Ski Reviews 2004/2005

Fall, 2004-- The word this year is "mid-fat," as several manufacturer's have moved to update their offerings in this category after a spate of fat ski introductions over the past couple of seasons. And of course the big news this fall is also the introduction of a brand new line of telemark and backcountry oriented skis from G3. We wiil have complete reviews of all of these skis and more, so stay tuned!

Igneous FFF Dimensions: 145/118/125,..Lengths 180, 185, 190, .Weight: 4.32 kg, 9 lbs 8.4 ozs (180)   March, 2005-- The Igneous FFF is the big one in a line that features nothing but fat skis (their skinniest boards have a 116 tip and an 88mm waist) . The FFFs we've been testing have a white maple core, a maple veneer top sheet and beautifully crafted, horizontal grain, white maple sidewalls. Incorporated into each tail is a bar of T-6061 aluminum for durability, and the wood core is protected from core-shots though the sintered graphite base by a layer of Kevlar-like aramid fiber cloth. The fiberglass cloth wrapping is the triaxial-braided type. Edges are R-33 steel and Igneous says they have an "over-size profile." The side edges look to be about as thick as most other skis, but the base edges appear to be nearly as thick as the oversized edges on Karhu's Agent park skis. In recent weeks we have had the Iggys out in near waist deep untracked powder, on cut up resort snow, very firm groomers, and even some soft bumps. We've had a lot of fun testing these skis and everywhere we've been they have turned heads, both for their impressive girth and striking good looks. But hey, the real test is here is how they ski, right? If there were an illustrated dictionary of skiing related words and phrases, a photo of the Igneous FFFs would undoubtedly appear next to the term "ultimate quiver ski," for that is precisely what they are.   Many diehard powderhounds will tell you that they prefer skis with less sidecut for deep powder. The FFFs bring to the table a very fat shape and with very little sidecut, especially from the waist to the tail ( just 7mms, by comparison the G3 Reverends have 17 ). The FFFs deliver a shape made in heaven for these powder connoisseurs. We found the Iggys to be a superb ride in the fluff. No, they were better than that, but mere words cannot describe the pleasure to be found on these skis in deep powder. Floating up and down and arcing smooth turns in that natural, flowing, effortless sort of way. And all that mass makes for outstanding stability. In the longer lengths tele-ers looking to launch big airs would loves these boards, both for stomping landings and for their great soft snow performance. Firm snow is another matter altogether. As skis keep growing in width, we've been wondering when the upper limit might be reached for an all-around fat ski. With their 97mm waist, Karhu's Jak proved that a really fat tele ski could serve nicely as an all-mountain, all conditions (nearly) one pair quiver. So how much more fat could we go before giving up a fair measure of versatility? Well, with these FFFs we would seem to have found the answer: a 118 waist might be too much. Getting an edge in on firm snow was just this side of impossible. With the severely limited sidecut, when we did manage to get them to bite they didn't want to turn, not at all. And remember the bad old days when tele skis would just let go on decent medium-firm snow for no apparent reason? These skis tooks us back there a few times. We'd all but forgotten that special hip-slamming feeling! The FFFs were much better in soft bumps. Their extreme stability in a short length (for us) were a real pleasure. Surprisingly quick edge to edge and easy to throw around, they made short work of every soft bump field we took them down. With so much of the turn being made while unweighted the lack of sidecut went unnoticed. They were truly a blast in soft to medium bumps, and that was easily the biggest surprise of this test. We never did get a chance to ski them in a really firm bump field though. Conclusion: For the first time ever we are giving a pair of skis a sort of split decision, two tips way up for powder and soft snow, and two tips way down for firm snow. If you like having multiple pairs of skis for various conditions, and you have an appreciation for fine workmanship...oh, and you anticipate having a spare $1,180 (the list price) to throw down sometime, you'll probably want to put the Igneous FFFs on your wish list. They are pretty special. $1,180 special? Well, we aren't so sure about that, but maybe. It kind of depends on you, where you ski, the type of person you are and, of course, the size of your wallet. If you ski a lot of powder, particularly powder you aren't climbing to get to (after all, in the shortest length these boards are pushing ten pounds without bindings!), and you can work past the hefty price tag for a pair of boards you aren't going to use all the time, then go for it. You will not be disappointed. The Igneous FFFs are truly the ultimate addition to any complete ski quiver. www.igneousskis.com   Powder and soft snow:     Firm snow and all-around:

