I had no trouble keeping up with my faster (and more in shape) friends, and my leg muscles didn’t get fatigued at all. We skinned up Haystack Mountain on soft snow and again, the weight of the skis were hardly noticeable. (Photo: Eric Ghanem – )Īfter arriving at the yurt, the heavy pack came off and the touring pack went on. Their light weight made a big difference. Boot-packing up Haystack Mountains with the Black Diamond Helio 105 strapped to my pack. In fact, my Scarpa Freedom SL boots felt like overkill and thought I might have been better off wearing my Atomic Backland Carbon boots instead for an even more light-weight setup. The effect was even more pronounced wearing a 65-pound pack on my back (that’s what happens when you pack too much beer on a yurt trip.) At a meager 6 pounds, 5 ounces, I can truthfully say that I could hardly tell the skis were on my feet. This made the going fast, but what really stood out to me is how light the skis are when skinning. The route follows a road that has been packed down all season by snowmobiles and a grooming machine. The first time I clicked into the skis was on the 3.7-mile approach to the Geyser Pass Yurt. The skis were mounted with the new Fritschi Vipec Black bindings, and I wore Scarpa Freedom SL boots during the test. Overall, we skied corn, ice, shallow recrystalized powder, graupel, frozen sastrugi, and over-saturated mush. The days alternated between clouds and sun, which kept some aspects from corning up very quickly. A dusting of snow and graupel kept the snowpack underneath insulated, which means we had a very shallow refreeze. Ski size tested – 175cmĬonditions the three days we were in the La Sals were very warm, though I wouldn’t really say we were experiencing a corn cycle. Early-rise tip and tail with camber underfoot.(Photo: Jared Hargrave – )įirst, the details. We tested them in the La Sal Mountains for this review. The Black Diamond Helio 105 skis replace the Carbon Convert skis. So I took a loaner pair of the new-for-2016/17 BD Helio 105 skis on a yurt trip to the La Sal Mountains of Moab to see what they can do.
You can run into all kinds of snow types when ski touring, so I like skis that can float in pow, keep an edge on morning ice, carve corn like race boards, and still be light-weight enough for long approaches. For the backcountry, it’s pretty much a one-ski-quiver kind of situation. If it hasn’t snowed in a while, I’ll grab my all-mountain sticks that can carve groomers and bust crud. For me, if it’s a powder day, then I want fat boards with rocker. Now, lately I’ve not been a fan of the “one-ski-quiver” idea. The Black Diamond Helio 105 is a one-quiver kind of ski.
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