Freeride is Light Now: La Sportiva Tempo Ski – Initial Impressions

The weight of these 103mm waisted freeride powder blasters will surprise you

I wasn’t wearing a skimo speed suit the first time I clicked into a pair of La Sportiva’s skis. It was a media trip in Marble two years ago. Conditions were unbelievably deep. Like snorkel deep. It was tough to go wrong with any of La Sportiva’s freeride-oriented boards on offer when the snow was that good. I spent most of my laps on the mid-width 103mm underfoot Tempo’s. I’ll concede that my memory may be skewed by the snow dump and powder day vibes, but I recall surfy, intuitive, and fun skis. But they weren’t light at ~1,800g a pop. Burly freeride skis aren’t what you’d expect from a brand like La Sportiva given their prowess in carbon skimo boots and fast-and-light everything. 

Skip ahead two years to the new Tempo’s for 24/25 and into the future. They’re a familiar ski in the shape department, but ~350g lighter per ski at ~1,450g. 1.5lbs less per pair is a big deal. Did they need to make any major performance sacrifices to slice the heft? That’s what I’m working to tease out.

Here’s the disclaimer, I’m only a few tours in with the new Tempos and the precious little snow is dwindling in Colorado. I’ll continue to update this review when I can get more days on these mini-pontoons in a wider variety of snow conditions. Until then, consider these my first impressions based on spring skiing conditions and one powder day.

Ski Construction

I pick on Zag’s UBAC 95’s too much because they’re fine skis for the right skier (I recognize it’s an obscure reference). But it’s also hard not to. When I first felt the Tempo’s lack of mass, I couldn’t help but assume they’d ski similarly to the UBAC’s – soft, floppy, twisty. But my assumptions were thankfully wrong, per usual. 

The Tempos are distinctly more robust in just about every way. They’re very stiff underfoot, moderately stiff in front of and behind the bindings, and moderately soft in the shovels and tails. They’re torsionally sturdy. All seemingly suggesting a lightweight crusher. That comes from a peculiar core construction of PVC foam, Paulownia, aluminum stringers, and D30 Inserts in the tip and tail. (D30 doesn’t show up in skis that often but this “non-Newtonian” foam stiffens up on sudden impacts and is used in sports protection equipment such as bike shoes.)

At 129-103-119mm, the moderately cambered Tempos are the second skinniest and lightest in La Sportiva’s freeride-oriented backcountry ski line. On the narrow side is the 92 mm-waisted Salto. On the powder end of the spectrum are the 110 mm-underfoot Sorriso and 117mm underfoot Capo.

The La Sportiva Tempos are available in 164cm, 179cm, and 190cm lengths. I picked up the 179cm version, aiming for a lightweight mini-powder setup. At 6’1”, 195lbs, 179cm is my typical “little boot” ski length. As such, I’ve skied it most often with La Sportiva’s very light two-buckle Kilo boot. But I’ve also tapped in my Scarpa Maestrale RS to add a little more muscle.

Skiing the Tempo

I know next to nothing about music, so I’ll save you the quippy comparisons between skiing and music. But you get it, speed, rhythm, tempo, something, something. 

Again, the Tempos are light. Light enough that it’s easy enough to forget that they’re on your feet while you’re noodling around in the backcountry. Going fast uphill was easy. But even more pronounced was how unhappy I was to click into heavier skis after enjoying 1,450g bliss. 

Despite what you and I may have expected, the Tempos fall into the more modern freeride-oriented, relatively forward-mounted category in terms of character. They’re slashy and pivoty – best driven from the feet rather than the tips. Kind of like a lightweight version of 4FRNT’s new Nevar. So naturally, it took me a few runs to adapt to the balance point from my very forward skiing style. They paired best with a more upright stance, more in line with the Kilo’s factory 12° forward lean than the Maestrale’s factory 16° forward lean. 

Their 18-meter turn radius is short and quick. Changing directions was easy in every condition I’ve come across, made easier by their light swing weight and relatively forward mount. You can kind of just twist your body in soft snow and they’ll rotate. For better or worse, I didn’t find any breakable crust to try them in yet.

Naturally, powder and corn is really where they’ve thrived so far. And although they get tossed around in really hard, chunky conditions like basically all light skis, they’re fortified enough to get you out and back to the goods. The tails and shovels have enough backbone to keep things stable.

Though my experience is limited so far, they definitely didn’t turn to linguini when I scraped across steep ice. They have a relatively sturdy edge in these conditions for wide, rockered, light skis.

I’m digging these ultralight freeriders. The only thing I don’t love? Those black top sheets that absolutely cling to snow. 

The Quiver

So far I’ve been pleased with the Tempos in mini-powder ski mode (shorter length, little boot). But I’ve been impressed with their sturdy construction and would wager that these puppies would be very fun in full-sized powder mode. That 190cm length and my Tecnica Zero G Tour Pros would be a very capable lightish pairing with a harmonious upright stance.

The Tempo definitely lands in quiver-of-one territory for skiers in generally soft snow areas. Light and torsionally sturdy enough for long days with unknown conditions but quick, floaty, and pivoty enough for early season meadow skipping, tree skiing, and powder blasting. 

Conclusions

Man, light skis are getting really, really good. I’m running out of reasons to haul my big freeride skis up the skintrack when I can have the same amount of fun (and maybe nab another lap) in skis like La Sportiva’s new Tempo. Sure, big, beefy freeride skis will always be the most fun in big freeride terrain. But I’d be lying if I said that was my day-to-day.

I need to put more days into the La Sportiva Tempos before I can offer anything more than squishy generalizations about their character, so keep an eye on this space or hit us with specific questions or observations in the comments.