And The Sticker Goes To…WildSnow’s Ultimate Quiver 2012/2013
Ultimate Quiver stickers, designed by Kirk Turner of Bellingham, WA.
During a factory tour this summer, a friend at G3 showed us “Editor’s Choice” stickers from various magazines. The mags send them the image, they print the stickers and put them on the winning skis before they’re shipped to retailers. It’s fascinating how much exposure the magazines get out of this, as well as how often the “Editor’s Choice” marquee is used for an advertising theme. Well, might as well get in on the deal ourselves!
(We’re late to the party, so who knows how many of our stickers will actually get used, but we’ve got the process figured out and we’ll get on it sooner next year — since we ARE doing another Ultimate Quiver.)
Below is a list of the WildSnow’s 2012/2013 Ultimate Quiver. Of course, most of the skis that caught our fancy have superior performance to weight ratios, making them excellent for human powered backcountry skiing. For the details, read our main backcountry skiing Ultimate Quiver post.
And yes, we provide as many shopping links as we can find. Thanks for doing any shopping you feel like (which helps support our work here)!
Black Diamond Justice (newer carbon version)
Dynafit Manaslu, both men’s and women’s
Kastle TX 87 – available at retailers
Kastle Chris Davenport FX94 – available at retailers
Comments
22 Responses to “And The Sticker Goes To…WildSnow’s Ultimate Quiver 2012/2013”
Got something to say? Please do so.
Different backcountry, different tools. Unfortunately, none of my favorites is available anymore, and one that is still being made cannot be bought in the USA or Canada. The other is from the U.P. of Michigan…American made!:
Trak Bushwacker II/Karhu Orion*
Karhu 10th Mtn. Tour/10th Mtn. Guide*
Karhu Jakt**
Marquette Backcountry
*Discontinued (Non-compete?)
**Made in Finland, available outside US and Canda. (I believe for the same reason.)
Very Cool!
Dynafit Manaslu- my sacrifice to Ullr. What a friggin’ dog of a ski. Good riddance.
Care to weigh in on binding placement? Just looking at the photo shows there are different ideas out there. Do you always mount at spec? Reading the BD web site, for example, lures you forward.
On this page I’m seeing ads from G3, K2, Black Diamond, Voile and Dynafit. Tail wagging the dog here? Let’s see a three ski quiver, independents only.
I feel the same way Jailhouse.
There are no DPS skis in the quiver and no sticker therefore they only recommend skis that advertise with them. Plus he burnt DPS skis !!!!!
A BC quiver without DPS skis is suspect to say the least.
I like Wildnsow and respect Lou but the marketing ( I know it;s a necessary evil for them to make a living) is at times a little too biased towards their own revenue goals rather than being an honest discussion.
As a result i give their recommendations about as much credence as those in SKI magazine!
Not sure I agere with Xavier et.al. – Can’t remember seeing Kastle ads…..
Conspiracies can be seen around every corner if one cares to go down that road. But the quiver is just an informal and fun idea for a long-term ski review that includes a variety of ski types (Manaslu vs Nunataq, for example). Nothing more, nothing less.
We’re fortunate to have a wonderful cadre of advertisers, and a couple are good ski companies that sell a lot of skis and thus have the money to advertise and yep, make skis we like. No way we’d put a ski in our quiver because they’re an advertiser, and to insinuate that is an insult.
If you read the Ultimate Quiver review (not this post) you’ll see we went to great length to explain _why_ each ski made the cut, and what style and skier it would be excellent for. Not every person would like every ski.
http://www.wildsnow.com/6957/ski-test-review-backcountry-skiing/
I worked hard to explain how we came up with the Quiver last winter. Much of the process was simply to include skis we liked, and the skis that were available for testing. We paid more attention to brands that claim to make skis for human powered backcountry skiing. I’m sure there are dozens of ski models out there that could have made the cut had we cared to expand the concept and/or had the support of the company in sending us samples for long term use (and had a larger garage and a shipping department).
But Ultimate Quiver is by no means intended to be a complete industry overview. Those are a different sort of test, where a magazine expends immense effort to get a crew of skiers out on every ski for a few hours. Very different than Ultimate Quiver — and available in magazines so we don’t need to do a me-too imitation.
