Featured Picture: Rachel Zimmerman
We’re no stranger to testing the most effective of the most effective. Skis, boots, outerwear; you title it, we’ve examined it. FREESKIER Editor’s Choose awards have been a coveted choice within the large world of snowboarding for fairly a while. In actual fact, we’ve been rating and reviewing skis for over 20 years. Fairly the milestone if we do say so ourselves.
We don’t take that reality flippantly. We all know that readers such as you take our phrases of recommendation into consideration when seeking to decide up that subsequent jacket or ski which may make it easier to pursue among the most memorable days of your life. This has been the case for a while. However with time comes information, and with information comes knowledge. With knowledge comes innovation. Innovation that excites. Within the yr 2024, we’re excited to be introducing an progressive new adaptation to our celebrated gear assessments: the FREESKIER Gear Lab. The Gear Lab is the following step in taking an intensive, passionate take a look at the merchandise from the highest ski corporations on the planet. As an alternative of 5 days, we’ll be taking 4 weeks to comb by rattling close to each ski on the market within the large playground that’s Vail, Colorado.
We selected to carry our caravan of ski testing insanity right here to Vail as a result of it reveals all the great qualities you may ever ask for from a mountain to evaluate gear. The expansive mountain covers lots of terrain, with totally different snow circumstances on totally different sides of the resort each time you step out. It’s a wild experiment that by no means breeds the identical day twice, and that’s precisely what we needed. It doesn’t matter what you consider it, Vail provides some unimaginable traces and a neighborhood following that’s as devoted because it will get. Ask anybody who has lived within the valley for a lot of years, they usually’ll let you know why they stayed right here. The snowboarding is sure to be on the brief checklist of solutions to that query, and that sums it up fairly nicely.
You’ll be able to anticipate the identical reliable critiques you’ve come to know and love, with just a few additional perks blended in. Every ski will obtain extra time underfoot from our gifted testers, making the suggestions far more pinpoint. Our prolonged time right here will enable us to check every ski in quite a lot of circumstances, from hardpack groomers to deep turns within the legendary Again Bowls (that’s, if Ullr appreciates our snow dances.) Preserve your eyes peeled for our weekly recap movies and write-ups, taking you alongside for the journey. On the FREESKIER Gear Lab HQ, we’ll be filming our tester’s preliminary reactions and going into element relating to building and the engineering behind your favourite skis. And sure, earlier than you ask, there’ll nonetheless be the occasional get together protecting the hype alive after the lifts cease turning. Plus, we’d also have a few professionals swinging by, dropping some information on what they search for in a ski.
Whereas there’s lots of fancy lingo and thrilling new particulars packed in there, on the finish of the day, this actually simply means a extra devoted and reliable course of for you, our beloved reader. We actually admire that you just flip to us for phrases of recommendation on all issues snowboarding, and that’s a duty that we don’t take as a right. Snowboarding is an unimaginable, mind-melting, heartwarming, life-changing exercise. It’s additionally a f*cking costly exercise. Before you purchase the instruments which may make your winter, you need to have appropriate data in entrance of you. All of us love sliding on snow with every part we’ve. It teaches life classes and provides us among the finest recollections of our lives, so why not dive into the merchandise that allow us to do it? On the Gear Lab, we goal to do exactly that. We are able to’t wait to carry you alongside for the journey.
