by Jackson Hogen | Aug 16, 2019
Among elite consumer products, it’s hard to imagine a more hard-luck case than that of race skis in America. A mere 25 years ago, if you had any pretensions at all of being an expert they were the only game in town. Now they’re not even considered in the discussion of...
by Jackson Hogen | Aug 16, 2019
Because Non-FIS Race skis aren’t often in a rep’s demo inventory, I take special pains to collect as many as I can and corral them at Footloose, near the base of Mammoth Mountain. I also recruit ex-racers like Jim Schaffner of Start Haus and Theron Lee of Bobo’s, both...
by Jackson Hogen | Aug 16, 2019
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 | Aug 16, 2019
The Technical category isn’t completely dead, but it’s not exactly alive and kicking, either. Let’s call it suspended animation, as every 2019/20 Recommended model is a replica of its predecessor. To honor the category’s undisturbed tranquility, all the unisex reviews...
by Jackson Hogen | Aug 16, 2019
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...
