Big name, low weight. Salt Lake City’s DPS Skis are already known for their light weight sticks, which has made them a favorite for backcountry skiers. Well, next season, the company will release a new backcountry touring-specific version of the popular Wailer 112RP2, called the Tour1.
I was able to get the Wailer 112RP2 Tour1 out on the snow a couple times, both in-bounds and out. First off, these guys are super light. Mounted with new G3 ION touring bindings, I was amazed at how light the Tour1 are. With that in mind, I was a bit nervous to take them to Alta the day after a big storm. I was afraid I would break them! Looking back, I had nothing to worry about. In untracked powder, these skis tracked perfectly. The rockered tips allowed me to charge with full forward-lean and stay afloat, while the raised tails made slarving super easy and fun.
In cut-up powder and chop, however, the Tour1 had difficulties. I found it hard to keep them together and tracking straight when they have such little weight to them. Also, I felt like the skis are slow, even when I tried to make them charge hard. There is a reason that alpine skis have girth – so they can destroy everything in their path and go super fast while doing it. So to be fair, the Tour1 are made for touring, not resort skiing. But it is nice to test them in resort conditions to discover their limits, and I think I found them while attempting to go fast in the chop.
Surprisingly, the Tour1 did very well on hardpack and groomers during return runs to the lift. They were quick edge-to-edge, and held an edge much better than I would have expected from a ski that’s 112 underfoot.
To test them on terrain they were built for, I took the Wailer 112RP2 Tour1 on a dawn patrol to the Butler Trees in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It is quite amazing how much easier it is to skin up steep terrain with super light skis. I practically ran up the steep, gully sidewalls at the beginning of the tour, and blasted through the switchbacks to the summit of Circle All Peak, leaving my friends far behind. I’m not in great shape right now, so I give all the credit to the skis. At the top, I wasn’t even tired, even after two laps. Chalk up another advantage to using light skis on the uptrack – they don’t wear your legs out before it’s time to ski down.
For the descent, I skied down an untracked line in the aspen forest and found the Tour1 to be responsive and quick while turning through tight trees or making sudden moves to avoid the brushy lower slopes. Again, floatation is excellent and they have a lot of pop from turn to turn. For the second descent, we took the “home run” down Circle All’s south ridge back to the trailhead. The snow here was a bit sun affected and there were more tracks. Here is where I noticed that the Tour1 are pretty stiff, as they handled a bit of heavy snow like champs. The carbon construction is obvious here, as these skis are downright surgical in their backcountry precision.
While two days on a pair of skis isn’t much time to really test them in all conditions, based on what I’ve found for the DPS Wailer 112RP2 Tour1, is that they offer the best of both worlds for backcountry skiing: supreme light weight without sacrificing downhill performance. While I probably wouldn’t take them back to the resort (unless it was for first tracks on a pow day) I would absolutely purchase the Tour1 as a one-ski-backcountry-quiver. Hell, I would even take them to a rando race… they are that light.
The Tour1 line, which also include Wailer 99 and Cassiar 95 versions, is set to come out for the 2015/16 ski season. Below is the official release and technical specs from DPS:
—
DPS is proud to announce a new chapter in the carbon ski revolution by introducing a fourth construction option to its lineup. Tour1 is a targeted lightweight backcountry build that emphasizes fast ascents and class-leading downhill performance. It is significantly lighter than Pure3, DPS’ flagship construction. Whereas Pure3 is ultimate in advanced ultra-powerful carbon ski technology, Tour1 skis are comparable in weight to the lightest backcountry-specific touring skis on the market while offering competitive differentiation by exhibiting superior, class-leading torsional stiffness, unmatched edge grip and dampening via a proprietary new Tour1 specific aerospace carbon laminate.
* Tour1 is torsionally softer and more forgiving than Pure3 to mirror the performance bandwidth of laterally softer touring boots.
* Tour1 is less powerful, has a lower top-end speed range, and is less damp than Pure 3, but is much more powerful and has better edge grip than competitive touring specific skis on the market.
* Tour 1 construction features: Full Cap, Balsa Core, Aerospace specific prepreg carbon laminate.
DPS’ Wailer 112RP2 is the most heavily awarded ski within the industry. Its ability to float in powder and carve on groomed surfaces creates an unmatched one ski quiver. Now mated with a new aerospace prepreg carbon laminate geared towards backcountry touring, the Wailer 112RP2 Tour1 will be one of the lightest and widest skis on the market, yet will have more power and better edge grip than competitive touring specific skis on the market. Why invest energy in long tours if you are forced to ride floppy touring skis that sap the performance and fun out of the descent?
For the current lineup of DPS skis, check them out at dpsskis.com