joints on the frame). But once we had the lens in, we had zero issues with it coming loose or letting in wind. Bonus: an impressive 47 percent of the frame material comes from substances derived from all-natural castor and corn oils. 

Salomon Radium Pro Sigma ($180)

Best All-Arounder

Sigma is Salomon’s new tuning technology that enhances contrast. This matters when you’re going fast while trying to read the snow and upcoming features at the same time. The spherical lens is sharp, with almost no internal mirroring, and the soothing rose-tint lens we tested was ideal for gray days and partial sun. But the real beauty of the Radium Pro is what Salomon calls Custom ID Fit. The three-layer foam and the frame material work together like a hinge to naturally contour to the shape of your face. How? Four smart little slices in the frame and foam near the cheekbones and brows—barely perceptible unless you look—let the goggle seat without pressure points. Subtle cutaways at the temples also allow for compatibility with prescription glasses. The end result: best-in-class comfort. 

The post The Best Ski and Snowboard Goggles of 2022 appeared first on șÚÁÏłÔčÏÍű Online.

Cross-training cyclists, alpine skiers, and the backcountry crowd already get it: skate skiing boosts your fitness while offering a reparative full-body workout that delivers a physique like Kikkan Randall’s. With a few lessons or the diligence to watch online tutorials, the skills are easy to pick up. But to really excel, you need light and powerful skis, boots, and poles and apparel that lets you move at your anaerobic threshold on the climbs without freezing on the descents. The gear that follows is suited to racing or just skiing at the limit of your fitness and capacity for fun.

Rab Phantom Pull-On Shell ($200)

Skiing in a midlayer works only if you can also carry a superlight just-in-case shell that’s wind- and water-resistant enough to get you back to the car when the weather goes bad. Rab’s Phantom anorak features a deep half zip to save weight and pack space. We scrunch it up into the compartment of a hydration waist pack, but it’s so small that you could even ball it up and tuck it beneath a base layer—Tour de France style—if you’re starved for pockets. The two-layer, DWR-coated Pertex Shield fabric shed sleet just long enough for one tester to ski ten kilometers back to the truck. (S–XL)

Salomon S/Max Carbon Skate Prolink Boots ($410)

Comfort or performance? If you’re shopping for skate boots, you typically have to choose one. No longer. While the S/max Carbon Skate isn’t as feathery as a World Cup race boot, it’s plenty light for recreational racing. It also has padded uppers and a more anatomical exoskeleton. Now the energy transfer and edging power are top-notch, but the pressure points are gone.

Atomic Redster S9 Gen S Skis ($960)

The Redster S9 represents one of the first major developments in skate skiing in years. The most radical change is also the subtlest: a new sidecut that engages more actively at the shovel. This means that as you glide from one ski to the other, the tip tracks straighter longer, saving you time and energy. As with most nordic-gear upgrades (except for nailing the wax), you don’t notice that effect immediately. But we did feel more efficient—and faster, too, at the end of a three-hour session. 

Beyond the ski’s tracking straighter, what you will notice immediately is the S9’s handling. Especially on hard, fast downhill corners, it edges and arcs so well that we found ourselves carving sections we’d typically step turn. That’s a function of both the new sidecut—the forebody wants to arc—and the steep and powerful sidewalls, which deliver a secure feel on edge. 

We’re also huge fans of Atomic’s bold move to produce the S9 in just one midrange length (183 centimeters). Skiers merely have to choose between a stiffer and a softer flex, based on their height and weight, which simplifies the buying process. On paper, that size might seem short for some skiers and long for others. It works because the S9 is so deceptively stout and easy to handle. A versatile base material and a stone grind, which glides well in a huge range of snow conditions, means the S9 is truly a one-ski quiver. Bindings come pre-mounted.

Swix Nybo Full-Zip Hoodie ($160)

I’ve owned many expensive nordic soft-shell jackets over the years but ski most often in simple wind- and weather-resistant hoodies like the Nybo. A DWR-treated shell material up front offers just enough weatherproofing for highly aerobic skating in marginal weather (although you wouldn’t want to stand around in a storm). In spring snow mixed with rain, it kept us dry enough to reach the top of a long climb before pulling on a shell for the cold, windy descent. Stretch panels over the shoulder blades allow for maximal range of motion while double poling—and reflective panels add safety for biking and running. (women’s XS–XL / men’s S–XXL)

Hestra Infinium Momentum Gloves ($60)

We’ve seen pairs of Hestra cross-country ski gloves last for 12 years—and counting. But the new Infinium Momentum is a serious upgrade thanks to the highly breathable and water-resistant Gore-Tex Infinium that kept our hands dry in all manner of conditions. The backing is a stretchy soft-shell material that’s easy on the hands. And because Hestra is famously attentive to detail when it comes to stitching articulated fingers, the dexterity is best in class. Carry a simple over-mitt with you to push this spring-weight glove into winter temps. 

