By: randosteve|Posted on: January 18, 2012|Posted in: Gear, Gear Reviews | 16 comments

Pretty uneventful drive down to the Outdoor Retailer All Mountain Demo this morning. It was blowing sideways when I left Jackson, but seemed to taper off once I got further away from the Tetons. They could definitely use some more of the white stuff here in SLC…to cover up all the city shit, never mind to help out the skiing situation.


The Hoji inspired, Dynafit Vulcan.

Anyway, I covered some of the new Black Diamond and Dynafit products for Fall 2012 in previous posts, but I wanted to make a few comments on the new Dynafit Vulcan and One boots, now that I have gotten a chanvce to ski on them, as well as few other tidbits I think you might find interesting from the demo.

To start with, I learned a little bit more about the new Dynafit boots for next year and one of the things that really separates the Hoji-inspired Vulcan/Mercury boots from the lighter, One boots. They both have the same last and similar shell shapes, but the One boots don’t have a removable tongue…or any tongue for that matter. This makes the One boots a little more geared for those that want to move faster in the mountains and speed up their transitions, as opposed to the Vulcan/Mercury boots, that use the removable tongue to gain stiffness and power.

I skied both the Vulcan and the One PX boot (the One PX being the top boot in that line-up) and they both skied really nice. The Vulcan was quite powerful and the walk mode of both was like butter, with an amazing range of motion like you would expect. I think it will be hard for a lot of folks to decide between these boots next season, as they are both, very nice.

I was a fan of the La Sportiva High 5 ski last year and their new Hang 5 ski with a waist of 117mm, pin-tail and early rise tip, follows suite as being a very stable, easy turning and fun ski. Even though the snow was pretty icy at the demo, the fat waist of the Hang 5 held an edge well and carved nicely. In fact, I enjoyed skiing the Hang 5 more than another new ski from La Sportiva, the Low 5, which was narrower, but felt sort of dead.

I’m not sure I get his whole fish-scale, waxless base thing on backcountry skis. Maybe it’s the type of terrain we have in the Tetons, but I know I typically want as much glide as I can get out of my skis and if I want to climb up something, I’ll just put my skins on. However, Voile claims that the waxless base category is quite popular for them and will introduce the Charger BC for next season. A 110-115mm waisted powder ski with fish-scales on the base? Man…I’m really confused now.

G3 had a few new skis and new a new telemark binding they were showing off. One ski was a uber fat 127mm(?) waisted ski called the Empire. It had pretty flat camber underfoot, with a rockered tip and tail. Definitely a power hog. The District looked a bit more versatile though at 112mm underfoot and has a lightweight core with two layers of metal in it. One would think this ski skis pretty well, but I didn’t get a chance to ski it.


Genuine Guide Gear Enzo-R and Enzo telamark bindings.

Lastly, and for all you telemarkers out there (hey…don’t say I never gave you anything) the days of the crappy Targa binding are over and the new Enzo and Enzo R bindings will replace it as G3’s flagship free-heel binding. Both have cables routed underfoot to provide an active feel and the Enzo has a free-pivot feature for touring, while the Enzo-R (R=resort) has a fixed toe-piece for skiing in-area. They looked cool…if you’re into that sort of thing.

Anyway, off to day one at the show for me and I’m jonesing the shred the copious amounts of snow piling up back in Jackson.