ISPO 2020 | Ski Gear Product Preview For Winter 2020/2021

230 handshakes, 30 coffees and 50 “Oh, that’s a nice bit of kit, that” remarks later and we’ve now completed ISPO 2020. We fought through the hoards at this international trade show within the midst of the Coronavirus epidemic to bring you this glance at the newest ski touring, freeride and resort skiing products in the industry.

So here we go, here’s the Mpora snapshot of the most exciting products for the 20/21 winter season, with lots of exciting developments in pretty much all categories of products.

We’re off to the SIGB ski test in Pila at the start of March, so we’ll be sure to put our top selection of skis through their paces ready for the 2020 – 2021 Mpora Backcountry Ski Guide, giving you all the information required to make an informed decision on your ski equipment for the 20/21 winter season.

Ski Industry Trends 2020 – 2021

Contrary to the freeride touring market, we’re seeing more and more weight being stripped from skis, bindings, boots and accessories. You name it, if there’s weight to be taken from a product, a brand will have taken a scalpel to it in the name of gram counting – buckles, snow-skirts and top-sheets have all been discarded – chopping the end of your toothbrush is no longer the only acceptable method of saving the grams.

Ski Touring Skis 2020 – 2021

One of the most noteworthy categories seeing the nip and tuck treatment is in ski construction and from this, the increased development of more and more ski mountaineering skis, with many of the big brands showing off their offerings. These skis typically sit sub 85 mm and weight in less than 1 kg per ski – most exciting versions of these skis were from Zag with their Adret range and Black Diamond with the Cirque 78 and 84, where a full sidewall, pre-preg carbon fibre and a shrewd use of titanium has been used to uphold downhill performance.

Zag Skis Adret 88 & 81

Zag Skis Slap 104

Zag Skis Slap 112

Zag Skis Ubac 89 & 95

Black Diamond Cirque 78 & 84

Black Diamond Helio Carbon 95 & 88

Black Diamond Helio Carbon 115, 104 & 95

Volkl Revolt 121, 104 & 95

Volkl Mantra & Katana V-Werks

Volkl M5 Mantra, Mantra 102 & Katana 108

Volkl Blaze 106 & 94 W

Volkl Rise Above 88 & Rise Above W 88

K2 Wayback 80, 84 & 88

K2 Wayback 88, 96 & 106

K2 Talkback 96, 88 & 84

K2 Pontoon

Blizzard Rustler 11 & 10

Fischer Ranger 102 FR

Fischer TransAlp 82, 86, 90, & Hanibal 96 & 106

Scott Scrapper 115, 105 & 95

Scott Scrapper Jérémie Heitz Pro Model

Speedguide 89 & 80

Ski Touring Bindings 2020 – 2021

Big changes are again coming to the touring binding game, where the current reigning champion of the hybrid touring bindings (that’ll be the Shift) now has two solid looking rivals in the Marker Duke P16/13 and B.A.M Pindung (please rename this) – on top of the OG of hybrid touring bindings – the CAST system. It’s great to see this amount of development in the industry as competition increases – it only leads to more performance at a cheaper price for the consumer.

Marker Duke PT 16

Marker Duke PT 12

B.A.M Pindung

B.A.M Pindung

Plum Summit 7 & 12

Plum Guide 7 & 12

Plum Pika

Plum Race R99, R120, R150 & R170

GR 48 & 58 Vertical

GR 78 & 98

ATK R12

ATK Front 12

Fritschi Xenic 10

Ski Touring Boots 2020 – 2021

And yes, ski touring boots have continued to get a dressing down – it’s particularly interesting to see boot manufacturing heavyweight Dalbello weigh into the ring with their all new 950 gram Quantum Asolo Factory whilst touring boot old-timers Scarpa make further refinements to their F1 boot range with the all new F1 LT. I hear you – enough chat, more photos, let’s get going.

Scarpa F1 LT

Dalbello Quantum Asolo Factory

Dalbello Lupo Range

Full Tilt Ascendant

Scott Cosmos & Superglide Range

Scott Freeguide Carbon