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Armada has at all times prided itself on pondering far exterior the field, working straight with their stacked athlete staff to create a number of the most modern ski designs we’ve ever seen through the years. Hey, fairly a couple of of them made our record of most iconic skis of all time. Sammy Carlson’s pro-model Whitewalker 116 is the present incarnation of that modern pondering in Armada’s Signature Collection line, culminating in a design that blends a park ski with a powder ski and packages all of it inside a touring ski.
It’s Sammy’s each day driver for the backcountry (he prefers the broader Whitewalker 121 for using in Alaska), and it’s goal constructed to showcase his distinctive fashion of high-energy freestyle snowboarding. Wish to slash, spin, and butter your approach via the backcountry? Look no additional.
Armada Whitewalker 116 Specs
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Dimension skied: 192cmLengths accessible: 175cm, 185cm, 192cmSidecut: 140cm – 116cm – 136cmRadius: 19mProfile: freestyle twin rocker, with camber underfootWeight: 1925g
Form, Flex and Building
Armada’s lineup of skis is extremely different, starting from tremendous delicate park skis, to stiff freeride monsters, reverse sidecut powder skis, and all the pieces in between. The Whitewalker is difficult to categorize, however in brief, it’s a powder twin tip with a very surfy form. It falls someplace on the stiffer finish of Armada’s spectrum for freeride/freestyle skis, that includes a medium stiff tip and a really stiff tail. Regardless of the very rockered tip and tail, there’s a small quantity of camber underfoot that extends a lot additional into the tail.
The tip and tail form are very distinctive, with a full pin tip and tail, and Armada’s three-dimensional smear tech ideas and tails–that is related tech to Atomic’s HRZN Tech ideas and tails discovered on their powder skis. Given the freestyle bent of this ski, the mount level may be very centered.
Inside, the Whitewalker sports activities a couple of different options designed to shave weight, together with ¾-length sidewalls, a light-weight Karuba wooden core, no metallic layers, and light-weight 1.7mm edges. These are a lot lighter and smaller than the thick strengthened edges discovered on Armada’s park skis, however then once more this ski is designed for snowboarding deep pow, not hitting rails.
Picture: Max Ritter
On-Snow Efficiency
Given the skis design intentions, we largely skied these within the backcountry in deep powder snow, each ski touring and in Jackson Gap’s lift-access sidecountry. I spent a couple of days aboard them myself however testing was largely executed by Teton-based POWDER Tester Andrey Shprengel, whose snowboarding fashion and freestyle abilities a lot better emulate what this ski was designed to do: ski like Sammy Carlson. We mounted a pair of the 192cm skis with each Shift 2.0 bindings and Second Voyager 16 (an older model of the ATK Freeraider 15 EVOs) for testing.
The Whitewalker 116 provides one of the distinctive journey emotions of any ski at the moment in the marketplace. A rare mixture of form, flex profile and weight makes these a number of the loosest, floatiest and surfiest skis on the market. Shprengel says, “It’s a really agile ski. Snowboarding quick in bushes is confidence-inspiring as a result of you may activate a dime, the outstanding mild weight additionally makes them really feel extra maneuverable–they by no means really feel “locked in” to a flip and are virtually computerized to get sideways and slash.”
In deep snow, it’s very simple to pop and ollie out of the snow, benefit from pure airs, and spin, butter and slash your approach via nearly any terrain. The Whitewalker 116 takes that outdated trope of “turning the entire mountain into your playground” to a completely new degree. The caveat? When you’re extra of a conventional skier that wishes to lean into and drive a ski, you may need a little bit of a studying curve getting used to the upright stance that the Whitewalker promotes.
Picture: Max Ritter
The ski’s maneuverability is paired with a stiff rear finish of the ski that allows you to get away with quite a bit, like touchdown sizable airs backseat (or swap) or abruptly shutting down velocity with out washing out. “The flex is extraordinarily dependable, I’ve by no means had the ski shock me,” says Shprengel. The medium-short flip radius does lose some stability at extraordinarily excessive speeds, however that fast and slashy feeling paired with the tremendous stiff tails has your again when it’s time to dump velocity on a dime like when lining up your subsequent air or when rocketing via tighter bushes.
Inbounds, and in chopped-up heavy pow, the ski begins to see its limitations. There’s not fairly sufficient mass to push via bizarre unpredictable snow. The Whitewalker can nonetheless carve surprisingly nicely on easy groomers–sufficient to get you again to the carry with a smile in your face.
Comparisons
Regardless of the comparatively small marketplace for them, there are fairly a couple of backcountry freestyle ski fashions on the market today. Two nice comparisons can be the Atomic Bent 110 (an analogous light-weight ski that has been a private resort each day driver for a number of years) and the Rossignol Sender Free 118 (a ski with related freestyle intentions however a really totally different design).
In comparison with the Atomic Bent 110, Armada’s Whitewalker 116 looks like a extra specialty device for skiers trying to unleash their freestyle creativity in deep powder. Regardless of being a bit lighter, the Bent 110 is a little more forgiving inbounds, with higher hardpack efficiency and a extra predictable really feel for skiers coming from a directional ski. Nonetheless, relating to unfastened, surfy snowboarding, the Whitewalker 116 wins out by a mile.
Subsequent to the Rossignol Sender Free 118, the French model’s athlete-favorite backcountry freestyle ski, the Whitewalker 116 feels very totally different. The Sender Free 118 is rather more of a bruiser, providing higher excessive velocity stability, notably in cruddy snow. Nonetheless, I discover that it’s actually tiring to ski, and too heavy to moderately use as a touring ski. The Whitewalker, then again, needs to get tossed round and instructed the place to go, and can reply to your inputs instantly.
Picture: Max Ritter
What Sort Of Skier Is The Armada Whitewalker 116 Greatest For?
Armada’s Whitewalker 116 is certainly not for everybody, and that’s okay. It’s a really specialised device, and a type of skis that you just’ll both love greater than something or most likely need to keep away from. In different phrases, it makes you need to ski the best way Sammy Carlson skis, with a great deal of slashing, popping and agile maneuvers whereas staying mild in your ft. It’s a superb selection for freestyle-oriented skiers who need to chase powder and journey pillows, spines, bushes, and different technical terrain. These deserve a pair of touring bindings, a snowmobile, and loads of deep powder.
