Roarrrrrr! I swear I heard the Black Diamond Amperage skis growl as I drove them through cut-up powder at Solitude Mountain Resort. So maybe the skis didn’t actually personify themselves in my ear hole, but they sure felt like they were getting all “amped” up as I crushed through snow pillows and plowed over leftover pow banks.
The Black Diamond Amperage is a brand new powder ski to be released to the public this fall for the 2011/12 ski season. The Amperage, along with the eye-boggling GigaWatt, will be added to an already impressive powder lineup from BD. Looking at the Black Diamond tent at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market All Mountain Demo, it’s clear that they have big plans for the future.
I desperately wanted to go surfing on the GigaWatt, but as soon as a pair came back to the demo tent, it was gone in a flash. Luckily I timed things right and scored a few laps with the Amperage, a beefy powder ski that (gasp) actually has turning capability on hard pack. According to the BD tech, a new tip design allows this carving capability. I can say that after testing it on packed powder frontside runs, that both turning and floating are the forte’ of the Amperage.
The rocker on the Black Diamond Amperage is – dare I say – sick. The tip is pretty soft and rockered enough without being too floppy, and the tail also has a semi-rockered profile. But even with that tip, they ski stable and strong through chop and bumpy conditions. Then I took them to my secret stash in the trees where there was some fresh snow left. Of course the skis were dreamy as I made turns through the deep. And when I hit a jump and landed on the 10 inches that fell overnight, I think I saw God. The Amperage soaked up the landing better than hundreds of goose-down pillows.
Black Diamond is still considered a smaller ski company, but with cool new offerings like the Amperage and GigaWatt, I think it’s safe to say that BD will catapult themselves into the upper echelons of skidom.
Here are the dimensions of the Black Diamond Amperage:
Tip: 142mm
Waist: 115mm
Tail: 124mm
Look for the Black Diamond Amperage skis in stores in the fall of 2011.