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G3's Reverend Dimensions: 126/93/114....... Lengths 177, 185....WWeight: 4.0 kg, 8.8 lbs (185 pair) January, 2005-- We've spent more than a dozen days on the Revs now, at the ski area as well as touring for backcountry turns. In that time we have been fortunate to experience everything from waist-deep, light powder to hardpack, and almost everything in between. We've broken trail in up to a foot of fresh and racked up many, many thousands of vertical feet off the top of our local area's 11,053 foot summit. The Reverends are wood core skis with a vertical sidewalls, tapering to cap construction near the tips and tails. This approach to sidewall design attempts to combine the superior edge hold characteristics of a vertical sidewall ski, with the torsional rigidity of a cap ski at the ends where its needed most. G3 builds the Reverends using tri-axial braided glass cloth and sintered P-tex 6000 bases. The Revs are medium stiff, a little stiffer than Karhu Jaks, but close in stiffness to the Rossi Bandit XXX/T4. Flex is quite round, but to us it felt as though the tails were a little more stiff than the ski forebody, giving the Revs a nice, predictable amount of snap out of the turn. We tested the 185 model and for their length and dimension they were surprisingly faster edge to edge than other skis in their class. This is likely due to the Reverends relative lightweight for its type: a half pound lighter per pair than 180 Jaks, and three quarters of pound lighter than Rossi's T4. With 33 millimeters of sidecut, the Reverends walk the line very well between between too much and too little. One of the criticisms we had of the T4s last year was, that with just 28 millimeters of sidecut, they required a lot more foot steering, and were considerably more work than what we were used to. Not so the Revs, these are easy turning skis that love to make medium to short radius turns, but with a wide-cut tail that lets you out of the turn nicely, without ever getting hooky.   In powder we found the Revs to be equally at home making long, surfy turns, tracking confidently down the mountain. As would be expected from a ski of its size, the Reverends have lots of float, giving the rider that deep powder sensation, even in the not-so-deep. G3 ski designer Paul Parker has found a nice balance of weight-to-stability with the Revs. As indicated above, they are not as heavy as most of skis in their class but they lose none of the stability usually associated with heavier boards. These skis really shine in untracked fluff, but stick with you later in the day as the mountain gets cut up. Backcountry variable snow performance was equally as impressive. Hardpack? Well, that's not really what the Rev is all about, but like some other the top of the line way-fat skis, they do a pretty decent job with a little feathering at the end of the turn and with big boots. The Jaks were the first really fat tele boards to demonstrate that skis of this type could be versatile enough to be used as a one-ski quiver, but based on our experience the Reverends have the edge in hardpack performance. These are big boards designed to be ridden hard, so most skiers will probably want to match them with big boots, though in the backcountry we found plenty of love driving the Revs with Garmont Syner-Gs. They were enough boot, but we would not recommend going to a much lighter model, even for longer tours. The Reverends are a ski that you will naturally want to be aggressive with, and boots that can keep up would seem mandatory. One other note: the tips of the Revs are fairlry low profile, yet we had no trouble breaking trail in fresh snow. Their tips are so broad that they ride up and over the snow quite nicely. Conclusion: Well, what can we say? A solid two-tips up for the Reverends. These skis were a bit of a surprise. With the Paul Parker connection, we went into the testing cycle of all the new G3 skis expecting, maybe subconsciously at least, boards that would resemble in some way the late Tua line that never made it to the shelves, nope, not at all. Not even close. The Reverends are far and away superior in every way to anything Parker has been connected with previously, raising the bar across the board on this class of ski. Frankly, we were most surprised by the maturity (for lack of a better word) of the entire line, but particularly the Reverends They just don't feel at all like anybody's first-year line. Versatile, confident and a hell of a lot of fun, right out of the box G3 has gone and produced a strong candidate for fat tele ski of the year. The Reverends are nothing less than a triumphant return for Paul Parker, as well as a startlingly sweet entry into the world of ski manufacturing for Oliver Steffen and the G3 crew.

