Rossignol

BC 90 Positrack Ski

Ever since your brother moved to the remote Alaskan wilderness, you've heard rumors that he's been raising pet wolves and making tents out of squirrel pelts. He hasn't been home for the holidays in over eight years, but this year, you bought the Rossignol BC 90 Positrack Ski, and you plan heading into the mountains to take the Christmas party to him. The BC 90 has a weight-saving Wood Air core so you can afford to load up your pack with presents like a backcountry Santa Claus, and the Positrack waxless technology that grips and glides superbly, letting you get up the mountain quickly and run away with equal speed when your misanthropic bro points a rifle at you.

Once you two have sorted out your differences over the whiskey that you hauled up, you can tell him how easy it was to get there, thanks to the BC 90's Activ Cap construction, which combines flexible RossiCap technology with a multi-directional fiberglass laminate, creating a ski that can float over uneven snow and plow through chunder equally well. And when you mistakenly bring up the "incident," you'll be thankful for the full-length metal edges, wide sidecut, subtle rockered tip, and slightly taller camber profile of the BC 90 that allow you hightail it out of there before he can sick his wolf on you. Maybe he just needs another eight years.