Plank Posse: Skis and Boards
Meet our choices for the best things you should have strapped to your feet while moving fast and smiling big this winter.
For Everyday Ripping
1. White Doctor FT 10
With that ideal waist width of 100mm underfoot, this baby will do anything you ask of it—floating in the deep, crushing crud, banging down groomers. Built in France, White Doctor is the brainchild of longtime ski-building guru “Bob” Bobrowicz. That tradition shows in our favorite ski this season.
Dimensions: 131/98/120 (in a 183 cm)
Best For: Day-to-day charging, Vail, Loveland, Aspen Highlands and hiking the bowl.
$750; white-doctor.com
For Going Big
2. Line Sick Day 125
With one of the best names for a ski that we have heard in a long time, the Sick Day 125 will beocme your weapon of choice on the days when you develop that nasty flu. Simply put these hogs kept us elevated at high speeds in deep snow and never felt stupid big. They responded to our wishes on big, steep lines, making powder skiing feel like the park.
Dimensions:150/125/137
Best For: The days you will never forget. Alaska. Heli and cat trips.
$750; lineskis.com
For Resort Ripping
3. Volkl Code Uvo
Here’s the planks for that the skier who was born-and-raised on the slopes–the ski racer who can just as easily pound off-piste occasionally. At just Light and rockered, it’s shockingly stable and simply like to run fast, so you need to be able to hold on. If you want to flick off tight turns, carve at full speed and hop into the trees every so often, meet your dream.
Dimensions:122/76/104
Best For: Alpine ripping at the resort.
$1,065; volkl.com
For Authentic Turns
4. Ramp Woodpecker
To be honest, this is the ski we have most been seeking out. There are tons of fantastic planks over 100 mm at the waist, but there are so many days (think those long weeks of high pressure systems) and conditions (tight bumpy trees) when we want something that just turns quick and bites into the snow. Plus, this all-natural, FSC-certified bamboo baby is made in ‘Merica. If you can call Park City, Utah, that.
Dimensions: 123/90/111
Best For: Quick turns, trees, tricks, Eldora.
$949; rampsports.com
For Getting Out There
5. Dynafit Grand Teton
Dedicated to the Teton’s incomparable Steve Romeo, the mastermind behind TetonAT.com who died in an avalanche last year and simply lived to put up big lines all over the range, these babies weigh in at 1,550 grams. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have cajones—carbon stringers in the three layers of wood here give them the guts to curbstomp crappy snow, too.
Dimensions: 130/106/120
Best For: Busting skin tracks, Berthoud Pass, Rocky Mountain National Park, ski mountaineering.
$800; dynafit.com
The Ladies Choice
6. Nordica Hell’s Belles
Here’s the ski that the woman who can pound her significant other in the Back bowls will cherish. There’s nothing soft in this women’s ski—it is designed to rip the resort at 90 mm underfoot thanks to a combination of aggressive sidecut and rocker. That shape means it can also bust out some float in the untracked.
Dimensions: 132/90/118
Best For: Women who rip… anywhere.
$750; nordicausa.com
SNOWBOARDS
7. Niche Aether
Salt Lake City-based Niche impressed us with this versatile board that can just as easily float throgh a big day at Snowbird as it can play around in the park. It’s got the stability to bomb the groomers thanks to serrated-edge Magnetraction and the multi-cambe profile not only keeps it up in powder, it also gives more control on hard snow. Best of all, the brand practices responsible environmental practices with materials like sustainable wood and bio-resins.
Best For: Everything nature throws at it day-to-day riding in the resort.
$499; nichesnowboards.com
8. Arbor Abacus Split
Meet a backcountry board for the rider who likes to hike for turns but can knock out the occasional trick. The Abacus Split’s camber is best in the backcountry, but also gives it some guts at the resort. The clip system was so secure that we forgot we were riding a split.
Best For: Berthoud Pass. Mountaineering. Some lapping the gates at the resorts.
$700; arborcollective.com
