Pro Guiding Service - Boards to Ski It All

Skiers that like to carve it all (powder, crud, corduroy, bumps), generally gravitate towards what manufacturers call "all-mountain skis." Rest assured if a ski did something amazingly well--like shred the GS course, fly through slalom gates, snake through bumps, or float through powder--it would be hyped accordingly. But all mountain skis are those bastard boards, those medium achievers, that do everything well but nothing brilliantly.

Of course if you love skiing the whole mountain--on and off piste--your marriage to such boards is probably the right one. Why? Because like the skis themselves you too probably handle all elements of the mountain (the ungroomed slopes, bumps, steeps, and gates) well but not brilliantly. You're a compromiser. So you'll like compromised skis.

Although ski reviews are meant to move product--new product-- The recommendations I gave backcountry skiers last year still apply. The K2 Four provides an excellent all-mountain ride. The Head Cyber 24X rips whether it's on or off piste. The Dynastar Coupe X-9, with its slimmer, straighter profile, is perfect if you head for the bumps as often as you hunt powder. And the Dynastar Big Max 1 is an amazingly lightweight board that your legs will appreciate when you're touring, yet carves well when the heels are locked down.

Now the trend in all-mountain skis is moving from tools like the K2 Four with measurements of 98-65-87mms, and the Head Cyber (97-61-87mm) to the mid-fats which measure around 105mm at the tip, 69mm under foot, and 95mm in the tail. After riding many of these boards at industry demo days, and after interviewing backcountry types who were not sponsored skiers (i.e. not on the Gravy Train), here's my new A-list of all-mountain riders.

K2: X-15

The X-15 is basically a K2 Morrison stripped of its metal topsheet. A mid-season introduction with measurements of 106-70-94mm, the X-15 is a high-speed free-riding board that handles powder and crud deftly. Lay it on edge and it cleaves through crusts and styrofoam snow without stuttering or deflecting.

Not being overly portly in width, the X-15 also does what a fat ski can't: Carve cleanly down the groomers. Let the ski run straight and it's not exactly a Mercedes on the autobahn but it rips with only a trace of the shaped-ski jitters.

Theoretically, a ski of this width has less power transferred to the edge when layed on edge. Frankly, the power loss of the mid-fats reviewed (including the X-15) felt more academic than problematic. Then again, I didn't run these planks down icy race courses.

Weight is perhaps the main drawback of mid-fat skis like the X-15. A pair of these guys weighs 2 pounds more than a pair of Dynastar Big Max 1s. That's no sweat if high-speed quads accrue most of your vertical. But if you frequently climb under your own steam, two extra pounds moved over 15,000 steps represents beau coup calories.

VOLKL CROSS RANGER

The Volkl Ranger was a revolutionary ski in bringing fat skis into a more versatile all-mountain configuration. Volkl has sold the heck out of the Ranger but the current evolution of skis indicates thinner, shapelier products like the X-15, ski the powder and crud well and handle the groomed better. In other words, the mid-fats are a more versatile all-mountain board

Volkl's response to the move? The birth of their own mid-fat called the Cross Ranger (dimensions: 105-69-93 mm). Much of what was said about the X-15 applies to the Cross Ranger. I liked it. Having skied it back-to-back with the X-15, however, I found the X-15 livelier and more in synch with my style of skiing (I prefer turning over ripping). Other testers I questioned told me they preferred the dampened ride of the Cross Ranger.

Either ski will serve you well, but if you want to eliminate all buyer's remorse, ride both of these mid-fats before you lay down cash.

SALOMON: X-MOUNTAIN

Over the past two seasons you've seen the ads with Salomon's free-riding heroes (Dean Cummings, Kristin Ulmer, the DesLaurier brothers) on these puppies.

For good reason--they've been given skis. Of course this crew is good enough to demand their pick of boards. The fact that they stick their endorsements (and their necks) on the X-Mountain is strong testimony.

The X-Mountain, with its 100-75-89cm measurements, borders on the domain of the mid-fats, but it has less shape than the X-15s, Cross Rangers, and Salomon X-Screams (also a dynamite mid-fat). A lot of the hard cores who take these skis onto the ultra steeps like that because they have better contact with the slope under foot and can release the edge faster. They also have a ski that pivots easier (rather than one designed for carving) so they can slough off speed when necessary.

Even without a Bay-Watch shape, the X-Mountains move seamlessly between fresh snow and groomed runs. While skiing with Powder's contributing editor, Bruce Edgerly, this winter, his X-Mountains were keeping him considerably more buoyant in the Cascadian "powder" than my traditional boards. He was ripping through trees at speeds that had me thinking of Sonny Bono.

Later, when we moved on-piste, I figured my skis would rule but Bruce was dusting me on the groomers and bumps as well. Maybe it has something to do with ability, but I want to believe the X-Mountain is one awesome board.

ATOMIC BETA CARV-X 9.26

The last three skis handle well not just because their width provides a large platform for floatation, but because their mass provides momentum for carving. That mass cleaves difficult cruds and crusts.

Mass is of little consequence when you are married to the lifts, but when you strike out on long backcountry tours, you pay for extra poundage. Too much poundage and what seemed like a hop, skip, and jump turns into a bridge too far. Hence the need for boards that target the gray zone between skiability and heftability.

One stellar candidate: Atomic's Beta Carv-X 9.26. It's a half-pound per ski heavier than the Dynastar Big Max (see archived article) but is still a light board under foot. And it makes up for being slightly heavier when you clamp down the heels.

Naturally a thinner ski like this one (97-62-88 cm) won't float as effortlessly though powder and crud as the mid-fats, but good skiers will have absolutely no trouble skiing the 9.26 in any snow. It carves ice, busts crud, devours powder. That may explain why it was Europe's largest-selling all-mountain ski last year.

The onslaught of mid-fats is going to take the steam out its sales, but if you want a tool that does it all and is not too heavy to tote to places where you can get it all, look into the Beta Carv-X 9.26