Which skis you want or would recommend to your friend, and why?

The 2010 Gear Guide published by Backcountry Magazine obviously contains ski reviews among other gear. By now everyone that bought this gear guide issue knows what their testers think about the skis that were available to them.

However, there are more skis out there than can be contained in one test and more importantly there are many more different “tastes” than those represented by the testers. Therefore, I thought it would be great if we all get to say what would make our “Editor’s Choice” list.

How does this work? What do you do?

The way this works is based on your honest opinion or a desired choice.

In the comments section below, you can either state reasons why would you love to have (own) a certain ski or why would you recommend a specific pair to your best friend.

So the rules are simple – be honest, make sure to give good reasons (why?) and pick no more than two pairs of skis. And you can go as wild as you want with brands or types of skis you would recommend – wide, skinny, super light, hard, soft…

How did the Backcountry Magazine review work?

The magazine ski review was basically divided into two categories – freeride skis and all mountain skis.

The freeride skis were on the fatter side – about 110 to 140mm wide under foot. The all mountain skis were in the range of around 86 to 105mm wide. Then of course there were other properties but this seems to be trend these days in terms of widths and how we categories a ski based on this one single figure.

This is quite interesting because about 15 years ago an 85mm ski would be almost unheard of. And the magazine states in their own words that in 1994 they featured a story: “…about new ‘super wide’ skis that [were] 85mm at the waist.”

It is amazing how our perception changes with time and evolution. And also, I believe this perception is shaped a lot by the terrain and snow we ski the most often. Because on the West Coast you can “get away” with a narrower ski, even on a powder day, than you could in some bottomless interior regions.

My picks

My desired ski would be something that floats enough and behaves fairly well in most conditions. Therefore, it would be around 85-95mm at the waist and perhaps weigh no more than 1600gm per ski. So my choice might be…Ski Trab Stelvio Light XL…or Dynafit Mustagh Ata Superlight.

A ski that I would recommend to a friend, based on my own experience, would be a super light ski mountaineering ski for fast backcountry missions or skimo racing competitions.

The skis would be Dynastar Pierra Menta Pro or its carbon version. It is quite stiff for its weight (870gm per 164cm ski for the non-carbon version) and it is still 65mm wide under the foot.

Now go on share your own pics. This should be interesting