It’s difficult to overstate the benefits bestowed by 3D.Glass, the craftily configured sheet of fiberglass that elevates the edge grip of every model it touches. The secret to 3D.Glass’s effectiveness is that it doesn’t just lay on the bottom of the stack of laminated components, but runs up the sidewall and tucks over its top, essentially forming an anchored, open box with the other elements as filling.
3D.Glass makes a ski livelier because glass is the springiest material in the ski. It makes a ski more resistant to twist because it has its own sidewalls. It helps maintain edge contact on hard snow and bat away clumps of broken snow off trail. It can’t put your boots on for you, but it does just about everything else you’d want in a lightweight, responsive companion.
Elsewhere in the 2018 Völkl collection, the All-Mountain series headlined by the immortal Mantra adds a skinny little brother/sister tandem, Kanjo for men and a new Yumi that copies the Kanjo’s shape and construction. Both new models are reinforced with the same Titanal Band technology introduced last year in the Confession.