by Amy Caldwell
I spent the morning skiing intervals on 4 different ski models in order to see how they stacked up against one another at threshold plus. I would like to say that the testing was really aimed at some higher knowledge and in the interest of our customers, but the reality is that I am planning on racing in my first race of the season on Saturday and figured I need as much equipment help as possible seeing that my fitness isn’t great and today would be my first interval session for the season. I also have a bet with Izzy Caldwell (Sophie’s younger sister), so the stakes are pretty high.
The four models that I skied on were the new Salomon S Lab Carbon skate ski, the new Ski Trab AR Aero, the Fischer Speedmax and the Madshus Redline skate ski. We have had a few of the new Salomon S Lab Carbon skis in our shop the last couple of days and I wanted to see how it felt on the snow. When I took it out for a spin last night, I was amazed with the feeling. It felt frictionless. I was curious how they would compare against some of the other skis we like in our demo fleet for cold, powdery conditions so I set up a little test.
I waxed all 4 pairs with LF green so they would have the same wax on them. They all have a TB1 grind with the exception of the Fischer pair which somehow missed the grind batch last night. The grind on the Fischers is a little warmer. All 4 pairs had a wedge type binding with the exception of the Fischers which had the Salomon RS2 binding.
I skied a loop that was 1.65km. It was groomed a few days ago and was pretty narrow and chunky. I wore my Suunto Ambit 2 watch and recorded all of the data. My heart rates were pretty consistent for all of the intervals. I tried to ski close to race pace but a bit easier so I wouldn’t slow down later in the testing. I wanted to ski fast to test the skis close to race pace so that I was really looking at how they performed at race pace versus slow cruising speeds.
The results were pretty interesting.
- Madshus Redline – 6:44
- Salomon S Lab Carbon – 6:48
- Fischer Speedmax – 6:51
- Ski Trab Gara Aero – 6:58
By feel, the Madshus and Salomon skis were both really excellent. I am more familiar with the NNN platform, so I think a lot of the time difference here was the familiarity of skiing on the NNN platform over the Salomon platform. That said, I really like the new Salomon skis and boots and would have no trouble skiing that combination more and getting used to it. What surprised me most was how close the Fischers were in the test compared to how they felt. They didn’t feel slippery fast, but did quite well in the test. It would be interesting to get a wedge binding and colder grind on them to test them on equal footing. I was also surprised that the Ski Trabs were a little further back. They feel quite slippery, but not extremely lively and elastic. At least in this test, the slippery sensation didn’t always translate into faster ski speeds.
Madshus Redline- have skied this ski a lot and know it is good in cold, soft conditions. Feels light, slippery and lively. A truly World Cup worthy ski.
Salomon S Lab Carbon- I really love the feeling of this ski. It feels incredibly slippery and fast. I would need to spend some time on the Salomon binding platform to make the most of this ski which I would happily do if I had the skis and boots available to do so. This ski is going to turn some heads next year.
Fischer Speedmax- I love the feeling of Fischer skis and know the pair we had out there today was not representative of the best (we had sold the ski that I would have liked to put into the test). The pair I used would have felt better with a wedge today and a colder grind. It would be interesting to see what would have happened then.
Ski Trab AR Aero- I am very intrigued by this company which makes some of the best Skimo skis in the world. We only have a small sampling of what they make so it would be interesting to see and test more from them. The pair we have feels very slippery but lacks that nice elastic feel.
Notes from Zach:
- To be fair, it’s worth noting that Amy’s heart rates were also a bit low for the Trab interval – seems like she might have a lost a little focus on that one! The Trabs are really interesting – we’ve been testing them all winter, and although we’ve only got one pair of skate skis and a couple pairs of classic to work with, they’ve been intriguing. The company has been around for quite a while, and they’re world leaders in AT gear. They’ve got a renewed focus on cross country these days, and we’re taking a hard look at them.
- I’m willing to bet that a bunch of the “slipperiness” factor has to do with the wedge bindings (SSR on the Madshus and Trab skis, and Carbon RS on the Salomons, compared with Carbon RS2 on the Fischers).
- Amy spends 90% of her ski time on the NNN system. For the SNS-equipped skis she was skiing on the new S-LAB carbon skate boot for only the second time (the first was last night). She says the new boots feel awesome, even though they’re my size instead of hers. But they’re not familiar, and the loading position is a little different, particularly in climbing.
- Also worth noting that the Salomon carbon skis are a soft 182, which looks like it should be great in cold conditions, but is a smaller ski than I would pick for Amy’s 5’8” and 130lb frame.