Whitedot Ranger Carbonlite review

Whitedot Skis very kindly provided me with a pair of their Ranger Carbonlite skis this winter, and having spent a bit of time on them now here are some personal opinions:

First off, a bit about me (as no ski review is useful without knowing about the reviewer...):

Height 6'2", weight 83(ish) Kg, boot size 28.0, boot skied during review - Dynafit Mercury

Professional skier for 18 years, specialising in off-piste coaching. Ski mountaineering is what floats my boat on days off.

Personal 'reference' skis currently - Volkl Mantra (184), Volkl Gotama (184) - these skis for me are the standard by which I would compare anything else for off-piste, ski touring, ski mountaineering and freeride... (so many different words for one thing!)

Testing conditions: on piste & off, up to 40 cm of powder, chopped up powder, some crud
Turn types - everything from tight couloir jump turns to big arcs on open faces, speeds from very slow to 'giving it heaps'.

Test ski - 2013/14 Whitedot Skis Ranger Carbonlite - length 186 cm

Bindings used - Plum Yak (separate review to follow).

Testing conditions were 'OK' at times...

First impressions - these things are LIGHT! For such a big ski they weigh next to nothing and yet still feel solid in the hand and underfoot. Absolutely no qualms about going out for a big uphill day on these...

Mounting point: the skis come with one main mounting point marked, along with a mark 5mm either way - personally I thought the suggested point (marked by FR on the topsheet) looked quite far back for my taste (I don't like having a monstruously long tip and short tail) so they have been mounted at +15mm relative to this and this seems to work quite well (though without skiing another paired mounted bang on the mark its hard to tell if it makes any difference!).

The 'almost flat' camber gives the ski a nice smeary feel for tighter spots, or when skiing with slower clients - some reviews I had read suggested otherwise but I found the skis very easy to handle at low speeds.

About to test out the 'tight spot' capabilities of the Ranger Carbonlites:

Photo ©www.andypmountainguide.com

And opening up the throttle a bit:

Photo ©www.andypmountainguide.com

At higher speeds these skis feel very stable, helped along by the fairly long turn radius (28m according to the Whitedot info sheet) - the flip side of this is that on piste the skis really needed a wide slope for a pure carve... I am however a fan of 'not too shaped' skis for steep skiing as it avoids the possibility for tip and tail to be touching while the foot is suspended in mid-air in tight concave gullies.

One major bug-bear is the squared profile tip, extremely annoying when you are fitting skins - even the adjustable tip loop that comes with 125mm Black Diamond STS skins isn't wide enough, forcing me to buy (yet) another set of adjustable uber-wide tip loops and add to my collection of unused tip loops in the garage...

Of course, its important to test skis in the air as well as on the snow...taking the Ranger CLs for a test flight:

Photo ©www.andypmountainguide.com

For the record one ski + Plum Yak (no brakes) weighs in at 2.35 Kg (only 20g more than a 184 Dynastar Mythic Light (88mm underfoot) + Dynafit Vertical FT, and some 350g less than a 184 Volkl Mantra + Radical FT).

*Caveat* I am a firm believer that there are very few bad skis on the market these days, just poor choice of ski by the skier (or lack of skill to be able to adjust and cope with different ski styles) *

Having said that I think the Ranger Carbonlite is likely to find a firm foothold in the ski mountaineering world amongst those looking for a wider ski without taking a weight penalty and certainly gets a very big thumbs up from me! I am looking forward to taking these skis out for some real adventures as the season progresses...

La Grave & Alpe D'Huez part 2...

A few more pictures from last week. We had mixed weather but great snow (the two do seem to go hand in hand funnily enough :-) ) and Sarah, Pete and Chas all made great progress, ticking off all 3 of the Lake couloirs at La Grave and skiing some particularly deep and very light powder on Thursday!

Sarah and Pete below the Breche Pacave:

A classic view:

Sarah in Couloir Patou:

Pete in Patou:

Sarah, Pete and Chas in the Vallons de la Meije:

Soft even though tracked on Cotes des Rivets at Alpe D'Huez:

Chas enjoying a big powder day at La Grave:

La Reine Meije:

Powder Pete:

Chas again:

Chas does the Banane:

Pete styling it up in Couloir Banane:

Great to be skiing down in the Isère again!

Conditions in general are very good, though care still needs to be taken with the snowpack... All the 'small' classics in La Grave are in good condition (Triffides, Couloirs du Lac etc) - the road runs definitely are very thin and boney lower down, probably best not to take your favourite skis in!

