Lorenzo Rieg

With the Voltair series, the Canadians from Arc'teryx entered the booming market for avalanche airbag backpacks last season. The "small" Voltair tested here with a capacity of 20 l is not only characterized by the battery-operated airbag system, but also offers freeriders numerous other advantages.

After Fritschi, the traditional manufacturer of ski touring bindings from Switzerland, was able to gain a foothold in the pin binding market in recent years with the Vipec models, the new Tecton now presents a logical further development of the concept that is definitely worth seeing.

If you are going skiing for a longer period of time and no longer transport your ski equipment in your (own) car, a ski bag is essential. At the very latest, if you want to take your skis with you on the plane, you need a sturdy one. A good ski bag is not just for protecting your skis from damage.

Like its equally famous neighbor, Piz Palü, Piz Bernina is well known to almost everyone. As the easternmost 4000-metre peak in the Alps and situated in spectacular surroundings, it is often visited via various routes, with the most interesting skiing starting from the Diavolezza lifts.

As an elementary piece of safety equipment, the probe is (hopefully!) stowed in every freerider's or ski tourer's backpack and always ready to go. Actually, there is not much to such a probe and practically all models available on the market are likely to work reliably. For me, a "good" Sonder is therefore characterized more by a combination of the right little things.

After a number of new ideas have been implemented in the world of ski touring bindings in recent years, it is hardly surprising that Dynafit has also revised the "standard" binding and added a few new features.

For this season, Dynafit has given the extremely successful TLT series a major overhaul and has added a few more innovations to the TLT7 compared to the TLT6. This not only further reduces the already very low weight, but also further improves the great ascent performance. We have tested how the shoe performs in more freeride-heavy use.

As in previous years, a number of innovations from the booming ski touring sector were presented at ISPO 2017. Both the "classic" ski tourer and the "modern" freetourer are addressed. And the ever-growing sector of piste tourers and ski tour racers will also be provided with new equipment. We took a look around the trade fair and provide an overview of new ski boots and bindings that will be of interest to freeriders and downhill-oriented ski tourers.

With the Jetforce airbag system, the two companies Black Diamond and Pieps have developed the first avalanche airbag system that is inflated by a nozzle instead of compressed air or gas. This is powered by a rechargeable electronic system, which has a number of advantages.

With the Alvier combo, Mammut has an outfit in its range that cuts a fine figure for both freeriding and ski touring. The material used is the new Gore CK-nit, which, unlike Gore-Tex, is not only more breathable, but also softer and "quieter".

Anyone who frequently undertakes steep descents, goes on typical ski mountaineering tours or is simply out and about in the firn in spring will also regularly need crampons when skiing. This makes it all the more surprising that there are hardly any crampons that are really well adapted to ski boots. From a bridge that is too short to straps that are also too short and cumbersome to put on, everything happens. With many ski boots, normal automatic crampons also block the walking mode, which is of course particularly suboptimal.

In spring, I was actually in Altenmarkt for something else when I was asked by Atomic's marketing department: "Would you like to have a look at our ski production?" Of course, I didn't have to think twice. It's not every day that you get the opportunity to see one of the big ski production facilities from the inside!