Peak Skis

[Joshua S]

An old thread with a new input:

I have a policy that if I get a comp from a ski area, I will publish a review only if it was good. I won a pair of skis from Peak Ski Co. for being able to document that I skied more than 3-million vertical feet last season.

Peak gave me a choice of any pair they made. I selected the 104s. They arrived in September. Here is my report. (No one at Peak Skis asked me for an endorsement when they gave them to me. But here is one!)

I used them on December 14, 2023 at Okemo for the first time. They might be the best skis I ever skied on. Wonderful grip on hardpack, smooth carve and very stable ride. A couple of runs had a lot of death cookies and the skis cut right through them, albeit with some "rattling of my fillings." Moguls were hard to come by, but on the few I did find, they responded well. Perhaps the most used skill for a Patrolman is sideslipping and they behaved perfectly with little effort on my part.

I did 37K of vertical, so I really put them through their paces.

If you have a chance to demo a pair, you'll probably like them.

 

[Even_Stevens]

Peak’s doing a little influencer marketing here; this guy’s local to me and has a following in the Seattle area ski community.

FYI if anyone wants a pair. I’d try a pair of 88s but I can walk into almost any local ski shop and take out a pair of Brahmas or Kendos on demo so I’m not seeing the value proposition for buying a pair without demoing first.

 

[ski otter 2]

"Influencers." Or "associates." Yes, that's what they are doing here. Three friends of mine, and another I know,
have gotten at least one free pair, and maybe more than one; and maybe additional pairs discounted,
purely for demos, or to sell. Peak has given them a good percentage discount for any other Peak skis they purchase,
skis ordered by them for others, as a pass through. (One of the folks I know passes that discount on to the buyer,
while two others keep part or all of that for themselves.)

There's probably a name for this sort of selling structure, but I can't recall what it is.

Three of these folks offer people by word of mouth the chance to demo the pairs these influencers/associates
already have on hand, more than one model.

So this is a way to informally demo, at least in this area.

But also, Peak skis are different from other skis, at least to the folks here in Colorado - more so than the difference between, say, pairs of Brahmas and Kendos.

 

[tomahawkins]

An old thread with a new input:

I have a policy that if I get a comp from a ski area, I will publish a review only if it was good. I won a pair of skis from Peak Ski Co. for being able to document that I skied more than 3-million vertical feet last season.

Peak gave me a choice of any pair they made. I selected the 104s. They arrived in September. Here is my report. (No one at Peak Skis asked me for an endorsement when they gave them to me. But here is one!)

I used them on December 14, 2023 at Okemo for the first time. They might be the best skis I ever skied on. Wonderful grip on hardpack, smooth carve and very stable ride. A couple of runs had a lot of death cookies and the skis cut right through them, albeit with some "rattling of my fillings." Moguls were hard to come by, but on the few I did find, they responded well. Perhaps the most used skill for a Patrolman is sideslipping and they behaved perfectly with little effort on my part.

I did 37K of vertical, so I really put them through their paces.

If you have a chance to demo a pair, you'll probably like them.

Ah, calling bullshit. Given the current snow conditions, no one is saying "these are the best skis ever", regardless of the ski. They're good skis -- I own the 104 and the 110, I like the 110 better -- but neither of these are the skis I'm pulling out of the car today, not by a long shot.

3 million vertical feet in NH? How is that even possible?

 

[Even_Stevens]

"Influencers." Or "associates." Yes, that's what they are doing here. Three friends of mine, and another I know, have gotten at least one free pair, and maybe more than one. And Peak has given them a good percentage discount for any other Peak skis they purchase, skis ordered by them for others, as a pass through. (One of the folks I know passes that discount on to the buyer, while two others keep part or all of that for themselves.)

There's probably a name for this sort of selling structure, but I can't recall what it is.

I forgot to mention that a few days ago the same person I featured above was showing off two newly mounted pairs of Peaks. 88s and 104s if I recall correctly. So yeah.

 

[Joshua S]

Ah, calling bullshit. Given the current snow conditions, no one is saying "these are the best skis ever", regardless of the ski. They're good skis -- I own the 104 and the 110, I like the 110 better -- but neither of these are the skis I'm pulling out of the car today, not by a long shot.