Alpe D'Huez also is in good condition, with lots of snow on Cotes de Rivets, Combe du Loup and Grand Sablat. Lower down is thinner (Combe du Bras etc) and around the Dome des Petites Rousses looked very wind-stripped, though we did not go in for a close investigation.

La Grave & Alpe D'Huez

A brief stop at home after a great week coaching in La Grave and Alpe D'Huez. Off tomorrow for a whistle-stop business meeting in Aberdeen, so more details from this week to follow, meanwhile here is one shot to keep you going:

Steep coaching day 4

What better way to round off a week of steeps coaching in the Vanoise than a run down the North face of Bellecote.

Despite a delayed opening on the Bellecote telecabine (and a massive queue even for the ski school priority line) we had a great ski in Couloir Cairn, having first looked into a very loaded-looking Moyenne Face Nord and decided very quickly it wasn't on.

Andy P:

Jim:

Jon:

Some brave souls had ventured up to the Grande Face Nord and linked up (very cautiously) the traverses over to Grand Nant - looked like much clenching of buttocks had gone on judging by the ultra-cautious line & turns...

Meanwhile the Friolin slopes, Passage de Frete and Montagne de Bellecote runs were all seeing lots of traffic, as was the Petite Face Nord. Canadians couloir looked OK from below, but less soft than Cairn.

Off to La Grave next with a slightly challenging weather forecast... fingers crossed for some good snow!

Steep coaching - days 2 & 3

The weather hasn't really played ball the last couple of days, with flat light and high wind at altitude putting a stop to any bigger plans we had. There is always a plan B though, and we have spent a couple of days mixing up technical coaching with some 'boundary-pushing' on slightly gentler terrain. All good clean fun and the team's skiing is coming on every day!

A few rays on sunlight on Wednesday morning:

Taking to the air today:

Conditions off piste remain good - soft snow pretty much everywhere, though care is still needed in choosing reasonable terrain to play on...

Steep Coaching - day 1

La Plagne delivers!

First of 4 days steep ski coaching for IFMGA Guides Andy & Jon & their mates Jim & Pete - great conditions, if slightly spicy... careful route choice & group management needed, but the snow was well worth it!

Pete:

Jon:

Pete again:

Jim:

Andy:

A happy team!

Conditions are good currently, though lots of slab & sluff action observed, and the Bellecote bubble & associated lifts remained shut all day (probably quite wisely). Care is needed on any steeper slopes as some soft slab remains on the surface with enough volume to do some damage judging by the debris piles we saw today!

Val D'Anniviers - Off Piste coaching (cont.)

The Val D'Anniviers came up with the goods again!

Alex styling it up:

The last time I was here was 7 years ago, with very similar snow conditions to this year, but once again Grimentz and Zinal did not disappoint.

With a couple of small snowfalls but reasonable visibility through the week our Off Piste Improvers coaching course was topped off by 40cm of powder and blue skies on Friday (albeit with -17C temperatures and a biting wind!).

Peter puts his new skills into action:

Peter, Alex, Paul, Chas, Phil and Steve all made great progress through the week, and we ticked off a couple of classic descents on the way, with great snow all the way to the Moiry Dam from Zinal and perfect powder down the Orzival valley.

The Weisshorn watching over our skiing:

Cool tree on the exit from Orzival:

A word on conditions:
Much caution is still needed as shady slopes still have the weak depth hoar and buried surface hoar layers from early in the season. Additionally Thursday night's snowfall came with wind first from the North, then swinging round to West/South-West. On Friday many small slabs and sluffs were evident, some natural, some skier/boarder-triggered, and lots had gone with the morning's avalanche control work (they were still throwing charges into places at 3pm!). Grimentz being a bit of a rock garden some care is still needed as many rocks are only just buried, though the classic routes and gully lines are starting to fill in well.

Somebody got a fright on Friday!:

The new cable car linking Grimentz to Zinal was still under testing last week, though allegedly was going to open yesterday - shame about the current state of the architecture - harking back to the best days of French concrete block construction - one assumes (hopes) some cladding will be coming shortly!

Some more powdery shots - Friday was just incredible - even at 3pm we were putting first tracks into completely untouched bowls - the beauty of Grimentz early season is that there is lots of safe terrain (sub-30º) and very few people chasing the powder turns!

Hopefully it won't be another 7 years before I am back again...

Now its time for a couple of days off with the family, then back to work on Tuesday with a couple of IFMGA Mountain Guides and their friends for some steep coaching... bring it on!