Ski Press Magazine Ski Test Week – Day 1 Summary

Our first day started at 8:15am at the bottom of the Gondola where we met our groups and were given intructions for the day.

Because of the varied conditions up top, we were going to spend the day testing all mountain skis in the performance category. Both Sasha & I had 9 pairs of skis to test – giving us about 30 minutes per manufacturer to test & write our evaluation.

That translated into about 3 runs per ski – or about 27 runs on the day.

We carried around blue evaluation books that were two pages for each ski. We had to test things such as stability, edge grip, energy, ease of initiation, forgiveness and performance characteristics around short and long turns.

There was also a spot for written comments – so we tried our best to summarize the ski in short & wity comments that may make their way into the magazine.

At the top of the Gondola we had what looked like a 75m fashion catwalk. This allowed the testers to slide to the assigned manufacturer and have the skis quickly adjusted for the next test. Some manufacturers had flags setup while others were more low key.

In all 17 manufacturers were setup including some I hadn’t heard of before like Vist – who are better known for developing bindings and binding plates.

Although we were restricted to the North site of Ste-Anne, the day flew by as every 30 minutes you were trying something new.

Even though Sasha & I were in separate testing groups, we were able to ski together the entire day.

Writing your comments in pencil with gloves on proved to be a bit challenging, but over the course of the day we found that writing our comments and evaluation at the bottom of the chair was more relaxing (and warm) then doing it on the chair.

In addition to testing skis, we are also evaluating under-garmets and socks from Icebreaker (made from Merino wool), next generation Leki poles, and next year’s Alpina goggles. First impressions of each were very positive – although the Icebreaker socks were too tight on my massive calf muscles

We both really enjoyed our first day as ski testers and we were both surprised at how different skis could feel and perform in the same category.

We were also pleasantly surprised that the forecasted rain became snow and that today’s weather is promising 4 degrees and sunny.

Day two has a similar schedule – although we won’t know what category we are testing until we arrive at the top of the Gondola. We also have a scheduled apres-ski today where we’ll get a chance to order Icebreaker gear with pro discounts. Apparently we’ll also be getting Swany gloves this afternoon to test for Wednesday and Thursday.

Look for Sasha’s day two summary next.