Faction, the freeski brand from Verbier, has been on the rise for years. Most freeskiers should be familiar with Faction, at least since Candide Thovex has been riding the boards of the Swiss company. In recent years, they have also signed Sam Anthamatten to a top-class freeski team (including Duncan Adams, Adam Delorme, Alex Hall, Antti Ollila, Kelly Sildaru, Johnny Collinson) and produced webisodes and skimovies for the freeskiing public. Faction is now also one of the few ski brands to focus exclusively on freeski and touring skis, similar to Armada or 4FRNT. Here, the freeski models are not a niche product in the overall portfolio, but the core business. Candide has had its promodels at Faction for a long time, the CT 1.0 - 4.0 models are probably the brand's best-known skis. In addition to these, Faction also has a second backcountry/freeski line on offer - the Prodigy series. These are also numbered from 1.0 to 4.0. Last winter, I was able to extensively test the widest model, the Prodigy 4.0 in 186cmm.
Who tests what exactly?
I am 189cm tall and weigh 80kg, like to ski everywhere and rather playfully, jump a lot and also like to ski fast sometimes. I don't mind choppy snow in the ski area, soft landings are more important to me. My setup in recent years has been a powder ski with a 120mm center width for days with fresh snow, as well as a slightly narrower twin tip with a good 100mm center width for piste, park, firn touring, etc. I've been lucky enough to try out just about every ski that interested me over the last 10 years.
About the ski:
Length: 186cm (measured tip->Tail: 184cm)
Binding: Salomon STH2 16, approx. -2cm behind True Center
Boots: Dalbello Krypton Pro, Lupo 130C & Factory
First impression
I was actually looking for a test ski that would fit my previous pattern - approx. 120mm for the powder ski, a good 100mm for the "normal" ski. When I enquired at Faction, they "only" had a Prodigy 4.0 available in the longer lengths. Although this is the widest ski in the range, it only has 112mm under the binding. At first glance, the stated 186cm was also too short for a powder ski. Is the ski a slightly narrower powder ski or a slightly wider all-mountain twintip? I also didn't know what to make of the Prodigy line at first - Faction already has a line with a similar area of use with the CT models and I originally thought the Prodigy skis were low-budget or "consumer" models.