[hwy2]

Some stats about me:
Ski about 30 days a year
5'11, 175 pounds
41 years old.
Ski in the central cascades mostly (Hwy 90 and 2 and Crystal)
dynafit tlt5 boots with these skis.
Currently ski G3 Tonics mostly and love them but they are heavy
Loved the older gen Gotamas, Movement Goliath, G3 Reverend, AK King Salmon,
Didn’t like: Thugs, coombas
I tend to prefer a solid/damper ski that requires more of a weight/unweight than a pivot/slave turn. Like to drive the tips of my skis and stay forward.

La Sportiva Lo5 is 125-95-115. Weight is 1695gms per ski in the 178cm length according to a sportiva press release. I didn’t weigh it so cant confirm but that seems right. Definitely not as light as a manaslu.

I skied the 178cm Lo5 with vertical st’s over 6 days of touring at Thompson Pass mid April. Conditions were mostly stale mid boot (some deeper) pow, corn, and some very hard surfaces.

The ski has a small amount of tip rocker – less than the G3 Tonic, maybe a touch more than the Saint - but is otherwise a traditional ski with a flat tail. The flex is medium stiff. The flex pattern is similar to the other skis I’ve had that came out of Nanni Tua’s factory in Tunisia (thinking of the King Salmon and the Reverend). Softest in the shovel, stiff underfoot, with a med stiff tail.

As far as how they ski - I am fired up on these skis. They dissapear under your feet in any conditions – including the uphill. Just enough tip rocker to feel loose in pow and let you drive forward without thinking too much about the transitions in the turn. Hard snow performance is super solid for such light ski. The front of the ski engages with the turn with little to none of that vague (to no) feedback you get from the tips when initiating a turn on most other rockered skis on harder surfaces. Torsional rigidity is very solid as well. I expected to but never chattered out on these skis. The other thing to point out is the tail has a traditional ski feel to it – not super stiff but there. I expected the tails to be grabby in the pow but that didn’t happen – they released fine. I did notice the stiffer tails (in a good way) when defensively hop turning down steep chundery refrozen entries, and when enjoying their snap at the end of turns on corn or firmer surfaces. I have to give them big props for doing everything well on the down in all conditions while capable of touring for days. Definitely nothing mind blowing or revolutionary but its pretty hard to find a ski that does it all and meets the weight/utility requirements as well as this one.