Top Five Fridays: November 3, 2023
Lead Image: Candide boosting through a powdery wilderness on a pair of Candide AK 121 skis from his newly announced brand. Image: Skiweltcup Solden on Facebook
#1: The FIS World Cup Ski Racing Season is Officially Underway!
FIS alpine ski racing is back! Image: FIS Alpine World Cup Tour on Facebook
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the November 3, 2023 edition! Before we jump into this one, we’d like to very quickly remind you that our Chairlift Chat Review Team (Jeff, Bob, and Emily), as well as several other members of the SkiEssentials team, are down at the Snowbound Expo in Boston today through Sunday. While this means there won’t be a video accompanying this week’s Top 5 Friday report, it also means that you can go visit them in person and talk about all things skiing! With that reminder out of the way, let’s get right into this week’s news.
Kicking things off this week is a highlight that we only get to bring you once per year: results from the first FIS World Cup Alpine race! While we’ve lightly mentioned last weekend’s races in Solden, Austria, there’s simply been too many other headlines this fall to allow us to really dive into the start of this season. But, now that the 2023-2024 season is officially underway, let’s see how the U.S. Team did!
As it turns out, the first weekend of ski racing was a bit more mellow than we would’ve preferred. On the men’s side of things, the first GS race of the season was canceled due to high winds. As a result, their season hasn’t actually started yet, and will have to wait another week until they’re given another shot at it on November 11th, at the highly anticipated debut of the Zermatt-Cervinia race. You can preview that race schedule here.
In the women’s GS race, which wasn’t canceled, Shiffrin and Moltzan placed 6th and 11th place respectively, with every other U.S. athlete missing finals. While the results themselves aren’t particularly newsworthy, there are a few really interesting stories that came out of last weekend’s race that help provide some necessary context. First, focusing on Shiffrin, we want to take a moment to extinguish any potential panic that might arise from seeing her name so ludicrously far down the list. As a reminder, in Shiffrin’s first GS race last season, she finished in 13th place, at the Killington stop. As you know, her season turned out just fine. In fact, you could even say that last weekend’s result went perfectly according to plan, as Shiffrin has been open about the fact that she’s intentionally easing into the season. Ski Mag did a great job of covering this perspective in full, but the short version is that Shiffrin is essentially treating these first races as her preseason, allowing herself a little bit of time to bring herself up to speed ahead of the bulk of the season.
In other news from the women’s race, despite finishing in 11th place, Paula Moltzan gave us quite a bit to look forward to as her second run proved to be the second fastest run of the entire day. After sneaking into finals in 28th place, Moltzan smashed the pedal down for her second run, earning her a time that moved her up seventeen positions to finish in 11th. While that’s likely not the final result she was aiming for, the fact that she put down the second fastest run of the entire day proves that this might be a season to remember for her. Finally, rounding out this highlight, we’d be remiss not to mention the fact that sisters Mary and Elisabeth Bocock made their FIS World Cup debuts this past weekend, marking the first time that’s happened in 24 years. While neither Bocock made finals, it’s still a cool story and we remain excited to watch them develop throughout the season. Speaking of which, looking ahead, you can preview next weekend’s slalom races in Levi, Finland, right here.
#2: Wondering Why Candide Left Faction? Perhaps it Was to Launch His Own Ski Brand:
A look at the simple stylings of the new Candide BC 111 Skis. Image: Candide Skis Website
Moving right along, we have some very exciting news to share with you this week: Candide has officially launched his new ski brand! Known as “Candide Skis,” his newly unveiled ski brand is following a similar formula to his outerwear brand, Candide, in that simple stylings and high quality construction are taking precedence over attention grabbing graphics. In his new ski lineup, Candide is offering a purple all mountain ski, known as the Resort 101, a black powder ski known as the BC 111, and a white deep snow ski known as the AK 111. Again, as you can tell, the theme here is “simplicity”. Of course that’s not at all meant to downplay the quality or thoughtfulness of these skis. Quite the opposite actually. As any designer will tell you, achieving simplicity is an art, and it’s typically quite difficult to obtain. When it comes to designing a new line of skis then, there’s something soothing about a lineup that hits three target markets, with widths available in 10mm increments, and connected through simplistic stylings. Starting from a clean slate, Candide Skis could’ve gone in any direction, and it would’ve been easy to get carried away. Instead, the new brand comes off as calm, cool, and collected - much like the man himself.
Beyond the aesthetics though, let’s not pretend like Candide doesn’t know how to make a ski. While the graphics and lineup are simple, these skis are constructed using an array of techniques that immediately position them amongst the best available. Triple radius sidecut, adaptive rocker profiles, lightweight cores, chip resistant top sheets… the list goes on. At the end of the day, the new Candide skis aren’t just another boutique ski - they’re legit contenders for some of the best available. How do we know? Well, let’s just say we’ve been keeping a secret since the middle of last winter. But, we’ll wait until Jeff and Bob are back before we get into all of that! For now, have a look at the new Candide Skis website.
