Black Diamond Helio 105 Ski Powell Blue, 175cm
Lugging a heavy set of skis up the mountain might not be so miserable when conditions are prime and you start climbing right from the road, but when finding soft turns requires long approaches and killer climbs, a superlight ski like the Black Diamond Helio 105 is a near necessity. Designed for all-day tours and big ski mountaineering missions, the Helio weighs a feathery six-and-a-bit pounds in a 175cm length, and has a versatile 105mm waist width that will make the most out of whatever pow you can sniff out, without being too unwieldy when you need to ski a bit of wind-jacked snow, neve, or low-elevation refreeze.The Helio gets its lightweight nature from its engineered ultralight balsa and flax core and light-but-stiff carbon fiber laminate. You might expect a ski of this weight class to have a flimsy cap construction, but Black Diamond went with a torsionally stiff sandwich build with beveled ABS sidewalls to keep things stable when you're able to open up the throttle down wide-open bowls and smooth aprons. The Helio isn't all high-speed business, though; the early-rise tip and tail keep the ski playful and maneuverable in tight chutes and trees, while plenty of traditional camber underfoot delivers solid edge hold when surface conditions turn firm. Black Diamond also added thin sheets of metal in the mounting area for better binding retention, and ABS tail protectors with a skin clip tab to protect your boards from abrasive metal skin clips.