Ski

The Dynafit brand is the epitome of mountain endurance sports. The brand values are speed, lightness, endurance and technology. Dynafit's traditionally ascent-oriented ski lineup has now evolved into four different divisions: Race, Speed, Tour and Free.

With the Catamaran, K2 is introducing another asymmetric backcountry ski alongside the Marksman, which was released last season. The ski with a 120mm waist width replaces the Shreditor 120 (Pettitor) in the playful powder ski category. As with the Marksman, freeski legend Pep Fujas was in charge of the development. Find out what the completely new development has to offer and how it compares to its predecessors and competitor models in this test.

"All Terain. All the Time" is the slogan of the Line Pandora 95, a ski designed for women with a center width of 95 mm and a freeride shape that is supposed to work anywhere and everywhere. We have put this claim by the ski makers from the USA to the test and naturally don't want to withhold the results.

"A true all-rounder with unique 3D.Ridge technology for the best stability and liveliness on and off the slopes." This is how the 90EIGHT is described by Völkl and I tested the ski for precisely these characteristics (all-round suitability on and off-piste).

Scott's popular Scrapper 124 now has a little brother, which is supposed to be more maneuverable and an all-rounder at the same time. The ski not only impresses with spectacular images on the screen in "La Liste", but also shows its best side in the endurance test. The combination of lightweight construction and racy downhill performance make the ski very interesting for freeriders who are prepared to take on the odd climb for a big mountain line.

The new 16/17 season K2 Marksman is designed as an all-mountain freerider with a penchant for freestyle. The ski, with a center width of 106mm, was developed together with K2 Factory team boss and freeride legend Pep Fujas in the K2 development laboratory with the marketing idea "Area 62". The idea of a universal "shred ski" that is fun in powder as well as on runs on and off the piste is appealing and in times when more and more skis with a 102 mm center width are on the move in the parks, it seems that its time has come. In the following gear reviews, we'll let you know whether the Marksman delivers on its promises.

The manufacturer Dynafit has had so-called freetourers in its range for several years. These are wide touring skis which, thanks to modern materials such as carbon, are light enough to master long ascents and still deliver good downhill performance in powder thanks to their width. The Meteorite is just such a free tourer. We took a closer look at the ski and tested it in various conditions.

As was to be expected, there are hardly any innovations or groundbreaking new products in the ski sector for the 2017/18 season. Ultimately, almost all manufacturers are taking up the ideas from previous years and presenting them in the form of further expanded freetouring series. They try to differentiate themselves from one another through various lightweight construction methods and sometimes incorporate complex designs into the ski structure, or offer a cheaper price point or entry-level model. Flagship models are given an asymmetric sidecut with an asymmetric tip design, which is presumably a foretaste of the ski design in the coming years. As we saw last year, powder twin tips continue to die out for many major manufacturers. There are more and more directional, lightweight skis with center widths of 90-110mm or for "bad snow".

We recently asked our readers to tell winter jokes as part of a competition. This suggestion was well received and we collected quite a few. We have compiled the results again for the sake of clarity and are now presenting them in a non-judgmental way and sorted by category.

When it comes to skiing, the Norwegian company "Stereoskis" not only focuses on winter, but also produces high-quality (alpine) skis and water skis. This is how the basic idea of Stereoskis "Never stop skiing" came about. Since we at PowderGuide are known to have less to do with skiing on the water, but prefer to ski in the snow, we were given the opportunity to test an (alpine) ski from Stereoskis.

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!

Salomon has combined all the know-how of recent years and incorporated the experience from the MTN series and the Rocker² series into the new QST product line. You can read in the next few lines whether the concept lives up to its promise...