Black Diamond

Carbon Convert Ski

Question: It snowed two feet last night, you've got some big backcountry lines on the menu, and your superlight skinny skis just don't have the float or the backbone to send and stomp like you need to—what's a dude to do? Answer: slap the Black Diamond Carbon Convert Ski on your feet. They have a freeride footprint, with a 105mm waist and rockered tip and tail, but a touring skeleton, with a carbon-fiber laminate and lightweight Paulownia wood core that help the Carbon Convert weigh in at right around six pounds a pair, nearly a full pound lighter than the standard Convert—in fact, at these dimensions, there isn't a lighter ski on the market.

It's no skin-track-oriented noodle, though. Black Diamond's Formula One construction uses three stiff ribs that run vertically along the ski for torisional rigidity, letting you blast through high-speed turns and rough snow without deflection or instability. Even if you tag a rock at speed, the tough ABS sidewalls will give you, and your ski, a fighting chance of emerging unscathed, and the extra-thick Power Edges won't crumple under the impact, either. When it's time for the next lap, pop your skins into the SkinLock tail tabs and blast up the ridge as fast as you just came down.