The original idea behind making a ski as fat as 110mm underfoot wasn’t to open previously unskiable terrain to world-class athletes, but to allow those without such skills to be able to navigate less forbidding pitches when the snow is knee deep. Our Finesse Favorites...
When Atomic first introduced the Magic Powder around 1990, it was a mere curio, a fringe ski for punters in over their heads on a heli trip. Ten years later, the landscape had flipped over so the widest skis were “AK” models made for the guides, not their ducklings....
As I was sorting the Powder skis I’d essayed at Mammoth into Finesse and Power piles, three models emerged that resisted categorization. To pigeonhole them as Power skis would obscure their exceptional willingness to operate from any stance and remain tractable at any...
Any ski over 113mm underfoot can be thrown into a skid, but some would prefer it if the pilot knew how to point ‘em. Our Power picks not only aren’t afraid of speed, they live for it and to one degree or another, require it. Imagine you’re heli-skiing on a pitch...
Not much has changed since last season. There are no totally new models in this over-served category, and only four, the Salomon QST 118, Fischer Ranger 115, K2 Pinnacle 118 and Bent Chetler 120, tweaked their construction but without changing their shape. Not much...