Karhu's Agent An agile and durable park ski with a playful, all-mountain personality Dimensions: 110/80/103...Lengths: 157, 167, 177(tested),...Weight: 7 lbs 8ozs (3,402gr) December, 2004-- The Agents have an Aspen/ Birch wood core wrapped with Karhu's "4D" quad-woven fiberglass cloth. Designed for progressive freeheel park skiing, the Agent's come with a thick sintered base and extra thick steel edges to withstand thousands of rail and funbox slides, as well as big air landing abuse. Karhu has a lot of experience building park skis for it's sibling alpine company, Line Skis, and the Agent would appear to have much in common with Line's popular Chronic model, including the 110/80/103 sidecut and 56mm tip and tail, making the Agent and Chronic both true twintips. Lorenzo Worster told us last year that the Agent was "by far the best park ski" he's ever been on, and feedback we have received from our own park riding testers has been similarly effusive. Smooth and responsive, very maneuverable, predictable and consistent, that's how our park riders described the Agents. Considering Line's great park ski reputation, and given the Karhu connection, none of this came as a shock. What was at least somewhat surprising, however, was how capable and fun Karhu's Agent is for all-mountain tele skiing. Bumps (BT especially liked them here), cut up crud, groomed, firm windpack, fresh powder with a base to push off of, and in variable snow, the Agents are at home in all of these places and conditions. Easy to throw around yet with a solid feel, the Agent's ski like a larger and heavier pair of boards, but without all the work. These are skis best described as "playful." Maybe knowing the ski's lineage had us thinking this way already, but the Agent's have us seeking out windlips to pop off of and excuses to ski fakie every time we take them out, which has been quite often over the last 8 or 9 months. And it's not as if we've been grabbing them out of the roof-top box for those reasons alone...no, they've been getting skied a lot for their solid all-mountain performance, their playfulness being more of a bonus. The Agents even went along last year on several Tioga Pass backcountry day trips, where they were the ski of choice for their ability to handle sun cupped spring snow more like a fatter, much heavier pair of skis. Conclusion: Two Tips Up. While the Agents are, obviously, a great choice for park ridding tele jibbers and freestylers who are looking for a pair of skis that combine bombproof durability with a nimble feel, Karhu's new offering should not be overlooked by freeheel skiers interested in an all-mountain capable ride that just might encourage them to take their skiing in a new direction or two. Karhu's Agents are strong in the bumps, the groomed, spring snow and, of course in the park. In deep powder most skiers will probably want something wider underfoot, but in all other conditions the Agent's are fun, fun, fun. A great addition to any quiver.

The Ethic from Black Diamond Dimensions: 114/79/104 (185), 112/79/102 (176) Sizes: 158, 167, 176, 185..Weight: 8 lbs 4 ozs, 3.76kg (185) As we mentioned in a recent "First Look" at the Ethics, BD's latest mid-fat offering uses their new 3-D, hybrid, Densolite foam and wood combination core, intending to harness some of the best characteristics inherent in both of these proven core materials. This dual component construction consists of wood running along the full length of the base to give the Ethics the kind of snappiness generally found only in wood core skis, while a layer of Densolite on top allows for the formation of the profiled top of the Dual Torsion Bow geometry. BD's theory behind their new hybrid core is that each component has a natural vibration frequency unique to it alone. When two components with dissimilar harmonic frequencies are combined, peak vibrations are cancelled out, resulting in a lively ski with less vibration. The Ethics also utilize BD's familiar C-Matrix cap construction-- a fiberglass shell around the top and sides with aluminium vapor deposition particles impregnated in the resin. Testing of the Ethics began for us last winter in Utah and California, continued in the summer at Mt. Hood, and resumed this fall at Mammoth Mountain. An exceptionally good start to our local season allowed us to get significant time on these skis in mid-winter like conditions. That's Big Tim to the right, putting our test pair of Ethics through their paces in Dropout One chute at Mammoth. It's steep terrain, and that is where we found the Ethics to be most at home. Lively and quick turning, the Ethics are a hop-turner's delight, hooking up early and coming around reliably, with good rebound to set up for the next turn. We primarily tested the Ethics in the 185 length, but also spent some time on 176s. We found both to be exceptionally quick edge-to-edge, with the 176 length being most suitable for steep skiing even by larger framed skiers (like us), though the 185s definitely were more stable when letting them run on moderate terrain. . The shorter length would likely be our choice if we were primarily spending time skiing very technical lines or ski mountaineering, while the longer Ethics would be the call for more general resort and backcountry use. Moderately stiff, the shorter length Ethics should be expected to retain their quick turning snappiness for lighter weight skiers. With a waist width of only 79mm, the Ethics would not be a first choice, go-to ski for either BT or myself on a deep, soft day, and with a flex that is more lively than soft and round, we'd probably tend to choose another ride for fresh powder, but the Ethics are quite damp when cruising at higher speeds in variable snow. This is a surprise for such a snappy ski and is probably attributable to the unique core construction and perhaps due also to the fact that this is not a particularly lightweight ski. The Ethics cruise more like burlier boards. Conclusion: Two tips up for excellent performance in the conditions and terrain for which the Ethics would seem to have been designed: corn, firm and edgeable windpack, crud with a base... snow that pushes back...steeps...and for fast cruising, particularly when driven on edge rather than skiing them flat. The Ethics are fun boards and would be great tools for tele and backcountry skiers who spend a lot of time skiing technical lines where snap turns and precise arcs rule the day. The unique construction would seem to hold much promise for future designs as well, combining the snappiness of a dominatrix's whip with the steady and damp feel of a beefier ride.

