The Pass from Season: A First Look at a New Ski

Not all things shiny and new need to shout it out loud. The Pass, a new ski from Season, is nicely subdued in its cosmetics yet promises to be a bold, stable, and playful backcountry ski.

 

For this ski season, I’ll forgo a lower-case ski resort season pass in exchange for the new ski from Season – the Pass. Wordplay aside, I am curious to try the newest ski from Season, which is designed for backcountry use.

Season is a newer company based in the Pacific Northwest and is co-led by skier Eric Pollard and snowboarder Austin Smith. Their brand ethos is to create products that supersede seasonal trends: no flashy graphics or flimsy builds. Their skis speak to this with a universal aesthetic of an all-business matte black topsheet and thick full-circumference sidewalls.

Season offers just a few distinctly archetypal skis aside from the backcountry-specific backcountry-specific Pass skis (you can find more specs here):

Season Nexus: a quiver of one
Season Forma: a powder plank
Season Aero: a resort carver
Season Kin: a freestyle toy

The Season Pass is stated as a wider and lighter riff on the quiver-of-one Season Nexus. This ski doesn’t have the dimensions of a typical Wildsnow-approved quiver-of-one. However, I’ll ask readers to open their minds to the potential of a wide[r] touring ski. I’ve found a time and a place to bring more underfoot width into the backcountry. Big skis bring with them more flotation, more high-speed stability, and (most importantly) a bigger platform for the legendary backcountry charcuterie board. Is there a big ski cohort out there to affirm my heavyset ski beliefs? Or will I get shooed off my big ski soap box by a crowd of folks with their beloved 95 mm Powder Skis?

Here’s a subjective design walk-through for the Season Pass skis:

—A thick shape paired with a short-for-it’s-width turning radius
—A long, shallow and symmetrical rocker profile with mild camber underfoot
—A stiff and stable flex profile
—A light-enough-weight construction

The Pass Basic Specifications:

Length (cm): 186
Dimensions (mm): 148-116-144
Tip rocker (mm): 58 / 290
Tail rocker (mm): 58 / 290
Camber (mm): 2
Measured weight (claimed weight, g): 1802 (1800)
Build: Karuba core, carbon stringers, triaxial fiberglass, full sidewalls
Price:$795.00

I did the hilarious ski-hand-flex thing many people do when they get a ski in their hands. It’s an entirely subjective way to pull information from a ski. The *flexy test* yielded surprising results for the Season Pass: It was rigid and energetic with a stiff, bouncy tip and tail with a rigid feel near the center. As a point of comparison with two similar skis, the DPS Pagoda Tour 112RP is much softer throughout, and the Salomon QST 118 is comparably stiff but less bouncy.

I intend for the Season Pass to be my soft snow daily driver. Ideally, I’ll reach for the Pass if there’s fresh snow. I also think they’ll perform well in choppy waters (variable snow conditions) given their moderately heavy weight. The conditions that I don’t predict to mix well with these skis are firm snow types. That’s no surprise. Skiing on a wide ski on edgeable snow creates an uncomfortable cantilever between one’s ankle and the snow’s surface. So typically, more underfoot width leads to less edge control. But only time, testing, and snow will shed light on how these skis perform in the wild.

Reach out with thoughts, feelings, or crystal-ball predictions about the Season Pass. I’ll loop back later in the season with a more comprehensive on-snow review. Until then, think snow!