BUYER'S GUIDE 2010

BUYER'S GUIDE 2009

BUYER'S GUIDE 2008

BUYER'S GUIDE 2010

By Marty McLennan,
Technical Editor

There was once a time when going
to the mountains meant simply
that, going to the mountains.
Today, the experience has been reinvented.
And human fingerprints are everywhere.
Heading to the hills connotes everything from
corduroy grooming to electronically gated
off-piste to all-day tunage from the terrainpark
sound system. A skier’s lexicon now
includes terms like rails, features, sidecountry,
jibs, pow and big mountain (even in the
smaller ones!), but it will always include ice,
ruts, gates and hot chocolate. Skiing’s always
expanding dictionary suggests just about
anything you want it to be. You can make up
actions and inevitably somebody will say
they’ve done that, too. Skiing in short,
whatever you make it.

Empowered to ski beyond the boundaries
of what was once thought possible, today’s
skiers are backed by a nearly limitless quiver
of technologies. These same technologies
have been behind some of modernity’s most
important achievements, like fi nding the
human genome, building a space station, and
creating a delicious and nutritious gel that can
replace the four food groups three times a day
seven days a week.

Technology plus personality mean choice and
this year’s options are limitless. Consequently,
your gear-buying decision becomes more of an
existential matter. When faced with this season’s
choices, today’s consumers need to turn inside
to make their decisions. So the question isn’t:
What should I buy? Rather it’s: Who am I on the
slopes? Or who do I want to be? The answers are
there, blazed in colourful signature designs—
and sandwiched onto laminate cores. You just
have to ask yourself the right questions.

THE BREAKDOWN

◊ Nobody likes to be pigeonholed, shrinkwrapped
and sorted on the rack. But as
with the constantly evolving language of the ski
industry, some categorization is necessary to
help you fi nd your way. Below we map out the
personalities, and on the following pages we
examine each of these in detail and their
products. We suggest a five-part selfexamination
that goes something like this:

1. Look at yourself in the mirror.
2. Take a deep breath and close your eyes.
3. Visualize yourself on the mountain of your dreams.
4. Read the categories below and find where you best fit in.
5. Then turn the pages to find out which gear is right for you.

PAGE 40
All-Mountain
You fall somewhere between specialist and straitjacket.
On a perfect weekend, you breakfast on a little powder
Saturday morning, eat chopped crud in the afternoon
and rip groomers all day Sunday. You want stability and
grip on-piste, yet softer flex for flotation and absorption.
You regularly ski and indeed like crud, bumps, fluff and
ice—you’ll even take your knocks at the park. You could
as easily order a diet-octogenarian-organic-tofu-wasabishake-
hold-the-ice as a juicy T-bone. You want it all. You
want it now. And hell or high water, you’ll get it.

PAGE 44
Big-Mountain
You sleep with the weather station on, dreaming of big,
BIG snows. You eat acorns, shave every fortnight and hug
trees—not necessarily on purpose—from time to time.
If there was a human Abominable Snowman, it might be
you. You think big, but you really want bigger and biggest.
And that goes with wide, too. You love Janis, but don’t
believe freedom means nothing left to lose. It’s everything
to gain. It’s big air, big pow, big, fast turns, rocker, kicker
and jibs out of the park. It’s beautiful. And it’s you.

PAGE 48
Frontside
You gape at skiers ducking the off-piste ropes and
ask: Why go elsewhere when you’ve got it all here?
The frontside, with all its lifts, groomed trails and
conveniences, is your domain. You’re motivated by
words like carve, slalom, even moguls. Soft and fresh
is the ultimate, as long as it’s not too much or heavy.
You know your fetish for corduroy clothing is a Freudian
sublimation—and you don’t care. It’s sublime. You get
goose bumps just thinking of corduroy underwear.

PAGE 50
High-Performance
Instead of buying a set of 20 Ginsu knives for 20 bucks,
you bought a single Henckels at six times the price.
And with it, you can carve an apple from its core in one
slice. You sharpen it daily. On slope, you live for the
groomers, the hardpack, the perfect turn. So much so,
you once considered putting Crazy Glue on your boards
for improved contact with the snow. You’re always on
edge (of the skis, that is). Good vibrations to you mean
no vibrations. You want smooth. You want precision. You
want control. These give you confi dence and the ability to
turn on a dime. Love it or leave it, you’re a speed freak.
And let’s face it, you look damn good skiing below the
chairlift and you love every minute of it.

PAGE 54
Park & Pipe
You defy description, but you love those three “S” words:
symmetry, switch and stick. Bad means good. Sick means
fi ne. Your brain operates just as well upside down. You’ll
take the punishment of landing with a steel bar between
your legs—just because. Skiing forwards is like skiing
backwards, only you’d rather be in the air. The more gnarly
the terrain, the more risky the trick, the more you step up
to the plate. When you fall, you get back up, shake off the
snow, admire your skis (a few samples below), adjust your
armour, shrug off the pain and rise to the challenge.

2010 BOOTS AND BINDINGS

Complete specs on every model skis and boots

More Buyer's Guide 2010 content will be posted online through the fall.

Check Current Issue. Check Back Issues for previous Buyer's Guide issues.