Dynafit Speed Radical with Maruelli heel post swapped in, mounted on Fischer Hannibal.
You know what it’s like. The perfect pastry, paired with an espresso that wafts that earth goddess coffee scent across your olfactory apparatus like a stiff wave of frost feathers carved up by a fast arc on your favorite planks? Fischer Hannibal skis are something like that. Yum. More, they’re amazingly light, and the curved white topskin has just about the best anti-snow-pile behavior I’ve seen on a ski. But I was running the Hannibals with heavy freeride bindings. My style of skiing is decidedly NOT freeride. Time to swap those clunky grabbers out for something with a lighter pull on the connective tissue.
Dynafit Speed Radical heel unit on Maruelli aftermarket center post spindle. Unit is rotated to touring position, pushed against the anti-rotation pillar on the Maruelli plate.
Along with last year’s Speed Radical, I had some Maruelli anti-rotation Speed Radical base units waiting to grace a ski, figured this would be the place. What’s excellent is not only did I get a sweet little mass reduction, but my ramp angle is reduced within a millimeter of where I’d dream it to be. Downside: when installed this way (without rails) the Maruelli heels have just a few millimeters of forward-back adjustment for boot sole length — just enough to compensate for normal variations in measuring and drilling. Dynafit Speed Radical yields fully 24 mm of boot sole length adjustment.
OEM Dynafit Speed Radical to left, Maruelli aftermarket mod part to right drops your heel 3.4 mm to closely match ramp angle of original Dynafit TLT (our favorite ramp angle).
Numbers, per binding:
37 mm, internal heel post height of Speed Radical with OEM anti rotation add on.
32.6, Maruelli internal heel post height (without boot length adjustment rails).
4.4 mm, drop of heel resulting from install of Maruelli.
66 grams, Dynafit Speed Radical 2013/2014 base unit with anti-rotation.
36 grams, Maruelli base unit (without adjustment rails).
30 grams, weight savings from switching to Maruelli unit.
16 grams, weight of 3.3 mm B&D toe shim eliminated by using Maruelli heel post.
46 grams (1.6 ounces), weight saved by eliminating B&D toe shim, combined with Maruelli weight savings.
More about binding ramp (delta) angles.
Fischer Transalp Hannibal 100, 180 cm. In this configuration, with bindings, total weight is 1760 grams (62 ounces) per ski.
And, a few words about Fischer Transalp Hannibal 100.
Check out our first look. I’ve been out on these guys for more than 20 days, in everything from powder to ice. Overall they’re a sweet ski — a fun and forgiving plank in the pow with smooth action on piste. If my job didn’t require me to ski thousands of boards, I’d make these a daily driver. This is a soft ski with quite a bit of rocker. Consequently they swivel easily, but I found them a bit sluggish to initiate in some situations. On breakable crust I had trouble getting a carve started, and attempting short turns in crud felt forced. Banking on past experience, I’ll bet a one centimeter forward mount position would liven up the initiation, but is that necessary for modern technique? Likewise, a bit more binding ramp and boot delta could have been a turn stimulant as well. I’m too picky. Those are but minor details, the sexy blemish on an otherwise perfect cover model’s cheek.
Hannibal 100 tip rocker goes about 45 cm of the total length 180 cm. Tail rocker is minimal, which I like on a soft ski as it helps complete turns on hardpack — you can pressure the rear of your boot and feel that final finish to your arc.
I’m in love with the 100 mm width skis. They uphill nicely, and provide me with all the platform I ever need on the drop. Hannibal 100 gives me that and more. Due to it being mostly white, polished and curved, the Hannibal topskin sheds snow and ice better than any other ski I’ve tested. Weight is phenomenally lacking, see our chart. Of more than 40 skis we’ve evaluated, Hannibal 100 is 10th lightest per surface area and falls in our lightest weight class. That means you get width without weight. Isn’t that the fantasy of every backcountry skier on the planet? Recommended.
Much of the Transalp weight reduction is achieved through a simple elimination of material in the build. A thin edge profile is said to help with movement in soft snow as well as edge-hold on hardpack. We’re not sure about how big a factor this really is (makes for good marketing anyhow), but the thin edge does allow a nice curve to prevent snow and ice buildup.
Our advertising partner 8KPeak is all hot and bothered about Fischer skis. Get them talking, you’d think you’re at Lamborghini Centro Milano prepping for an experience in transcendent technology. Perhaps you are. Shop 8K. Oh, and lest I forget, Maruelli mod parts are available at Skimo-CO. Oh, and if you’re looking for Dynafit Speed Radical, please shop here to help us out.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
