Listening To Your Feet: Ski Testing Methods and Commentary

Written by Akeo Maifeld-Carucci, a Salomon Nordic Athlete

Ski testing at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center

While it is a luxury to have to worry about ski testing, it is a crucial skill and process for high-level racing and in my opinion, it can be pretty fun. It’s a mini science experiment: a logical comparison test based on metrics that are inherently hard to make quantitative. It is easy to get in your own head and second guess your judgements but it can also be freeing to turn off your mental analysis and ask your feet what they like today.

But first, let’s recap the process. Today I will speak about testing skate skis.

Set-up: Try to test at temperatures and snow conditions that are reflective of the coming race (whether testing the morning-of or day before). Make sure all skis to be tested are “zeroed” (have the same wax).

Test procedure: There are two main methods for ski testing: glide-outs, and feel testing.

Glide-outs: In a glide-out you find a straight medium-grade downhill and compare the gliding distance of each ski. This works best with two people testing pairs. Starting with two pairs, each person skis one then switches pairs and re-tests. If the difference is minor (within ~2 feet) consider it a tie. Repeat with as many pairs as needed.

Feel-testing: For feel-testing you can test pairs or singles aka ‘one-and-one’. In either case, the idea is to feel the difference between the pairs or individual skis as you ski at the different speeds and terrain of the upcoming race. I usually prefer to test singles allowing you to compare a ski from two different pairs at the same time. If the skis are quite different however, such as different brands, it is important to test one pair at a time remembering the feel of the previous pair when you switch to the next. Testing pairs is slightly more challenging but, if you practice and are good, it should be slightly more accurate as you don’t have to worry about differences in your technique that can create a ‘fast foot’ that always wins.

Helpful notes: A) When testing singles, switching which ski is on which foot is important to try to minimize the effect of a ‘fast foot’. B) When feel-testing several pairs it can be helpful to work with a partner so you can easily and frequently change skis on different terrain or sections of the course or your testing loop. C) Beware of snow differences such as natural vs man-made, or old vs newly groomed snow and try to match your testing to the race course and conditions as much as possible.

Theory: This is where I find things start to get interesting. Glide-outs give you a distance that is fairly quantitative and easily comparable. It can even be done by yourself if you start at the same spot from a standstill. However, in a race you are only in a glide-out situation when you are tucking down a hill going a similar speed to that of the glide-out area. This is useful in ruling out pairs that are not close. However, for the majority of the race you will be actively skiing and skis tend to behave differently as they are dynamically loaded and unloaded. Their stability comes into play— some fast-gliding skis may be too unstable to ski comfortably and well for the entire race. Some skis may climb very well but be slower on the flats or descents. And some may feel smooth and supple, or more active and springier resulting in something that you just enjoy skiing on. These factors, discovered in feel-testing, are all critical considerations.

Conclusion: Both glide-outs and feel-testing are important tools and are best used together, when possible. I like to start with glide-outs to rule out a couple pairs. Then I will finish with feel testing one-and-one on the remaining pairs to determine the ski that feels the best on the majority of the course and is fun to ski on given the conditions and terrain I will be facing. (Note the order of these tests can be switched. If you only glide-out the winners of the field test you will lose some accuracy but also save a few minutes.)  When I do not have someone to help me or enough time, I skip the glide-outs and just feel-test singles.

Final Notes: A) Remember that ski testing is a skill and that it can be improved through practice. B) Especially when feel-testing, remember that if you can’t feel a difference between pairs, they are probably both good! C) And finally, if you really like the feel of a ski and the speed is close, use it and enjoy!

If you have questions or comments feel free to reach out to me!