Balingsta Custom Project Pants No. 1 ($580)

Cut from Polartec’s hyper-breathable waterproof pants offer more weather protection than the standard bottoms engineered for skiers who’ll be popping in and out of warming huts and lodges. It’s cut from Polartec’s hyper-breathable waterproof material, NeoShell. During a long, sunny jaunt on snowmobile trails, the No.1s kept us plenty cool. On a wet, snowy day with the wind and weather at our backs, they kept us warm and dry. Most other wind-resistant nordic pants can’t do both. The brand makes every pair to order, which minimizes waste.

Bliz Breeze Sunglasses ($105)

The nordork code requires that sunglass temples be worn outside the touque. Bliz’s Breeze lets you one-up that fashion statement by swapping out the temples for an elastic strap that wraps around the back of your head, combining the stay-put fit of goggles with the fog resistance of shades. The lens hits a sweet spot: light enough to see well in dim forests, and tinted enough to preserve solid vision in full sun.

Swix Triac 4.0 Aero Poles ($500)

If, like me, you didn’t grow up racing nordic, it’s easy to assume that skating poles are like alpine poles: an afterthought unrelated to performance. In modern skate skiing, a significant amount of your forward propulsion comes from the upper body and core. You want poles that are lightweight, for a faster turnover, and stiff, for more energy transfer. The best nordic poles are lightweight, for faster turnover, and stiff, for more energy transfer. In pursuit of that sweet spot, the new Triac’s shaft is slightly pentagonal (rather than circular), diminishing drag and boosting rigidity. We’ve tested three generations of Swix Triacs, and each one has proven noticeably more rigid than the last. We tested the 4.0 head-to-head against a ten-year-old set of skate poles that were once top of their class. The improvement is instantly perceptible. Don’t need the mack daddy? Check out Swix’s range of Quantum carbon race poles for a range of prices. 

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We’re in the midst of a golden age of ski design. The early aughts’ mad-scientist days of experimentation in rocker, taper, width, weight savings, and supermaterials are behind us. A focus on craftsmanship and balance has produced a wave of incredibly capable skis that damn near anyone can ride. We took a few hundred pairs out for a thousand runs in Steamboat last winter. Here are our top picks.

Salomon QST Blank ($900)

On paper, the Blank seems like a powder specialty ski, and it is. It’s 112 millimeters across at its narrowest point and sports ample tip and tail rocker, plus a lightweight build complete with high-tech materials instead of metal. But it won our Gear of the Year award because it’s also wildly versatile. Sure, it porpoises in and out of powder and spring slush energetically, and it’s fat enough to float in bottomless snow. But it also has enough sidecut (­17-meter turn radius) and oomph, especially in the belly of the turn, to make groomed skiing truly fun. That power comes courtesy of Salomon’s unique double sidewall, which places a second piece of ABS material horizontally underfoot, above and perpendic-ular to the sidewalls, to push even more energy to the edges. That doesn’t mean this ski is excessively burly. The rockered silhouette, light-but-damp cork in the tip and tail, and a fibrous weave of carbon and flax allow you to pivot and smear in tight terrain with just a hint of steer-ing, no matter how much snow there is. It’s still a big-day ski, but you wouldn’t be bummed to get stuck on packed snow if the storm didn’t live up to the hype. “I couldn’t get over how nimble and fun this fat ski was to rip on in between storms and on spring corn,” said a tester. “If you mounted it with a hybrid binding like a Shift you could ski it in-bounds and out.” 138/112/127

Men’s All-Mountain

Stöckli Stormrider 95 ($1,149)

