The advantages, though, were clear in my two days of testing in Arizona (I planned to ski a third day at Mount Hood in Oregon, where conditions are worse than in the Southwest, but a big spring storm had the roads under winter advisory, and I was not interested in strapping tire chains onto a rented Nissan Rogue).
Most skiers agree that a softer ski is better on bumpy terrain or bad snow, while a stiffer ski is more comfortable at higher speeds. Swapping between the two is essentially the promise of Renoun’s design. I skied groomed runs from the slightly icy top of the peak to the slushy bottom in mid-March and found the Endurance 88s performed very well the whole time. I kept my edges when I wanted them, didn’t catch them as I carved turns, and felt no vibrations even at top speed.
The Renoun skis I tested are also noticeably lighter than my regular ride, a pair of decade-old Armada TSTs the same length. The stats say there is a 100-gram difference per ski. That means the Renoun skis are roughly 5 percent lighter, though different bindings make it hard to compare directly. My demo pair has adjustable bindings, which are heavier than standard bindings, and the skis were still noticeably lighter.
Photograph: Martin Cizmar
Fresh Legs
The Renoun’s main advantage for a resort skier bombing blues, like me, is that dampening vibrations keeps your legs fresh. I’m unfortunately cursed by poor life decisions to live as a flatlander and only get out a few times a year, so I usually find my legs are jelly after two days on the hill. But on the day after my two sessions using the Renouns with a pair of CEP compression socks, my legs felt no different than they would on a normal day where I’m awakening at 7,000 feet of altitude after an extended après.
The company’s stated goal is to stop you from thinking about your skis, and that was my experience—as I was reviewing them, I had to force myself to stop and think about them rather than just enjoying the view from the gondola. My only other thought was that the blue-gray colorway looked bad with my green and orange boots, and I wish they’d be a little bolder in style.
