While the changes to the Kanjo-type construction have palpably improved the Yumi’s performance, it remains an excellent choice for skiers of modest skills. “A little stiffer, but skill forgiving enough for a moderate skier,” confirms Mary Geddes of Sturtevant’s of Sun Valley. Now that it’s been modified to improve its off-trail aptitude, the Yumi provides a better introduction than ever to off-piste skiing.
3D.Glass would be nothing fancier than another base layer of glass were it not for a clever modification: in the binding area the glass extends vertically up the sidewall and over the top of it. It’s sort of a demi-torsion box, with much the same effect as this time-honored glass molding technique: the ski becomes both more torsionally rigid and livelier, as the hard-wired memory of the glass will dominate the rebound characteristic.
You won’t find another ski with a 112mm waist and 23.5m sidecut radius that would rather carve on a high edge angle than smear like a putty knife. It’s not that it won’t drift – of course it will – but it feels predisposed to carve on its razor-thin 3D.Ridge of compressed carbon. The V-Werks Katana was the test pilot for the 3D.Ridge design that has since permeated Völkl’s high-end All-Mountain and Frontside models. The V-Werks Katana proved that the concept could apply equally well to deep-sidecut carving skis and broad-beam powder surfers.
Völkl has been making superior powder boards since the days of the Snow Ranger and Explosiv. The Confession is the modern version of a venerable wood-and-metal construction with camber underfoot, a retro touch that gives the ski liveliness to go along with its power. As a concession to the Confession’s 117mm waist width, the metal contribution is only one laminate and is confined to a central band rather than running wall to wall.
The Black Pearl is such a runaway hit that Blizzard applied the name to every model in its All-Mountain Freeride collection, rechristening the Samba as the Black Pearl 98. More than just the name is new: the Black Pearl 98 has considerably more shape than the Samba and the front rocker is made to connect a little earlier. These changes elevate the new ski’s hard snow performance without diminishing its natural predisposition to ski anything else but.