Friends, we all blogged about this some months ago (see post here) and I figured we’d better get the final list published. Bear in mind that since this is a blog, this is a somewhat personal take that’s been influenced by talking to various skiers over the past year as well as watching your blog comments. If you agree or disagree, please leave your take in the comments. Perhaps we’ll add a few things or make some changes based on your ideas. Should be fun. For example, you’ll notice we missed best hat, best bivy whisky, stuff like that.
Please know that our bias is for backcountry skiing that involves lots of uphill travel, so we trend to the lighter side. As for timing, to make this list useful for holiday season shopping we’ve included some of the newer product we think fits, mixed with tried and true items that have been around forever. We’ve linked to blog posts or review articles where possible, and some sort of shopping option if we don’t have a blog post. (Note we frequently do have reviews about this sort of stuff, because we try to review what we like.)
Best fatter ski: Goode, Carbon 95 (AKA BC 95) (This ratio of weight/performance/width is tough to beat.)
Best conventional construction midfat non-twintip lightweight ski: Dynafit, 7 Summits
Best softshell jacket: Cloudveil, Serendipity (Why don’t other jackets we like have Napolean pockets? Is this a mystery of the universe?)
Best water and wind resistant softshell pants: Outdoor Research, Tremor
Best classic softshell pants: Cloudveil, Rayzar
Best lightweight yet supportive backcountry ski boot: Dynafit Zzero TF
Best midweight backcountry ski boot: Scarpa, Spirit Three
Best beefy yet Dynafit compatible backcountry ski boot: Garmont Axon (Flat boot board under the foot wins our hearts.)
Best 4-stroke sled: Yamaha Nytro MTX (To take WildSnow honor must have custom ski rack and custom exhaust extension, we’ve got the rack done and will blog soon.)
Most interesting backcountry ski boot: Scarpa F3 (We’ll have a review up soon.)
Best backpack for longer day trips: BCA Alp 40
Most interesting backpack: Black Diamond, Covert Avalung
Most improved product: Black Diamond, Whippet (Wow, ergonomics, what a concept!)
Best backcountry skiing binding: Dynafit ST (The concept remains the same; high performance — low weight.)
Best Book: Davenport! (I wrote the foreword but that’s a tiny part of the book, so not intention to be self serving, it’s Dav and designer Art Burrow’s accomplishment, well worth owning.)
Best baselayer: Outdoor Research, Sequence LS Zip Tee (A touch of wool is the ticket.)
Best Trailhead Thermos: Stanley 2-quart (Some things are hard to improve.)
Best TAV (Trailhead Approach Vehicle): Jeep, Wrangler JK4-door, Rubicon edition with aftermarket winch bumper
Best gift for a woman: Goode Carbon 95 (AKA BC 95) Skis — in ski rack on Lexus RX hybrid SUV.
Best gift for a man: Jeep, Wrangler JK4-door, Rubicon edition with aftermarket winch bumper mounted with Warn 9.5 XP winch spooled with synthetic winch rope. (You’ve already got 8 pairs of planks in the garage, so no skis included.)
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.
