2011 Atomic range preview!First up, skis
Freeride / All Mountain
The ski we really like is the Access, and a more grown-up graphic version of it called the Charter.
100mm underfoot with a bit of rocker, a softer flex than, say a Volkl Gotama. It smacks of K2's Kung Fujas but without the punky attitude and could well be what a lot of potential freeriders without legs of steel are looking for. We're exceedingly keen to have a slither on a pair, though like the flat-backed Charter better mainly because it looks splendid.
We'd class this as a hike-and-ride ski - fine for general all-mountain skiing but optimised for short hikes or skinning to access those extra lines of fresh snow. Price is around £450 including a binding, which sounds like a right deal. Snoop stays the same, getting a more vibrant white graphic.
There are also another two new versions with flat tails and excellent matt graphics, called the Drifter (93mm underfoot) and Aspect (87mm). They all get skin clips, see-through graphics and a bit of rocker.
Piste
The winningly-smooth piste-biased Varioflex models get a lower-end model at £430 - the Varioflex 73. The Vario range gets Carbon, Scandium and Fibre - £400, £330, £275. Classy graphics look very sharp; muted colours with a fair bit of orange. Lively turn radius of 14-15m.
All-mountain
Nomad Savage gets a bit of adaptive camber (rocker to stop the wide tip feeling 'catchy') in the nose, straight sidewalls and a price drop to £600, including binding. Crimson gets a wood core, Blackeye gets green and a wood core. The Ti is £500. The models all get squarer tips, aggressive metal tip protector and Protrack binding system.
Freestyle
Sees the cheapy Deviant land at £275 inc; a new Panic £375 is a new all-mountain twin with front and rear slight camber.
Big Mountain
Kiddie Bent Chetler is now available for £240, for all those aspire young loonies.
Women's
Lots of models carry over with similar graphics, though we saw a lot of brown as an option. That's 'brown as in classy luggage', rather than 'brown as in poop'.
Boots
Here's something us flappy-footed UK skiers will like: flexible panels set into the widest part of the boot to allow for wide feet to be fitted without loads of work. Live Fit is more recreational than Salomon's Customshell, to give a 103-108mm fully flexible fit. The range starts with 60 flex at £175 - key boots are expected to be the 90 at £250. We've just tried a pair on, the stiffest 120 flex model, and watching the panel flex was both pleasing and slightly weird.
There's a new last is called the Enduro - it's a 98mm width, making for a performance fit, but has a tad more height above the instep than you might imagine. This last is found across three categories.
Fall-Line liked the look of the Tracker 130 Intuition, complete with walk mode, fancy karabiner buckles and a rubber lugged sole for freeriders looking to hike for the odd line. At £450 it's in line with the Scarpa Typhoon and Garmont Adrenaline. Drop the Intuition liner and it's £375. The Renu 110 is also in the range.
The walk mode is similar to the Salomon Quest - a drop in lug. We would like to see it in action because it looks like it could clog with packed snow, but we'll know soon enough. They've been on test for a year so and have made it into production.
The freeride/performance-biased Burner also gets the Enduro shell, with a 120 and 90 stiffness. Ace graphic with sublimated flame graphics.
Dual strap on all freeride/freestyle skis
Volt is the new all mountain freestyle boots, lace-up liner (£325), hiking lugs in the sole and rubber damped footbed.
The Overload Pro is the Livefit version, with the sidepanels allowing for feet to flatten out on landing.
The very successful Hawx carries over as does M Tech and B tech, though expect Livefit boots to take over from the latter.
Head to Fall-Line's gear database to find your perfect ski at www.fall-line.co.uk/gear
Posted by Dickie Fincher - Thu, 14/01/2010 - 6:10pm
First up, skis
Freeride / All Mountain
The ski we really like is the Access, and a more grown-up graphic version of it called the Charter.
100mm underfoot with a bit of rocker, a softer flex than, say a Volkl Gotama. It smacks of K2's Kung Fujas but without the punky attitude and could well be what a lot of potential freeriders without legs of steel are looking for. We're exceedingly keen to have a slither on a pair, though like the flat-backed Charter better mainly because it looks splendid.
We'd class this as a hike-and-ride ski - fine for general all-mountain skiing but optimised for short hikes or skinning to access those extra lines of fresh snow. Price is around £450 including a binding, which sounds like a right deal. Snoop stays the same, getting a more vibrant white graphic.
There are also another two new versions with flat tails and excellent matt graphics, called the Drifter (93mm underfoot) and Aspect (87mm). They all get skin clips, see-through graphics and a bit of rocker.
Piste
The winningly-smooth piste-biased Varioflex models get a lower-end model at £430 - the Varioflex 73. The Vario range gets Carbon, Scandium and Fibre - £400, £330, £275. Classy graphics look very sharp; muted colours with a fair bit of orange. Lively turn radius of 14-15m.
All-mountain
Nomad Savage gets a bit of adaptive camber (rocker to stop the wide tip feeling 'catchy') in the nose, straight sidewalls and a price drop to £600, including binding. Crimson gets a wood core, Blackeye gets green and a wood core. The Ti is £500. The models all get squarer tips, aggressive metal tip protector and Protrack binding system.
Freestyle
Sees the cheapy Deviant land at £275 inc; a new Panic £375 is a new all-mountain twin with front and rear slight camber.
Big Mountain
Kiddie Bent Chetler is now available for £240, for all those aspire young loonies.
Women's
Lots of models carry over with similar graphics, though we saw a lot of brown as an option. That's 'brown as in classy luggage', rather than 'brown as in poop'.
Boots
Here's something us flappy-footed UK skiers will like: flexible panels set into the widest part of the boot to allow for wide feet to be fitted without loads of work. Live Fit is more recreational than Salomon's Customshell, to give a 103-108mm fully flexible fit. The range starts with 60 flex at £175 - key boots are expected to be the 90 at £250. We've just tried a pair on, the stiffest 120 flex model, and watching the panel flex was both pleasing and slightly weird.
There's a new last is called the Enduro - it's a 98mm width, making for a performance fit, but has a tad more height above the instep than you might imagine. This last is found across three categories.
Fall-Line liked the look of the Tracker 130 Intuition, complete with walk mode, fancy karabiner buckles and a rubber lugged sole for freeriders looking to hike for the odd line. At £450 it's in line with the Scarpa Typhoon and Garmont Adrenaline. Drop the Intuition liner and it's £375. The Renu 110 is also in the range.
The walk mode is similar to the Salomon Quest - a drop in lug. We would like to see it in action because it looks like it could clog with packed snow, but we'll know soon enough. They've been on test for a year so and have made it into production.
The freeride/performance-biased Burner also gets the Enduro shell, with a 120 and 90 stiffness. Ace graphic with sublimated flame graphics.
Dual strap on all freeride/freestyle skis
Volt is the new all mountain freestyle boots, lace-up liner (£325), hiking lugs in the sole and rubber damped footbed.
The Overload Pro is the Livefit version, with the sidepanels allowing for feet to flatten out on landing.
The very successful Hawx carries over as does M Tech and B tech, though expect Livefit boots to take over from the latter.