Thu, 03/04/2010 - 9:57pmThe British Ski Test: Day 4

It's nearly the end of the test and over 580 skis have been out since Monday, 1 March.

Many have had over 20 tests. Unbelievably there are still a few dozen to assess, but they aren't the models we're interested in; the core Fall-Line Test Team are done and even as this machine is uploading this story, two others are receiving review data.

Anyway, to prove we do speak to others to get a steer, here are the Snowtrax mob with a few of their picks of the week: that's a Movement Goliath (Christian Luthy, kneeling), Nick Warne clutches the Atomic Access (yellow), Colin Iseard sports K2 Chargers and Head Jonny 94's in Dan Smith's capable hands. We'd be delighted to ski any of them - wise choice, folks, apart from Christian's Goliaths which we can't actually bend. Mind you, he hasn't put a turn in at less than 50mph yet this test so why start now? The last run for a couple of us was following him down the main run and our eyes only stopped streaming three hours later.

This year the main interest for Fall-LIne is the all-mountain and freeride sector, but we have two reviewers committed to piste skis, one women tester and three all-mountain and freeride types. Let's not forget just under 100 retail industry skiers feeding into our data pool, once they have have sorted through through their results. So, what are we liking right now?

The off-piste dried out today (Thursday 4 March) and so Joe Tyler (Armada) and Storm Skis owner Andy David thought they'd make a mess of all that nice snow.

Our piste bashing testers Guy and Colin picked out the Rossignol Zenith 76 Ti and Head iTitan respectively. Both are, as the names suggest, a bit wider than your regular piste ski with the 76 and 75 standing for waist widths in mm. Piste models tend to run at around 70mm, or have done to date... It seems, reading the scrawled notes, that they turn and grip as well as a narrower ski but feel a bit more stable. See, going to fat isn't all bad.

Susan is loving the Fischer Koa 75 right now, which is an all-mountain ski (but she's so light it probably counts as a big mountain ski). Ease of turn, stability and sheer fun take it to the top of her list.

Will and Helene, both skiing a long off-piste section as part of every run, have gone for the Dynastar Legend Paradise as an extremely hot choice for strong women skiers, and the Head Jonny 94. Both skiers have found that brands with a strong race heritage make freeride skis they get on well with. Let the record state that Helene is technically one of the best skiers at the test and was creating some serious leverage on several very beefy skis; we let her loose on all the freeride and big mountain categories and she berated them for being too short...

Dickie is still drawn to the Scott Pure; it's been a favourite for two years but everyone suspects it's because it's got a swallowtail and is taller than a tree, so makes him look good in the lift queue. Which is true in part, though a brisk trip down the downhill run proves that it's essentially a (very) fat GS ski with a long powder nose. And a swallowtail. It's good to be consistent. The happy surprise of the test was the Head JO Pro twin tip. It's a bit narrow for serious off-piste, but man is it fast and grippy by any standards. And it's £450 with a binding...

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