Perhaps all you need to know about the Rebels i.Speed is that, had the FIS not begun tinkering with dimensional requirements for GS skis in 2006, this would have been Bode Miller’s or Ted Ligety’s or Hermann Maier’s ski. Its appearance here at the bottom of our pile is more of measure of our mutable spring test conditions and the fact that real-deal GS race skis are tough to favorably evaluate at subsonic speeds.

The i.Speed pouts until it’s given free rein on snow hard as tarmac, with an open throttle – “the faster, the better,” Zac Larsen of The Lifthouse advised – and a pilot capable of executing the edge angles it needs to be controlled.  That’s a lot of provisos for an everyday ski for the not-every-day skier.  It takes some moxie to toss your skis as far away as your legs will allow when the snow just below your hip is as hard and slippery as a polished slab of Vermont marble and you’re traveling at speeds that would get you pulled over in 48 states; but just in case you’re so inclined there are a few ski makers like Head – thank Ullr – willing to make skis that are ready to make this move when you are.