Quality skis. That is pretty much all you will find out there nowadays. In fact skis are so good that you can almost stop thinking about them and focus on what’s more important—technique.

But this is an article about skis so let’s go there. For years manufacturers used World Cup trickle down to dictate the construction and performance of their skis. Most of the ski companies have, for some time now, seen the way forward in another direction. That is, putting more, and in some cases most, of the company’s resources into developing killer Big Mountain, Freeride, All Mountain, call it what you will, skis. This is good news. For most of us the goal is just that: to ski the whole mountain, in all conditions, efficiently.

One of these companies whose main focus is on skiing anywhere and everywhere is Movement based in Vevey, Switzerland. Movement has been constructing high standard skis since 1999 and the brand is catching on at big mountain hotbeds such as the Chamonix valley and Verbier.

Movement Thunder

‘Facts, sir, are nothing without their nuance.’
--Norman Mailer testifying at the Chicago Conspiracy Trail (1970)

The main ski in the Movement line is the Thunder, a stiff twin tip reading 120-87-109mm over a ruler. Although designed as an all mountain twin tip alpine ski, I have been skiing this model for two seasons telemark style. My initial pair had a super-low profile tip that I loved. Some would say that a tip that low wouldn’t work well in soft snow conditions. Personally, I feel nothing could be further from the truth; I skied a hell of a lot of powder, crud etc. with them and had no problems. In any case, Movement decided last season to go to a higher profile tip. I liked the low profile stealth design. (Keep in mind that with any twin tip ski you can have problems sticking the tails into the snow, in a belay scenario, for example, or using the skis for aid in an exposed situation. This could be a matter of consequence in wilder areas).

A few weeks later I headed up Mont Gèlè in the afternoon. Mont Gèlè has an imposingly steep front face, and when it is firm, it’s a place where you wouldn’t want to fall. I soloed to the main couloir on such a day with the Thunders, started paralleling down and had the feeling of almost perfect control. Now, I haven’t been locked down in alpine bindings in 15 years, but I still remember vividly the feeling of control afforded by alpine equipment. I felt fairly close to this kind of control for the first time in those 15 years. (Telemark will never achieve the control and power that you can get with alpine equipment. This is due to physics, and it is very easy to see why this is true. But that is another story…). Farther down, I went into some telemarks and experienced some chattering on the rear ski, but that was more a matter of my less than perfect technique. (One needs to absorb slightly with the rear leg and not just brace the rear leg unmoving in conditions like that).

Back to the first day on the Thunders: we got to the top of our powder run and it was nice—knee to thigh deep. I love wood-core stiffness in a ski. I like to feel a pronounced snap, a liveliness that says, ‘ski me hard you pansy.’ It’s like bouncing on a well-flexed springboard and when the rhythm is right that bounce can help propel turns in an efficient manner. I think you can see where I am going here: the Thunder needs to be skied actively, especially on moguls and soft snow conditions. I won’t go so far as to say they need to be skied aggressively (although that works as well) but you may have trouble with these skis if your style is passive.

I dropped in with my usual technique, pressing through the turn and releasing pressure in the transitions by sucking up my legs slightly, never getting low, outside hand helping lead with a slight skyward movement. And the Thunders diced that face of powder with this technique, unstoppable, like a nuclear meltdown chain reaction.

Then as the season went on, I got more used to them.

Movement Free Heel

Misty blue and lilac too, never to grow old…
--Jimi Hendrix, ‘One Rainy Wish’ (1967)

New for 2004-05 is Movement’s telemark-specific ski, dubbed the Free Heel (think Le Car) The construction of the Free Heel is like the Thunder: poplar wood core surrounded by tri-axial fiberglass and carbon, Ptex 6000 base (with a very cool William Tell Swiss apple, die-cut into the base) and dimensions reading 120-81-109mms.

Then a funny thing happened as I started down. The skis felt as if they wanted to keep turning. I would finish a turn and it felt as if they wanted to keep going around and back up the hill. It was a trippy sensation and one that I had never felt before. By the third piste run, my technique, in a natural way, without my thinking about it too much, adjusted to this aspect of the ski. At this point I was able to rail the turns—edge-lock style—leaving two perfect parallel grooves down the piste. (This was easier to do parallel, harder to do telemark, as is the case with any ski).

Later in the day, I headed to Creblet to give them a spin off-piste. Semi-firm moguls at the top of the run were negotiated easily. Compared with the Thunders—which I feel are about 20% stiffer—the deeper sidecut of the Free Heel allowed more angulation, more hip-dip if you will, than the Thunders. It was easier to get them on edge.

Out of the large couloir and into the lower bowl is where it got interesting, as I knew it would. Here, I encountered heinous, heavy crud, the kind of conditions that make or break a ski. The Free Heel was like Electraglide in Lilac.

I went in active but without a lot of up and down, steering with my knees, leading the Free Heels through medium speed GS turns, gauging their reaction, seeing how much deflection I would get through the changeable glop. Deflection, how much the skis get thrown around in imperfect conditions, is key (you don’t want a lot of it), especially in places such as Verbier or Chamonix, places where you can expect to get it all, sometimes in one run. Like the Thunder, the Free Heel dominated through, damp like a champ, and torsionally solid (another key aspect) as well.

Halfway down, I knew what was up with these skis, so I upped the speed Hot Rod Lincoln-style (no one was to be seen in the huge bowl; everyone else was skiing much better snow) to a wind-splitting clip, tele-arcing with all I had. By the time I hit the cat track I was howling like I had a hellhound on my trail.

Disclaimer

‘Hendrix plays Delta blues for sure – only the Delta may have been on Mars.’
--Tony Glover, Rolling Stone (1971)

Regard every ski test or report as just an instrument to steer you in the right direction. Then search out the ski and try it for yourself to see if the ski is right for you. (For you N. Americans this means, at least for the moment, that you will have to visit Europe to try Movement skis. Just think of it as another reason. If anyone is in Verbier, feel free to email me and I’ll see what I can do to hook you up with a pair to try).

Like a bluesman that can take an old battered flat top and make it howl like the devil’s mojo mistress, shades of Robert Johnson and his spiritual grandson, Jimi, a skier with the deft touch can make any ski sing. It ain’t the instrument but the player, and it ain’t so much the ski as it is the skier.

And you don’t need to make a pact with the devil to enjoy these tools. Don’t need a black cat bone or a John the Conquer root. You just need your credit card.

Links

Email the author at: bobATverbier.ch

Movement Skis

Inspirations

Jimi Hendrix

Robert Johnson

Los Straitjackets