There’s a reason the new Stormrider 95 is so much pricier than other mass-market skis. Much of the work is done by hand, so building one pair takes days, not hours. This means that, if you can avoid blowing them up on the rocks, the Stormriders will outlast less expensive fare. Here, Stockli also shaved weight, which is crucial in fatter skis. Designers figured out how to make solid metal edges just as thick as the ones they use on their frontside skis, while saving weight in the unseen bits that attach inside the ski. At the core, paulownia wood shaves precious grams without sacrificing snap. New this year, Stöckli added a 100 percent recycled polyethylene material to the tip to strengthen turn entry while cutting swing weight. Modest tip and tail rocker and shock-absorbing sidewalls help provide a looser ride on soft snow and more durabil-ity off-trail. On-piste, that translates to a damp ride quality that never feels dead. “The Stormriders have no speed limit,” said one tester, “but you can ski them slow too.” 132/95/123

Women’s All-Mountain

Armada Reliance 92 Ti ($775)

When you’re ripping hot laps with friends on groomed snow and chopped-up resort ­powder—the kind of conditions most of us ski most of the time—you’re tipping the skis up on edge, sinking into the belly of the turn, and then tapping into the tail to drive you through an arc. It’s called directional skiing. This is what the Reliance 92 was designed for. It’s plenty fat and rockered for ­third-buckle-deep powder on top of packed snow, but not too much so for carving. On the contrary, articulated titanium alloy banding on top of a lightweight karuba-wood core means you can count on it to hook up and hold on when the powder turns to hardpack. “Long turns, short turns … it’s energetic but damp and stable all at once,” said a tester. ­Ultra-versatile models like this tend to wow our crew, and for good reason: it’s a ski you can ride most days without thinking about fatter or skinnier skis. 131/92/117

Men’s All-Mountain Frontside

Rossignol Experience 86 Ti ($900)

We’ve long loved Rossignol’s frontside Experience line because it delivers serious hold and stability without demanding too much piloting. So it was with some trepidation that our test crew hopped on the new 86 Ti. It features far more rocker than the original Experience 88, to boost performance off-trail and make the ski even easier to turn. We got over our doubts pretty quickly. “It’s still a fully juiced and carvy Experience,” said a tester, “but with this much rocker it’s way more fun off-trail.” There are other benefits: when you add more tip rocker to a powered-up ski, you can check yourself more easily by throwing it sideways and scrubbing speed. Because Rossignol didn’t overdo it with the rock-er, the 86 Ti’s effective edge length grows as you achieve higher edge angles and sink into the meat of the turn. By that, we mean you don’t feel the rocker when you’re actively in a turn. Who should buy a pair? If you spend 70 percent of your time on groomed trails and the remainder on some other form of packed snow, the 86 Ti is for you. 132/86/120

Sponsor Content
Mountain Hardwear Men’s Boundary Ridge Jacket ($475)

Inspired by the best days of ski season, this jacket has the durability to take on your biggest drops and most daring trips. With 3L Gore-Tex shell fabric, reinforced in key areas, this is a layer designed with purpose and easy to adjust for any occasion.

Women’s All-Mountain Frontside

Völkl Kenja 88 ($775)

Forget about all the marketing buzzwords and industry jargon for a minute. Every ski designer’s goal is to make skis that feel so intuitive that they’re like extensions of your body, capable of charging or riding easy and of feeling both damp and energized. To our women’s test crew, which worked through 20 pairs of all-mountain frontside skis, that dream whip is the Völkl Kenja 88. “It’s so intuitive that it seemed to know where I was going to arc my next turn before I did,” said a tester. “It’s super precise, crisp, and lively, but you don’t have to hammer all day either.” Credit goes in part to Völkl’s sidecut, which essentially incorporates three different turn radii into the ski to make mixing up the turn shape easier. To save weight, designers cut out the center of the titanium alloy sheeting sandwiched inside the base. Most of the metal is concentrated over the edges, where it transfers the most power. 129/88/111

Men’s All-Mountain Powder

Fischer Ranger 102 FR ($800)

At 102 underfoot, the Ranger FR appears too skinny to be a legit powder ski. But thanks to a twin-tip design with ample rocker, it’s plenty for most deep in-bounds days—18 inches or less on top of a firm base. Powder skied off? A wood core with two sheets of titanium alloy means you can burn endless hot laps on groomers. In short, it’s a true ­one-ski quiver for western mountains, equally at home shredding corduroy, exploring ­off-trail, and slashing backcountry powder. A former Olympian who has been testing skis for three decades pondered if this Ranger was “the best one-ski-quiver weapon ever.” It might just be, but only if you ski five to ten miles an hour faster than most folks. It’s not an experts-only ski, but it really comes to life the harder you drive it. It’s ideal for those who ski off-trail 50 percent of the time and favor carving turns as opposed to merely pivoting, no matter the terrain. 136/102/126

