Ski review: Black Diamond AMPerage

Tested: Black Diamond AMPerage (141-115-123)

Best for: Powder snobs

If you’re a fair weather skier that only shows up on powder days then buy the AMP. By far the biggest ski in the test it was a blast to play with in fresh snow, be it 10 centimetres or 50. Width + aggressive early rise tip and tail + traditional camber under foot = crud and crust destruction. They floated through every kind of untracked snow. And landing cliffs and jumps these skis felt powerful and stable. But be prepared when you hit the cat track. The general tapered shape felt squirrelly on the groomers and we definitely noticed the width with slow edge to edge transitions. However, once we’d adjusted our skiing to the new shape we could manhandle the aggressive side cut to carve in control—we just had to pay attention. Best saved for big mountain powder skiing, they broke trail well with lots of floaty surface area riding high even in deep snow.

This ski test was performed by Ryan Stuart & Paul Karchut

This article was originally published on January 12, 2012