#3: Zoa Engineering, Creators of the Hand Held Rope Tow, Looks to Ramp Up Production With New Investor and Co-Owner:
Want to hit the backcountry but don't want to skin? Have a backyard snowpark setup and don't want to hike? The Zoa handheld rope tow might be right for you! Image: Zoa Engineering on Facebook
In other news this week, we want to bring you a quick update from Zoa Engineering, a startup company that manufactures a unique portable rope tow like device. If you haven’t heard of this company or their product before, the long and short of it is this: Zoa Engineering is the inventor of a handheld device that you can use to set up a rope tow just about anywhere. All you need is a tree or a similar anchor at the top of the hill, some paracord looped around it, and the Zoa PL1. Once your rope is set up, all you have to do is attach your PL1 to it at the bottom and use the throttle to allow it to pull you up the slope. At the top, disengage, stash the PL1, and ski your run. We won’t get too deep into the merits of this system, which use cases it works best for, or where it might fall short. Instead, we’ll simply note that it exists as yet another option that allows skiers to ski in a manner that’s best suited for them. Keeping that in mind, let’s get to this week’s update.
This week, Zoa made multiple announcements that seem to signal their intention to continue growing, with the goal of becoming a popular and viable ski-access option. In a post on their website, they announced that they’ve secured an investment from Andrew Zwicker, who’s now joined the team as a co-founder, and will also be taking on roles in the sales and marketing departments. Along with this investment, Zoa also announced plans to move into a larger headquarters that will enable their growth, as well as the procurement of additional inventory. Until now, the Zoa system has only been available in limited supply, with only backers of the company’s Kickstarter campaign and those lucky enough to access a login-protected ordering page being able to get their hands on the product. As a part of this week’s news, Zoa announced that an additional 50 PL1 complete packages will be on sale on November 10th. For us, it’s really the sum of these announcements that caught our attention. Any one of the three we may have shrugged off, but between the new investment partner, plans to move into a bigger space, and the restock of sold out inventory, we simply have no choice but to pay attention to the moves Zoa is making. As the sport of skiing continues to evolve to provide a multitude of access options, ranging from private ski resorts to skinning in the backcountry, Zoa signified this week that it fully intends on becoming yet another option for those searching for their preferred way to participate. To learn more about this week’s news, click here.
#4: The Colorado “Kings of First Chair” Snag the First Lift of the Season, for the 31st Year in a Row:
A skier catching some early season air amidst excellent opening day conditions at Arapahoe Basin last weekend. Image Arapahoe Basin on Facebook
Finally, we end this week with a bit of a sneaky double highlight. Let’s start by acknowledging the overarching story here: the ski season continued to get underway here in the U.S. this week as multiple ski resorts began spinning their lifts for the season. In Colorado, Arapahoe Basin opened for the season on October 29th, while Keystone opened on November 1st. At Arapahoe Basin, opening day was blessed with significant natural snow as several inches fell throughout the day. Keystone, on the other hand, featured drier weather, but more open terrain, with a full two miles of groomed runs available to guests. Joining these two resorts in opening this week was also two Minnesota resorts: Andes Tower Hill and Wild Mountain. While this region may not have the vertical of the Rockies, they’ve certainly proven in recent years that it can blow snow with the best of them as early season openings have begun matching or beating West Coast resorts. Beyond these four resorts, it’s also worth pointing out that plenty more snow and opening days are on the way. On the West Coast, multiple regions are forecasted to receive plenty of natural snow in the near future, while here on the East Coast Killington is celebrating a limited opening day today, with plans to open in full tomorrow.
One last headline we want to share before rounding out this week’s news, is a report from Colorado Public Radio that shares the story of Colorado’s “Kings of First Chair.” Unbeknownst to most, the duo made up of Nate “Dogggg” Nadler and “Trailer” Tom Miller have snagged Colorado’s first chair every year for the past 31 years. If that statistic sounds a bit crazy, well, it is. In reading the CPR story, you quickly learn the lengths that these two go through every year in order to claim the “award.” Sleeping under the first chair. Not eating. Not drinking. Not peeing. Leaving one ski resort and speeding to another one an hour away when a last minute announcement is made that a different resort is opening first. These are all things that either Nate “Dogggg” Nadler or “Trailer” Tom Miller have done over the course of 31 years in order to secure their annual title. As ski season gets underway here in America, we’re glad we have their amusing story to tell. You can read all about it, right here!