SIA Highlights Day 2

After we had another great day on the floor at SIA in Denver, we put together a little list of some of our favorite new items for the 2012/2013 season. Enjoy!

Rocky Mountain Underground Skis

RMU has been supporting telemark since its first year pressing skis in a Summit County garage back in 2007. This year they have a number of new additions to their growing line of hand-built skis, made right here in the US of A.

The Blue Light Special, or BLS for short, comes in at 110mm under foot and has traditional camber, early rise in the tip and a flat tail for hard charging versatility and big mountain prowess. It’s available in 10cm increments from 155cm all the way up to a stout 195cm plank.

Also new for next season is The Whole Enchilada, RMU’s biggest ski to date. With a five contact point profile and a 132mm waist, this ski has a surprisingly short turn radius at 16m, which gives it the versatility of a narrower all mountain ski and the float of a true-blue pow ripper.

We are back at it bringing you updates on the best new gear on the block. Here are the highlights from Day 1 at SIA in Denver, Colorado.

Klint Skis

Klint is a pretty new company, but they have already established themselves with some great skis. Joining the Krypto on the powder end of the spectrum is the KryptoLite. It still has camber underfoot and tip and tail rocker, but it is slimmed down a bit to 114mm at the waist to increase versatility on hard snow.

The Teva Winter Mountain Games is quickly becoming “The event amongst the international telemark crowd,” says Andreas Sjöbeck of Stockholm, Sweden. Freeheelers like Andreas are realizing that this is the only organized telemark event — anywhere in the world — of its kind. It is a chance for freeheelers to showcase their talent in the air, and it isn’t against alpine skiers. This is where Andreas and others can, as he says,  “see a high level of freeheel competition and do some new big tricks for the public.”

TSM caught up with Andreas for a quick interview to hear a little more about him and his thoughts on the upcoming contest.

Here we go again, checking in from day 3 at the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Volkl

Volkl is jumping into the backcountry market headfirst. Their touring line has several skis that are lightweight and have notches for skins in the tip. Also available are skin-pin precut skins for each model that easily snap into the hole in the front of the ski. They also have a new line of touring poles available in aluminum, carbon, or hybrid models. 

On the more inbounds end of things, they are still offering the classic favorites, the Katana and the Mantra, with metal topsheets to increase binding retention. The Shiro gets a new look, but is otherwise unchanged as a playful powder ski with a full-length rocker.  The newest addition to the line is the Kink, a midfat rockered twin with camber underfoot. It is 89mm at the waist, and it has a directional sidecut making it a nice choice for an all-mountain park ski.