Why I Don’t Read Ski Test Reports
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Unlike this ski test, the author masks the ski’s identity. Credit: FreeSkier
Seven Ways To Make Ski Tests More Objective.
Way back in the late 20th Century, while running the SKIpp Testing program for SKI Magazine, John Perryman and I learned the most difficult problem to solve and the biggest variable was the ski tester. In conversations with almost every manufacturer, they said the same thing. So the goal of SKIpp (way back in the 1970s before engineering modeling software was available), was objectivity and processes that minimized tester bias. John created a bench test and then tested the ski on the snow so we could compare the results.
Amazingly, we were successful. We were invited as “consultants” by several manufacturers, to compare SKIpp’s results with theirs. Again, SKIpp was very accurate, more so than some manufacturers would admit.
Most ski testers are really good skiers and as such, they unconsciously adapt their technique to the ski, terrain and conditions and the brand’s design philosophy. This makes objective comparisons very difficult. In the SKipp program on-snow methodology, seven steps were incorporated to reduce the human variable.
One, we did blind testing. The tops and tip logos of each ski were covered with shelf paper before numbering each pair. The tester was not allowed to pick up the ski until he/she “tested” the ski to minimize identification.
Two, we skied the same trail every day that gave us about 1,000 feet of vertical and a chair lift that made yo-yoing possible. The ski area spread fertilizer on a long marked off segment to simulate frozen granular and give us a consistent snow surface to reduce the “snow condition variable.”
Three, each skier filled out a test card which graded a list of mandatory maneuvers/turns. At the beginning of the year’s session, we conducted a clinic on the required maneuvers and how the ski should react.
Four, each tester was allowed only two runs on the ski before grading. We wanted first impressions and found that after two runs, most testers adapted to the ski’s idiosyncrasies.
Ski tester range from racers to intermediates. Controlling tester bias is key.
Five, the testers’ skills ranged from certified ski instructors who either had been racers or coaches to intermediate skiers. Our youngest testers were in their mid-20s (we did have a few teenagers one year) to older skiers in their 50s.
Six, the “racing” models were skied down a 20 gate GS course that had been “fertilized” so the surface was rock hard.
Seven, only 10 skis were tested each day. After 10, the testers had a hard time determining the differences.
We let the testers pick which skis they wanted to ski in the afternoon. Again, the choice and why was recorded. Only then did we allow the ski to be identified. Results were tabulated each evening by hand because Excel, laptops, etc. didn’t exist in the 1970s.
Even with all these precautions, most of us could, after a few weeks of on the snow testing, tell one brand from another. To this day, I can tell a Rossignol from a Dynastar from an Atomic from a Head or K2.
So, when I read the current ski reports filled with jargon such as “edge gripping power” or “discover the amazing effect of (name of manufacturer) new Energy Management Circuit,” my reaction is %$^@*&, and I stop reading. Whatever credibility just evaporated. I’ve been there and writing facts about the ski’s performance instead of hype is, well, boring. But, experience tells me that the reports are more believable. So now you know why I don’t read ski test reports and prefer to “on snow test” them myself.
About eight years ago, Jon Weisberg, a college friend and fraternity brother, mentioned on a holiday phone call that he had been thinking about starting a website for senior skiers. He even chatted up fellow senior skiers on lift chairs across the West to validate his vision.
Actually, Ground Hog Day falls on a cross-quarter day, an astronomical event that marks a midway point between the solstice and equinox.
We have another poem for this week. In the past, we’d occasionally post a poem or story about snow, skiing, winter, and the like. We’ve posted a lot of Robert Frost, an excerpt from a Hemingway story, modern poets like Linda Pastan, Wallace Stevens, Wendell Barry, Emily Dickinson, W.S. Merwin, John Clare, John Greenleaf Whittier. We’ve published a song by Pete Seeger, and a poem written just for SeniorsSkiing.com by a street poet in Denver. This week we are very pleased to present a poem written by Matthew Haddad, 11 years old, submitted by his grandpa, SeniorsSkiing.com reader Doug Haddad. 
