Downhill trends

New gear offers versatility

RIVERDALE -- Inbounds and out-of-bounds, this year's skiers want performance on both sides of the rope and they don't want to change their setup to get it. More ski makers are targeting the growing sector of powder hounds who can't resist the lure of the backcountry.

"The biggest growth is people riding the lifts and skiing through the gates," said Tim Coats, sales representative for K2 Ski and Garmont Boot. "They're looking for alpine performance but still want to tour."

Coats was in town last Saturday with other ski manufacturer reps at the grand opening of Canyon Sports new store in Riverdale.

Coats calls the trend, "adventure skiing."

"If it's a powder day in the resort, they want to ski inbounds. If the snow is bad, they want to go outside the boundaries," Coats said.

More alpine skiers crossing the rope means a growing selection of alpine touring boots that are lightweight and performance oriented.

To fill this need, Garmont's Endorphin boot for men and Xena boot for women comes with a sole for touring and a extra bolt-on ISO sole to make the boots fit in regular alpine bindings. With this system you can use one boot for both skis.

The versatility comes at a price. The men's version retails for around $729.

For even more versatility, K2's Anti Piste ski, at $559, is made wider for the adventure skier looking for soft snow who doesn't want to give up versatility.

K2 is also making a new version of its popular Work Stinx ski, for $529, that skis better on packed snow than the original backcountry-oriented ski. The ski also takes a lesson from snowboarding by using bolted inserts for binding attachment.

A company deeply rooted in the backcountry, Black Diamond, is also breaking down the boundaries and producing free ride skis that can go anywhere and ski anything.

New this year, Black Diamond is now making these skis in their own factory for the first time. The company also plans to launch its own line of boots for next year, dropping the distribution of Scarpa boots.

The three hottest BD skis are the Havoc, $529.99, Verdict, $599.99 and Kilowatt, $569.99. The Havoc is a narrower, all- mountain ski good for floating and carving ability, according to BD sales rep Ryan Davis. The Verdict is a free ride, go anywhere, do anything ski that can handle alpine, telemark or AT setups. The Kilowatt is more of an every day ski for intermediates to experts that is the same construction as the Verdict but thinner and more forgiving.

BD has not forgotten its hard core backcountry users this year, launching a new line of Quickdraw Probes and Deploy Shovels for avalanche rescue.

"We definitely focus on the backcountry," Davis said.

The new probes use a quickdraw setup with a pull cord. They flip out and lock into place quickly to begin searching for lost ski partners. The shaft on the new Deploy Shovels slides into the metal blade so it is ready when needed to move snow quickly.

"It's all about time when you're looking for someone in an avalanche," Davis said.

The probes range in price from $39.95 to $64.95 and come in four different lengths and weights. The Deploy Shovels come in two sizes and cost $59.95 to $65.95.

A trend for this year is that skis continue to get wider. The twin-tipped Rossignol Raven, at 110 mm under foot, is the widest ski in the company's line. With floating on Utah's powder in mind, it was also the first ski designed at the new Mountain Center Headquarters in Park City. The skis are so wide they look like two skinny snowboards.

Snowboarding trends have slowed down this year according to Rossignol representative Jeremy Jolley. One trend that the company has picked up is an effort to be more "green."

Rossignol is producing a snowboard with the help of Big Mountain rider Jeremy Jones that uses recycled shaving from the die cuts of other snowboards to make the base. The company also decided not to print consumer brochures this year and is instead directing people to their Web site www.rossignol.com to save paper.