Scott The Ski

Scott Ski – 2015 Ski Review

Scott Sports make lots of nice toys for both summer and winter sporting activities including bikes, apparel and ski equipment, including ski hardware.

They’ve been going for a long time – founded in 1958 in the US, the company is now Swiss based and their collection has expanded massively from the beginning when they were famous for making goggles and then ski poles.

Their skis started seeping into the market during the early noughties when the Santiago Mission was launched. I remember skiing on them at the time – solid as a rock but damn hard to turn. Now, the skis have evolved into some of the most fluid and dynamic tools of the modern freeride and carving age.

Here we pick five of our favourites and tell you what we like about them and what we don’t:

Front-side magic – The Black Majic ski (Category – Piste)

Scott Black Majic skis

New for the 2014-15 winter season, the Black Majic ski seemed like a step away from the traditional Scott Sports freeride, off-piste territory we had gotten used to. A ski designed for groomed slopes – weird. Maybe it was a half-hearted attempt to keep a foot on the marked slopes just in-case freeride skiing got banned. Well, if that’s the case then go-ahead and ban freeride skiing cause you’ll have so much fun on these you won’t need powder ever again (actually that last bit isn’t true).

There does seem to be something of the magic about these skis though. They perform really well at both high and low speeds, long and short turns – despite the fact they don’t feel anything like a race ski, or even a high-performer piste blaster you might get from other brands. They are fun, they are smooth and easy to turn too.

The only small concern we had was a higher speeds on the shorter lengths where they chattered a bit at the front of the ski. The longer lengths didn’t appear to suffer from the same problem.

Specifications

  • Sandwich sidewall construction titanal elliptic
  • Pro-Tip Rocker 300
  • 3Dimension Sidecut
  • Full Ski Length Wood Core
  • Pre-Track
  • Factory Finish

Scott black Majic ski sizes

You are the one and only – The Ski (Category – All Mountain)

Scott The Ski ski

Scott Sports range of skis has slowly changed over the last three years with the disappearance of the Mission and the Aztec. Both those models have inspired many other brands to create all-mountain, versatile skis that ‘do it all’. Well if the Aztec was that ‘do it all’ ski, with a front side bias and the mission, the same but with a back side bias, then The Ski sits firmly right in the middle of the two.

When it first hit the slopes during the 2013-14 winter season it felt like a breath of fresh air. A powerful ski that could handle almost anything, that suited skiers with an ability level ranging from intermediate to expert and that didn’t look like it belonged in the sea.

OK, the graphics are a bit retro, but some people like that and the whole Bobby Burns story seemed a bit OTT – but when a ski can back itself against any marketing departments over enthusiastic creativity and perform like this does, you can forgive them all.

It’s already a legendary ski and if you enjoy the sport then you really must ski on it – a bit like going down the Valley Blanche.

Any weaknesses? Well, there comes a point on deep snow when it won’t handle high-speed, aggressive turning like a true big mountain ski will, but if it did then the rest of the industry would be screwed and we’d all be out of a job apart from the Scott Sports marketing department (and the great Bobby Burns!)

Specifications

  • Sandwich sidewall construction titanal elliptic
  • Pro-Tip Rocker 320
  • 3Dimension Sidecut
  • Full Ski Length Wood Core
  • Pre-Track
  • Factory Finish

Scott The Ski sizes

It looks like a backwards step – Reverse Ski (Category – All Mountain)

Scott Reverse ski

On the face of it, the Reverse ski should be one of the most boring, ‘safest’ skis on the market today. Its grey colouring reflecting the lack of excitement this ski seems to give off when on the rack. The Scott Sport website says, “The Reverse is ideal for advanced skiers looking for a ski offering precise edge control and performance on groomers, while tackling mixed conditions”…..Yawn.

The thing is, I know differently. In fact I recently spotted a Reverse in a rental shop in between the gleaming ranks of ‘super exciting, freeride dude skis that just have to be ridden’. I picked the Reverse for my days skiing, not because I wanted to ‘stay safe’ but because I knew I could rely on them to do the job without any fuss and I would have lots of fun at the same time.

The Reverse is like the Audi A4 of the ski world – on the face of it, not exactly a sex magnate or a contender for the next Bond movie, but damn it’s good, reliable and if it was a person, it would be the kind of person you’d marry.

Downsides – um, hard to find really.

Specifications

  • Sandwich Sidewall Construction with double Titanal
  • Venturi-Tip Rocker S
  • Venturi Tip & Tail
  • Dual Radius
  • Pre-Track
  • Factory Finish

Scott Reverse ski sizes

Still to be convinced – The Adventure ski (Category – Freeride)

Scott Adventure ski

On paper, the Adventure ski should be like a beefed up version of the Reverse with a bit more power and a bit more oomph. Therefore it should like me and I should like it – but for some reason it doesn’t seem to be working out that way.

Sure, they are pleasant enough in powder and deep snow, handling it well and floating at just the right times. They are responsive and feel light, gliding through deep snow with ease and allowing you switch between short and long turns on demand.

They make a good freeride, ski touring set up.

But they seem to struggle on groomed slopes and whilst they are clearly designed more for the backcountry, it’s just surprising that they feel so limiting in anything else. I want to like these skis on the whole mountain because there are other skis in this category that handle the whole mountain well and I’m surprised that these, for me, don’t seem to.

Specifications

  • Sandwich Sidewall Construction Laminate
  • Venturi-Tip Rocker M
  • Venturi Tip & Tail
  • Full Ski Length Wood Core
  • Dual Radius
  • Factory Finish

Scott Adventure Ski Sizes

Let’s get the big guns out – Pure ski (Category – Big Mountain)

Scott Pure ski

There’s a huge variety of fantastic ‘big mountain’ and freeride skis on the market today, but the Pure ski, without doubt, stands up there with the very best of them.

If you’re a good skier then you’ll get the most from these skis. You are the kind of person who wants to travel fast, in powder, over cliffs, pillows, through gullies and just blast everything and anything that gets in your way.

They are a big ski – but they respond like a lightweight, piste machine that’s on the feet of a world cup slalom racer….but in waist deep pow. Honestly, everything about this ski on the big mountain faces of the Alps, the open gladded forests of BC’s Powder Highway or the deep deep snow fields of Japan shrieks power, strength and fun.

They are a blast on the groomed stuff too and carve a turn that punches well above their weight in regards to how you think they’d perform on hard-pack. I can’t really fault them – obviously they won’t win mogul ski of the year and you won’t catch Ted Liggerty hitting the GS gates with them soon. But for pure freeride happiness they are very hard to beat.

Specifications

  • Sandwich Sidewall Construction Laminate
  • Pro-Tip Rocker 450
  • Venturi Tail
  • Dual Radius
  • Factory Finish

Scott Pure ski sizes