Rossignol Blackops W RallyBird Ti ($900)

“The RallyBird Ti effing arcs,” said a tester who charges way beyond her weight class. “Snappy energy at the end of each turn,” said another. Among the women’s skis, this one is the benchmark for what we call accessible power: anyone can butter it around and have a blast at lower speeds, but as confidence grows and edge angles increase, the ski’s performance does too. The balanced feel comes courtesy of old-school construction (vertically laminated ­hardwood with traditional sidewalls—no cap) and a commitment to get the flex of each length just right through prototyping and testing. But it doesn’t hurt that the RallyBird Ti features two tuned damping systems that minimize chatter. The first embeds two vertical layers of rubbery material into the core to keep the RallyBird Ti contouring the terrain instead of chattering. The second is a layer of rubber to quiet still more vibration. All that adds up to one of the best performing all-mountain powder skis we’ve ever tested. 137/102/127

Big-Mountain Backcountry

Scott Pure ($850)

When you’re skiing fast on big terrain, far from lifts and helicopters, the ability to carve groomers takes a back seat to stability in tricky, fluctuating snow. In those conditions, most people are also happy to have a heavier ski that slows you down on the skin track but boosts confidence on the descent. In the U.S. we refer to this kind of terrain as ­big-mountain backcountry, which is exactly what the Pure was designed for. Scott’s team set out to build a backcountry ski that was stout and stable enough for charging hard above treeline in the Alps. The Pure favors high speeds in wide-open terrain, with a long turn radius underfoot that yields predictability in weird backcountry snow where too much sidecut gets hooky. A mix of titanium alloy, aramid, and carbon fiber keeps it stout yet energized at high speeds. “This is a powerful ski,” said a tester capable of putting a 190 through its paces. “It is best suited to clean terrain free of bumps and trees. It needs to be unleashed to thrive.” 142/109/128

Backcountry Freeride

Faction Agent 4.0 ($799)

Faction’s Agent line was built to offer the loose and playful feel of smearable ­all-mountain skis with some of the weight savings and versatility of backcountry fare. That’s particularly true with the extra-plump Agent 4.0. It’s built around a karuba-wood core to save weight (one ski rings in at 1,800 grams) and eschews metal for the same reason, so it’s manageable on the uptrack. Turn it around, though, and all that rocker and width makes even the weirdest backcountry snow easy to ski. Thanks to the robust tip and tail rocker, you can pivot and slarve the 4.0 all day long. In-bounds, mounted with a hybrid binding, the 4.0 is a light and lively slasher for the biggest powder days of the year. In the backcountry, it lets you ski like you’re in-bounds. “You might think a ski this fat is overkill in the leg-serviced backcountry,” said a tester. “But think of it as an insurance policy. It’s capable of turning a shit day in bad snow into a dream session.” 141/116/131

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Sports evolve. It wasn’t that long ago that mountain bikers were riding lightweight cross-country bikes on most trails. They favored weight savings over downhill performance. Today we ride longer-travel suspension bikes because even though they’re heavier, they’re efficient at pedaling and they rip on the downhills. A similar shift is happening with backcountry skiing. It’s now possible to skin uphill with simple ball-and-socket “tech” bindings and then descend with shock-absorbent alpine bindings, without changing skis. Thanks to that, plus burlier AT boots and skis that are just lightweight enough for the skin track, we’ve gained climbing efficiency and downhill performance—weight be damned. This is freeing. Now, as long as you aren’t chasing lithe ski mountaineers uphill, you can ski in-bounds and out on a single setup without compromising on the thrill of the descent. 

