This year our safety expert Chris Exall has reviewed ski and boot tests from around the world; from Ski, Skiing and Powder in the USA, Skipress and Ski Canada, Sporttest from Austria and France’s Skieur Magazine.
Here’s our medal-winning gear for 2010.
Once you start reading the tests you see that the same products start to appear, winners in Canada are gold medal skis in Austria. The cream, as they say rises.
This year designers have pulled on their thinking pants and come up with genuinely new, different ideas that set them apart from their competitors. If they don’t customers simply stick with their tried and tested gear and keep their money in the bank instead of the ski shop’s tills.
If any ski company tells you they’re having a bumper year be careful, you might just get knocked out by that Pinocchio nose as it grows ever larger; it’s tough out there. Even so there are some genuinely smart ideas on the market.
Rossignol Sensor Boots
The boot uses a neat setup where your heel, big toe and little toe sit almost directly on the shell and the centre of the foot is supported by a more forgiving footbed.
It’s these three zones which testers report send power to the ski and need a precise setting. Rossignol’s Steve Newlands tells me that the ‘Synergy sensor 100 is a great expert ski boot. I tested it and now use it myself. It’s a great shell, with good comfort and a good level of performance’. Cost £255
Scott Venturi ski
For years many people have tried sticking clever devices on ski tips, but most have had more to do with marketing than real performance. Scott’s venturi tip is genuinely different. Instead of a smooth base, simply turned up, the ski has a substantial dip scooped out in front of the contact point of the tip.
Scott tells me that this ‘increases the airflow from tip to tail’. Perhaps... but what it does do is allow the ski to float and steer more smoothly in deep snow and crud. This feature is on a number of Scott’s free ride skis including the Crusade.
Volkl
Volkl claims its bio-logic concept reduces knee injuries among female skiers. A combination of raising the toepiece so that it sits a little higher than the heel and a narrower tail allows Dr Jurgen Eichhorn of the ACL study group to say that ‘Bio-logic reduces the dangers to the knee’.
Salomon Shogun and Tornado Ti
At more than 100mm underfoot the Shogun is chubby e
nough to be thought of as a bit of a smiling Buddha of a ski. Most chunky free-ride skis have the performance of a tea tray when you try them on the groomed, however with a combination of a bamboo reinforced core and basalt reinforcement, reviews found that the £455 Shogun does really rock on piste as well as off.
If you want a true cross-mountain ski then look at the Tornado Ti. At £550 it is a true all-mountain machine – testers loved its versatility and reviews have it placed as a world rally car you can use for shopping.
Reviews out of the park also rate Salomon highly. A boot tight enough to perform can crush your toes in an off-centre landing. The SPK pro has a small flexible insert in the shell which moves just enough to keep your toe nails from turning black; retail price £300.
Lange boots
Look for any gold medal race boot and you’ll always see a Lange, but Lange also makes very high performance boots you can take under the ropes.
The Super Banshee has a race level shell with a super warm liner and a vibram sole to help you climb to some of the scarier parts of the hill. At £419 it’s not cheap, but it works.
And on the Blaster series, once the cuff buckles are released, the cuff can hinge backwards to make climbing a little less traumatic. Prices from £199 to £249.
Storm 
Brits Andy and Chris have their products made in some of Europe’s leading ski factories and - in a complete turnaround - are now exporting their skis to the USA and Canada.
