Please check out our take on Huascaran ski in our ULTIMATE QUIVER SKI REVIEW, I’ve seen this spelled Huscaran, but the other spelling is correct…
My how things change. A few years ago, many of you were looking for and finding few wider skis that were built to be hauled uphill by human legs rather than carbon belching machinery. Now that type of plank is the buzz for backcountry skiing.
To that end, Dynafit of course came up with their Stoke model a few seasons ago (105 waist, average). Yet for some styles of skiing and some types of snow, more width is still better, so for 2012/13 they announce their Huascaran ski at 134/112/123, 1780 grams (for 177 cm, catalog weight, pretty good…).
Huascaran ski by Dynafit, light and wide for human powered skiing.
Huscaran ski construction: Wood core, fiberglass with a dose of carbon and some metal. Slow rise tip and tails they now call “scoop rocker” so they can get the all important word “rocker” into their marketing language, nonetheless a nice slow-rise tip and tail that do provide a rocker effect, albeit something different than rocker that extends down into the mid-body of the ski.
Huascaran ski for backcountry powder skiing, click to enlarge.
About the graphics: That’s of course some kind of Peruvian/Mayan/Aztec/Toltec deal that might get some of you excited. Story is a fish marrying a snow leopard, or at least that’s what was coming out of the translation. Looks a bit busy for my taste though I did get a chuckle out of the spiel. The name “Huascaran” is of course the highest peak in Peru. I’m not sure if the target market for this ski will know what or where Huascaran is, but whatever, always nice to honor the famous alpines of the world.
Demos of the Dynafit Huascaran backcountry ski are floating around the globe as we speak. True evaluation will of course commence later in the season when we can get some on our feet for a few days of soft snow in the backcountry. Nice job Dynafit, keeping the lightweight width category going.
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.