3 million vertical feet in NH? How is that even possible?

Tomahawkins: I didn't say "They might be the best skis ever." I said, "They might be the best skis I ever skied on." How can you possibly claim to know what other skis I've skied on?

Most of the 3M vertical skiers are older/retired eastern people who ski every day. 120 days averaging 25K a day is no big deal. At an area with and HS-detachable, you can do 25K vertical in a half-day. Check the "Leaders" tab either on WeSki or SNOWW.

 

[tomahawkins]

Tomahawkins: I didn't say "They might be the best skis ever." I said, "They might be the best skis I ever skied on." How can you possibly claim to know what other skis I've skied on?

Most of the 3M vertical skiers are older/retired eastern people who ski every day. 120 days averaging 25K a day is no big deal. At an area with and HS-detachable, you can do 25K vertical in a half-day. Check the "Leaders" tab either on WeSki or SNOWW.

That makes sense. I was thinking real fast row-tows.

 

[ski otter 2]

Yes, mostly over 50 people, either retired or dedicated to enough days a season to really notice an expert ski that's
more easy, safe and restful - maybe?
And maybe not by a lot, but by enough. Dunno. Crazy.

The Peak is just an odd or unusual ski, to me. It has strengths that I can't think of another ski that has them
(lay it over like a race ski with almost no real effort or risk, for starters). And it has odd weaknesses,
mostly due to low weight versus its keyhole, and first year jitters. If one avoids lots of speed when not on groomers,
most of these models at appropriate lengths can seem almost perfect for the right skier profiles, seems like.

And if one has the 104, and adaptive skiing style for that (a touch less speed, more medium to short turns,
as opposed to riding the rails at high speed), then that 104 and 104sc can seem special to an overlapping selection of great skiers.
My Heavens.

(These skis caused Chris Davenport to jump ship to Peak after all his years on Kastle; and caused my pro friend with another brand
[who had fierce loyalty to that brand] to decide Peak skis were much better, and jump ship to Peak over this past summer,
not waiting a single ski day more. [She's been a ski tester for Ski magazine, etc. for years, tested so many skis, and when Peaks
showed up for the tests last season, that was all she needed.] She is a bit over 50, mostly works off season, and did I mention
that last season she got in 238 days without leaving North America for more than one trip to Japan mid-season? (Almost wire to wire,
34 ski areas/resorts her total, all U.S. and in Canada, except for the Japan trip).

Some of the stories of the first chair folk in Summit are almost as startling.
Something is going on here, that I only dimly was aware of about Peaks (although to others on skitalk I might have seemed a fanboy).

As I've said, at this point I know half a dozen over fifty high speed, expert and elite, almost every day skiers, with lots of other skis
and collectively lots of experience on almost any ski - or ski area - imaginable, who prefer the Peaks currently (usually the 98, so far,
which is maybe not the ski a freeride charger or a groomer zoomer might favor, seems like at first glance -
nor the ski I would have guessed, at first).

I've read your Peak reviews, and you've read mine, more than likely. To me, and probably to you, these first chair, 210 to 238 day a season
kind of folks having such Peak preference seems unusual. Not anticipated. But so far, maybe 50 days into the season for them,
this Peak "thing" persists. And it began, for a core of these folks, last spring, when they - and I - found out, maybe to our surprise,
that the Peak 98 is my/our current favorite spring snow ski, in Summit County, and could be (among?) my favorite for that of all time,
if things go the same next spring.

 

[Philpug]

I cannot disagree with much of what @ski otter 2 said above. I do think Peak is making a good ski, and they are going through the growing pains of needing to be relevent in a sea of a lot of really good skis. I have said many times over, graphics won't sell a ski but they will stop a sale, the first year Peak's were as blah and non distinctual as they come and it was toug to discern model from model where this year's offerings look really nice and the color palette across the collection is very good.

 

[James]

Bode credits his out of the box thinking to his parents having a large jar of mushrooms.
I’m not making that up.
It’s in this podcast, probably more near the back.

 

[Even_Stevens]

This just gets more amusing. Peak is now calling their influencers “operatives”.

Wonder how many free skis they had to send out to buy Kyle off, I ski with one of his friends and she has been a hardcore Atomic fan thanks to Kyle and their ski club discount which is pretty deep.