It’s a blog, not Consumer Reports.
Ultimiate Quiver is, just, our ultimate quiver! Nothing more, nothing less.
This year’s Ultimate Quiver is already taking shape. Not sure what’ll be in there but yes we did receive a pair of DPS Wailers that are sitting here ready to go. Will they make the cut? I’d imagine so but we’ve got to ski them first — advertiser or not. We’re also going to make more effort to include a boutique brand or two. If an advertiser has skis we like and can use, they’ll still be in there. If they don’t, then they won’t.
Speaking of ski companies that are in Quiver but don’t advertise. Kastle recently told me they might advertise for a while this winter. We tried to get La Sportiva on there but no luck. Ditto for Volkl and DPS. Trab is now distributed by Scarpa but I wouldn’t call Trab an “advertiser…” It’s a dance. Next year it’ll be the same. Some skis in the Quiver will be from advertisers. Some will not.
P.S., I’d ask you guys to please realize that this was our first year of trying this style of ski review. We do intend to reach out more to different companies now that we know how fun and popular it is. That means we’ll test more skis, but conversely I’m thinking of only including 10 or so models. Weight vs performance will be even more important as a criteria.
Dang, I was hoping to be the first obligatory “where’s the DPS?”
Hehe….
Brian, I was laughing too. Jeez, we even burned some as the ultimate offering to the gods, you’d think that would surpass our meager quiver, but NOOOOO! Seems the DPS fans simply don’t understand the concept or power of a burnt offering. (grin)
Aside from various matters of taste etc., my biggest complaint about the snow dance post was the fact that an opportunity to dissect those hi tech boards with a bad saw and give us a look at the construction was missed.
See, that is actually a good point. We do have the unburned remnants, strings of fiberglass, a bit of carbon fiber and some warped steel edges. A hole opened in the sky and a hand reached down for that stuff, but I grabbed it before it could be taken as I thought it might look good on my office wall.
Can I get some stickers if I send a sase? I have nunataks (sp) so I can put them on there and my helmet and my skateboard and my……. I love stickers.
Mark, sure, send an email to the contact link above. The Ultimate Quiver stickers are not weather proof, they’re designed for the companies and retailers to stick on the shrink wrap, not on the ski. But you could play around with a few and see how they last. Perhaps cover with a bit of clear tape. Lou
@ Hans Erdman
If you liked the Karhu no-wax skis – the Karhu Guide (78mm waist) is now the Madshus Annum. Probably available in the US – it certainly is in Canada.
Thinking of testing any Movements? Great heritage, super lightweight, interesting range of skis…
Quite a fan of my Scott Crus’airs which don’t get much of a showing
No intent to insult, unfortunate that you interpreted as such. Appearances can be deceiving.
What about the DPS? Just kidding, had to do it. What would be the best way for some of your readers to help out with this kind of Ultimate Quiver? I know you don’t need twenty short posts about how great the 112s are, but what would work for you. Continued short comments about the ski where applicable?
Good morning skiers, an important part of the ‘quiver’ should be on the snow this winter, this being the Skizee. It is a small, quiet machine that fits in the trunk of your car, that truly will take the user to places on the snow that have been previously inaccessible. It is a machine that will astound the user as to all the terrain that becomes open to ski. Flat, up, down, rough, bushy, powder, bumps, ditches, …. just keep adding to the list of Skizee uses. It has a range of roughly 40 kms, and will tow a secondary sled weighing up to 125 kgs. very powerful and useful. Just a few more issues to be worked out, and we will launch this amazing machine. Note that we have listened to to your comments, the primary one being noise, and I can assure you that we will make the Skizee as quiet as possible. Have a look, it’s very cool.
Tim Park
skizee.ca
Tim, apparently you didn’t see our blog post about your product. Next time you spam our comments to take free advertising, at least have the courtesy to see if you can find a previous post covering your product.
To save you the 15 seconds it would have taken you to use our search function with word “skizee,” here is the link you need. http://www.wildsnow.com/8522/skizee-solution-to-the-slog/