by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
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....
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
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...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
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...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
Technical skis are invariably high performance, hard-snow carving models that have race ski properties and similar dimensions yet aren’t actually intended as gate skis but as hard snow toys for people who probably had race training in the misty past. In today’s...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
There are no women’s race skis made for consumers, only unisex skis in shorter lengths. Thus has it ever been so. If you calculated all the varieties of race models already being built at great expense by the brands committed to the category, you’d understand why...
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 8, 2017
The women’s Big Mountain genre has bedeviled us since we began covering these super-fat models as a separate category five seasons ago. Part of the problem is that skis this wide require some semblance of new snow to be given a fair evaluation, limiting their appeal...