On the other hand, for anyone around the Seattle area who wants to try out Peak skis, apparently the ADL Ski Club has demos. Their membership fee’s pretty cheap, so I might just join for grins and try out a pair of their 88s or new 78s.

 

[Tony Storaro]

There's probably a name for this sort of selling structure, but I can't recall what it is.

Ponzi scheme…

 

[ski otter 2]

potentially!

 

[Wasatchman]

(These skis caused Chris Davenport to jump ship to Peak after all his years on Kastle

Dav did not jump ship from Kastle. When Kastle was purchased 4 or 5 years ago he became disassociated from the brand. He was unaffiliated when he partnered with Peak.

 

[Joshua S]

Ski Otter 2 obviously has more experience at reviewing skis than do I, as well as the technical details. His analysis was based on a far greater detail of the technical features of the ski. Mine was based purely on using the ski.

If I were to make an analogy, it's like the guy who has studied art and goes to a museum. He sees composition, balance, brush strokes, etc. As a layman, I see the same thing and say, "I like it (or not)."

 

[ski otter 2]

Ponzi scheme…

I assume this is in jest, but It's only a ponzi or pyramid scheme if it meets a bunch of criteria not met here.
And these folks haven't been "bought off."

For instance, the associates don't authorize a further level of dealers below them. And Peak skis dispenses the one layer of discounts,
not a pyramid of associates. (And if the four associates I know are representative of the associates they are picking, then I'd say they are
doing a good job. I can think of a few more good "associate/influencers" who would expand the word about Peak skis exponentially,
folks already in the biz - IF those folks suddenly were "wow" about Peaks.)

I gather the "operatives/associates" are roughly a single layer spread strategically across the country, among super skiers who know skiers,
not sales type folks, not an expanding pyramid. Folks like Chris Davenport, initially. But dunno. Maybe it's gonna be like Avon, for all I know.

I just know four of these folks here in Colorado, two of whom travel a lot to ski - one a bit more than statewide, the other continent-wide.
All three of these are motivated by being fanatical, incredible skiers in contact with lots of skiers. Their main motivation is that these are skis
they prefer for their own skiing, not because they've been "bought off." They are all fairly poor, so free skis is also good for them -
but they'd only want free skis from the particular ski brands (out of all the skis available) they want to be on right now.
And these guys/gals are fussy, in a good way. They try, successfully, to let nothing get between them and their days on the hill
on optimal skis. All four of them get way over 160 days a year. Three are ski instructors, two at Copper Mountain, one at
different race ski camps across the country (who also works laying tile and doing sheetrock construction in the off season).
The other was already a pro getting free skis, involved in ski projects and enterprises all over.

This is not really a money-maker for them. It's about skiing on a particular, preferred ski brand a couple hundred times a season,
and finding the means to pay for this with some free or less expensive favorite skis. And it's about turning others on to the, for them,
few skis they prefer for themselves, just as they are fast to teach others to make better turns, and know tricks on better gear generally.

 

[Joshua S]

I was skiing in variable conditions yesterday 12/20/23 on my 104s. As I transitioned from the PP surface to an icy patch, I expected a sideslip. The 104s transitioned absolutely smoothly. Never experienced that before.

 

[Brad J]

I bought the 88's and 104 last year during the BOGO sale but did not get the chance to use them as my trip out west later in the season got canceled, so this year I brought them to Snowbird and used both pairs 3 days . Both pairs were smooth, would turn easily with different turn shapes, Both were good in bumps, woods. I had the 88's in some fresh snow 8" or so and they were good , the 104's were certainly easier in those conditions. My biggest take away was the 25M radius is meaningless and the ski made all turn shapes very smooth and predictable. Really happy I purchased them

 

[Wilhelmson]

Did Peak meet their much discussed and often lamented funding offering as of late?

 

[Wasatchman]

Peak Skis is currently having a sale.

Did Peak meet their much discussed and often lamented funding offering as of late?

They have raised $800k so far versus their $1.2m goal. Shockingly someone recently "invested" $100k and someone else just "invested" $50k. I sure hope those people are extraordinarily wealthy.

Meanwhile they just put their skis on sale for 35-45% off. Get 'em while they're hot!