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ISPO Report 2015 | Part 3: Ski

No surprises

by Tobias Huber • 02/08/2015
The third part of our coverage of ISPO 2015 deals with the new products in the freeride and touring ski sector. As in previous years, a slow evolution continues to take place in the ski sector. We didn't see a revolution in ski design at the trade fair, but we didn't expect one either.

As started by some manufacturers last year, the trend towards lightweight construction is continuing in a wide range of variations. Some brands have tidied up their product portfolio and a large proportion of freeride skis are now so-called "freetourers", medium-width, relatively lightweight skis with a 50:50 ratio of ascent to descent. In mountain biking, this category would probably be referred to as "enduro".

The following is a brief overview of the trends in freeride and touring skis, more information on most ski companies can be found in the image galleries.

Trends

Nearly every manufacturer now has its own method of making wide skis as light as possible. Most readers are probably aware that super-light skis don't always ski super well. Manufacturers are working on various designs to counteract fluttering or the somewhat "brittle" ride of carbon etc.

Traditional ski companies usually offer freetourers in the mid-width range of 95-115 mm, plus two freestyle models for park and backcountry. Intermediate sizes and medium-width BC twintips are more likely to be found among pure freeski brands. Of course, this does not apply to all traditional manufacturers, but the trend in this direction can be seen in many of them.

A few years ago, a good ski was characterized by a classic sandwich construction in the eyes of freeriders; at some point, semi-cap constructions were added to reduce the flaking of the topsheet somewhat. Piste skis with their 3Dtm-something -*marketing term* constructions were rather ridiculed. However, the designs of today's "freetourers" are somewhat more reminiscent of such shapes and the marketing departments can also let off a little more steam again.

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In addition to carbon inserts in place of fiberglass or honeycomb constructions at the tip and tail, more and more lightweight wood cores are also being used. Balsa or Paulownia wood are replacing some or all of the wood types that have been established for years. As most lightweight cores offer less support for the binding screws, these have to be specially glued in or reinforcements are often incorporated in the appropriate places. Of course, this serves the durability, but perhaps sometimes reduces the options for binding selection and mounting point in individual cases.

Since, in our eyes, no manufacturer has presented a new milestone, here is, as usual, a tour of the skis on display from most brands.

Photo gallery

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