Karhu Kodiak One of two new "Bear Series" skis from Karhu, the Kodiak uses a unique construction to achieve all-mountain performance that keeps up with the burliest of hard chargers... Dimensions: 117/80/105...Lengths: 166, 176, 186cm....Weight: 7 lbs (176) October, 2004-- Karhu's new "Bear Series" skis include the Kodiak and the Grizzly. We skied the Kodiak extensively during the second half of last winter in a variety of conditions. I say "we" but need to explain that Big Tim was the lead tester of the Kodiaks, getting probably 80% of the time on them. Why? Because he simply wouldn't give them up! The Kodiak skis use an aspen and birch wood core, stone ground sintered bases, hardened steel edges and Karhu's familiar "4D" fiberglass wrap construction, but the big story here is Karhu ski designer François Sylvain's innovative use of a Titanal top layer that includes several small tabs in the underfoot area, that wrap around the ski's sidewalls and contact the edges.   Dubbed "Powerclaws," these tabs alter the skier's pressure distribution under the foot. As the skis flex, the tabs create a series of "flat spots," each of which represent an increase in pressure as the ski carves into the turn. "On harder snow, as the ski bends, these claws will create spikes in the pressure distribution curve," explains Sylvain, "giving the Kodiak amazing grip." The tabs themselves transfer energy to the edges directly as well, but François says the flat spots the tabs create are the key to understanding how the Power Claws work, "these small rigid areas along the middle portion of the ski are what drive the edge so hard into the snow while carving."   The Titanal layer on top also includes what Karhu calls "V-Band" shaping at the tip and the tail, and reduced width leading into the thicker-cored mid-sections of the ski where less Titanal is needed. All this is intended to save weight where possible and markedly improve the ski's swing weight characteristics.   With what are quickly becoming classic all-mountain dimensions among the various tele ski makers, the Kodiak seeks to combine generous sidecut for carving performance with a stable 80mm underfoot platform for soft and fresh snow performance. And according to Big Tim, Karhu hit their mark, "I know it sounds like a cliche but the Kodiak is extremely stable and predictable, moving from soft to hard snow in a single run without the slightest hesitation," says BT. "They are very quick edge to edge and hold that edge like there is no tomorrow, yet release out of the turn effortlessly when the time comes." Perhaps the biggest surprise to BT was how powerful the Kodiaks skied, even in the very short (for him) 176 length of our test pair. "They kept up with me every time, on the steeps, in the bumps and flats, even while chasing hard chargers around the mountain, they never let me down," says Tim. "The wide upper area of the Kodiak's performance envelope, that part of their range where everything is clicking without the boards feeling over powered, is the most impressive thing about these skis to me, especially for a 176...I had a hard time believing they were that short...the 186s would probably be even better for me." Our take on the PowerClaws is that they really do work as François describes, giving our Kodiaks superb edge hold even as their tune started to get a little ragged. A solid performer in fresh powder, snappy and responsive on the steeps, and sure footed in crud and mank, the Kodiaks were BT's "go to" ski all spring.   François Sylvain on the Kodiak's innovative & unique design.  16mb Windows Media  2mb Windows Media Big Tim Connolly riding the Kodiaks at Mammoth Mountain. 5mb Windows Media  1mb Windows Media Conclusion: Two tips up for the Kodiak's ability to maintain their excellent performance even when driven very hard, particularly when one considers that these 176s were pushed in a way that what would seem to be well past their design limits. Versatile and powerful, the Kodiaks should be a big hit for Karhu. With their edge to edge quickness the Kodiaks are solid performers in the bumps. Relatively light for it's dimensions, they would make a good choice for performance oriented backcountry skiing, yet they also shine in bounds as well. The Kodiak's strong edging characteristics combine with its mid-fat dimensions to make them really solid performers on both hard and soft snow. Karhu's Jak skis set a new standard for fat tele skis a couple of years ago, now Karhu has an equally impressive and innovative all-mountain ski to give their many fans a chance to maintain an all-Karhu, do it all, two-ski quiver.   Cover | Site Map | News Page | Talk Forum

 

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