The Bindings
Cast Freetour with Look Pivot 15 ($685)

A good binding system is the linchpin in any quiver-of-one setup. This system is spendy but worth the cost. It gives you all the performance of the alpine binding, with its full-metal- jacket construction and a 15 DIN built for advanced to expert skiers, but with Cast’s removable toepiece so you can swap in a lighter tech toe for the climb. After decades of binding analysis, we think this is the top-performing alpine binding on the market. The Pivot’s deep elastic travel (for shock absorption), multiple points of contact (for energy transfer), and small mounting platform (to allow the ski to flex more naturally under your foot) are unmatched. Put the alpine toes in your pack and put on the when it’s time to head back uphill for lap two. Uphilling is as efficient, but not as lightweight, as in a full tech binding. A slick two-position riser lets you adjust the heel height for climbing from flat to eight or 12.5 degrees. Going down, you get the safety and performance of an alpine binding, which means no compromises in-bounds. With a little practice, the transitions are nearly as quick as full tech bindings’. Yes, the rig is heavier, but your long-travel trail bike is heavier than your hardtail and you never think about that once you taste the performance.

The Ski
Völkl Blaze 106 ($700)

dominated our crossover test last year. This year it nearly podiumed in the All-Mountain Powder test too, despite going head-to-head with stout resort skis on rock-hard snow. This means the Blaze is among the closest skis we’ve tested to the dream of a one-ski quiver. Thanks to just a hint of metal underfoot, it hooks up and holds on when you’re in-bounds skiing hardpack. But in the backcountry it’s one of the smoothest and most predictable skis we’ve ridden. At 106 millimeters underfoot, it’s fat enough for 90 percent of the snowpacks we ski in the Rockies, although not for the biggest days on the western coastal ranges of California, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest. “It carves, it smears, it floats, and it’s stable as hell,” said a tester.

The Boots
Lange XT3 Tour Pro ($950)

If you want to keep things simple, ski in a crossover boot like the and you can turn your brain off, trusting that you have solid downhill performance (a 130 flex and a 98-millimeter last) with enough functionality for touring thanks to lightweight Grilamid plastic and a wide-ranging hinge for walk mode. If I’m traveling to a distant ski area, the XT3 Tour Pro is the only boot I bring.

But this is where the dream of a simple gear quiver ends for me. Although new crossover boots like this ski well and tour well, they aren’t ideal at either—there’s a compromise. If you’re performance obsessed and really want to nerd out, you can do what I’m doing this year and run two sets of boots. If I know I’ll be skiing the backcountry for more than just one run, I’ll bring my ($800). They’re stiff enough for in-bounds skiing off-trail, but because of the boots’ unique walk mode, they tour as well as—if not better than—a lot of softer and lighter backcountry boots I’ve tried.

On the other hand, if I’m skiing in-bounds, I don’t want to be skiing in boots with a walk mode. But I don’t want to bow out of a spontaneous backcountry or sidecountry lap because my touring boots are in the truck. Again the innovators at Cast Touring have the fix. Send your fully rigid alpine boots to them and they’ll kit them out with tech fittings in the toe lugs so that you can put in a short tour. I’m having inserts mounted to the ($925). A progressive flex and upright stance mean this boot excels whether you’re ripping arced turns on groomers or skiing steep pow in the trees. I once spent a week in Alaska touring in fully rigid boots because the terrain demanded it. It’s not that bad.

The Packs
Mystery Ranch Saddle Peak ski pack ($199) and Scott Patrol E1 30 ($1,100)

In the spring, when the snowpack has gone isothermic and we’re skiing corn, I favor the . With 25 liters of capacity and the best carry system I’ve ever found in a ski pack (you can customize the fit in about one minute), the pack is just big enough for yurt or car-accessed spring touring without swinging around on your back. In winter, though, I ski with an avy airbag pack. I use an older version of the . The airbag is inflated by a battery-powered fan built with special technology that makes it indifferent to cold. It’s rechargeable at home, and in the field you can restuff the airbag and get a second inflation. It’s still 720 grams lighter than any other electronic system.

Helmet and Goggles
Anon Merak helmet ($320) and M3 Perceive goggles ($230)

Helmets and goggles have always been suited to skiing in-bounds and out. So the smart play is to pursue safety first, which is what Burton did with its new line of WaveCel helmets by Anon. WaveCel is a zigzagging polymer matrix that’s used as a liner in the new . In a crash, the waves flex to reduce the initial forces. Then, like the front end of a modern car, the materials crumple, absorbing still more energy. Finally, the matrix glides to combat rotational forces. For a smooth fit, I pair up the Merak with Anon’s . It’s one of the top magnetic-lens-change goggles I’ve tried—I could swap lenses in a storm on the chairlift. The comfort against the face is best in class thanks to three-layer face foam. And the tuned gray/rose tint boosts contrast and seems to work in a huge range of conditions.

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