Salomon’s Falcon series boots, introduced two seasons ago, stunned our testers with spectacular snow sensitivity and precision. The “CS” in this new Falcon’s name means Custom Shell, an innovation that will make Falcon performance accessible to skiers with wide, hard-to-fit dogs and those seeking a super-custom fit without multiple visits to the bootfitter. The shells themselves are moldable. Two panels made of Kaprolene—a type of plastic that deforms easily at 212 degrees and then holds its new shape when cooled—are built into the lower boot’s forefoot area, one each on the inside and outside. To mold them, remove the liners, heat the shells in an oven or hot water, reinsert the liners, step in, buckle, wait 15 minutes for the panels to assume the contours of your lower feet, step into cold water or snow for six minutes, and you’re done. Brilliant. [$925; salomonsports.com]
Released in 2003, back when brands were struggling to perfect a free-flexing binding system that didn’t interfere with the would-be perfect parabola of a weighted ski making a turn, Nordica’s XBS binding system featured two crossing cantilevers. They eliminated the dead spot in a flexed ski created by traditional, screwed-in heel- and toepieces and helped you regain balance if you slipped into the backseat. The next iteration, XBi, anchored the same system directly onto the ski’s core, improving skier-to-ski energy transfer and further gluing the ski’s edges to the snow. With the version pictured here, XBi CT—available on selected Nordica skis this season—Nordica’s engineers figured out how to add a one-handed boot-sole-length adjustment mechanism whose gearing doesn’t interfere with the cantilevers. Now you can demo the system from a shop without having to use a performance-squandering demo binding, or let your buddy with a different boot size try your sick new skis. [skis with binding start at $745; nordicausa.com]
We first saw the Power Switch, a dial with “On” and “Off” settings, last season, on Völkl’s Tigershark carving skis. We muttered, “Gimmick.” Then we skied it. Set to “On,” the switch pushes two carbon rods—one runs from tail to tip inside each side of the ski—into two springs, one on either side of the tip. Thus tensioned, the rods imparted a noticeably higher level of reactivity and power to the ski. Now comes the Grizzly (131/89/114)—a Best in Test winner in the All-Mountain Expert category in our ’08–’09 test. It boasts an updated Power Switch with a new “Dynamic” setting—slightly less aggressive than Power. And last season, Völkl’s sister brand Marker introduced the Duke and Jester bindings, which feature toe- and heelpieces that are wider than those of traditional alpine bindings. Incorporated with a widened version of Völkl’s free-flexing Motion system, these new toe- and heelpieces create the first system binding designed for skis wider than 80 millimeters. A fat waist keeps the Griz afloat in powder; the new wide binding gives it race-carve performance on groomers. [$1,525; volkl.com]
A couple of years ago, carbon-fiber ski pioneer Dave Goode told us, “It’s only a matter of time before nobody is skiing on wood-core skis anymore.” We’ll believe it when we see it. But there’s no doubt that Goode and his crew are genuinely innovative when it comes to carbon ski design. The brand enjoys huge market share in the competitive waterskiing world. The STR8 (140/135/130) is a pure-powder ski that borrows from modern jumping water skis, whose squared ends milk more surface area and provide more loft than rounded ends would. In powder, loft translates as float, and an extended tip-splay—the upturn of the ski shovel begins a foot back from the tip rather than the few inches back of a traditional ski—helps the STR8 stay on top. There’s no sidecut either; it’s that long upturned tip combined with the curve created by flexing the ski into turns that makes the STR8 steerable. It’s also insanely light, thanks to the all-carbon construction; a pair weighs six pounds, 14 ounces. These make powder skiing easy—really easy.
[$1,290; goode.com]
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