January 22, 2009 (Snow Basin, Utah) – A bright sunny day greeted retailers from all over the USA to touch, feel, and test next year’s 2010 gear for the first time at the on-snow demo at OR 2009. Although track, tele, and snowshoe equipment was all on display we concentrated on track skis, boots and poles.

The theme for next season’s 2010 Olympic gear seems to be “one up” as many manufacturers have pushed the envelope added yet another tier to their products that’s a step above their top-of-the-line gear. If your thinking things couldn’t get much better think again… here’s what we saw and tested.

Rossignol tops its X-ium ski with the new WCS (World Cup Series). This flashy Rossignol orange ski has reduced material in the tip for reduced weight and a re-configured carbon fiber plate to make for a slightly softer fore body. The ski is intended for world cup ski racing on softer tracks but is already winning medals on firm tracks.

Meanwhile in the weight category Fischer is experimenting with a ski that has a large oblong hole in the tip making the weight even less than the already feather-light RCS Carbon Lite.

Salomon’s new Equipe 10 S-Lab skate ski features a longer carbon fiber plate to even out pressure and prevent over-pressure at the tip or tail. We tested these babies on soft and firm snow and found that indeed it prevented over loading the tip. Salomon also introduced their new S-Lab Skate Pro skate boot that tops the current S-Lab. It features a wide strap that buckles across the top of the foot – similar to cycling shoes – and the binding attachment bars have been placed another 0.7 cm back from the toe for better and more accurate push off. These striking white and black boots will be quite visible at the Vancouver 2010 Games. We skied it and we liked it. Adjusting the across-foot strap added a degree of power, control and comfort like never before.

More cool gear on display was the Madshus UHM (Ultra High Modulus) 100 pole that uses a newly designed basket and carbon steel tip to reduce swing weight – very important in the feel of a top quality pole – and a new way to lay-up carbon fiber in the shaft for a super stiff yet amazingly light stick.

Stay tuned for more OR 2009 gear reports…