# Gear Guides



## wa-loaf (Jul 25, 2010)

Looking forward to their arrival in August ....


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## snowmonster (Jul 26, 2010)

Here we go...


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## drjeff (Jul 26, 2010)

I figure about 2 weeks until the mailbox is full of magazines using such great descriptive terms as "unmatched at ripping the backcountry of Jackson Hole" when the magazines target audience is basically beginners/intermediates from major metropolitan areas for whom the only thing they rip, skiing wise is the envelopes that bring them their bills for the magazine!    :lol:

That being said, that day in August when I open up the mailbox and see a skier on the cover of a magazine defintely increases the ski season stoke factor in a large way!


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## wa-loaf (Jul 26, 2010)

I never buy new gear in the fall, but still love those gear guides ... better than porn!


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## drjeff (Jul 26, 2010)

wa-loaf said:


> I never buy new gear in the fall, but still love those gear guides ... better than porn!



You need some snow sliding ASAP there Wa-loaf!  :lol:


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## deadheadskier (Jul 26, 2010)

Resort Guide is my favorite.  I know, people harp on the rankings, I still enjoy reading about 50 different ski areas all in the same magazine.


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## wa-loaf (Jul 26, 2010)

drjeff said:


> You need some snow sliding ASAP there Wa-loaf!  :lol:



Agreed, but you can keep your gear guide out in the open.


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## snowmonster (Jul 26, 2010)

wa-loaf said:


> I never buy new gear in the fall, but still love those gear guides ... better than porn!





drjeff said:


> You need some snow sliding ASAP there Wa-loaf!  :lol:



I agree with drjeff, wa-loaf! And I agree with you about not buying new gear in the fall. The best time to shop for gear is in the -- summer!


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## SKIQUATTRO (Jul 26, 2010)

i like the resort guide, dont care much for the gear guides....


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## deadheadskier (Jul 26, 2010)

To be honest, I think more articles on Resorts is what these magazines lack in general.
Outside of the Resort Guide you get 3, maybe 4 articles on various ski areas in each magazine.

There are over 400 ski resorts in the USA.  Then you've got all of the areas in Canada, Europe, South America.

How many magazine issues a year now? 6/7?   They could run 2 articles on International Areas and 8 on North American areas every issue for 10 years before having to repeat.

Fantasizing where I'd like to travel to and places I'd like to ski someday is the 'ski porn' I'm interested in.   Gear Guides / Reviews in Mags fall flat for me.  I'd rather read about gear on message forums.


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## bigbog (Jul 27, 2010)

drjeff said:


> I figure about 2 weeks until the mailbox is full of magazines using such great descriptive terms as "unmatched at ripping the backcountry of Jackson Hole" when the magazines target audience is basically beginners/intermediates from major metropolitan areas for whom the only thing they rip, skiing wise is the envelopes that bring them their bills for the magazine!    :lol:........



Also love it when worded as "able to rip the steeps at mach speeds"


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## Puck it (Jul 27, 2010)

Kinda of bogus since it is a pay to play thing.  I thought anyways.


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## eastcoastpowderhound (Aug 2, 2010)

you'll have to wait a little longer for some of the gear guides this year...Ski isn't running the gear guide until their October issue....so september release and Skiing is also going to Oct.  Skiing has changed their whole format, only 2 print issues, Gear in Oct and Resort in Dec, and the rest will be 6 online editions.  
Puck it, its not really a "pay to play" thing...the equipment editors and editorial staff keep their distance from the publishers and ad sales folks.  Ski, Skiing, Freeskier...all are "free" for the ski manufacturers to enter and attend...it just costs a pile of money in test skis and lodging, airfare, and expenses for one to two guys to maintain a feet of skis and ship them around to different venues in the winter.  Powder switched their format a bit and there was a cost to attend, but that cost included lodging, lift tickets, meals and apres for up to two company guys for 4 days in Jackson Hole and a one or two page "advetorial" in the buyers guide...all for less than their normal full page rate.  The reviews in Powder will still be done by their testers and based on feedback from their testers, not ski company marketing guys.  The tests are about as unbiased as they can make without requiring their testers to ski blindfolded.


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## billski (Aug 2, 2010)

What I was always told is, it's more important to see what skis they don't review.   It's how they resolve the conflict of interest between the hand that feeds them and being honest about bad equipment.  Seems to bear out IME.


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## deadheadskier (Aug 2, 2010)

eastcoastpowderhound said:


> you'll have to wait a little longer for some of the gear guides this year...Ski isn't running the gear guide until their October issue....so september release and Skiing is also going to Oct.  Skiing has changed their whole format, only 2 print issues, Gear in Oct and Resort in Dec, and the rest will be 6 online editions.
> Puck it, its not really a "pay to play" thing...the equipment editors and editorial staff keep their distance from the publishers and ad sales folks.  Ski, Skiing, Freeskier...all are "free" for the ski manufacturers to enter and attend...it just costs a pile of money in test skis and lodging, airfare, and expenses for one to two guys to maintain a feet of skis and ship them around to different venues in the winter.  Powder switched their format a bit and there was a cost to attend, but that cost included lodging, lift tickets, meals and apres for up to two company guys for 4 days in Jackson Hole and a one or two page "advetorial" in the buyers guide...all for less than their normal full page rate.  The reviews in Powder will still be done by their testers and based on feedback from their testers, not ski company marketing guys.  The tests are about as unbiased as they can make without requiring their testers to ski blindfolded.




woah, I know folks are booking their vacations later and later, but not releasing the Resort Rag until November is a bit of surprise.


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## drjeff (Aug 2, 2010)

deadheadskier said:


> woah, I know folks are booking their vacations later and later, but not releasing the Resort Rag until November is a bit of surprise.



Yes and no - most of the return customers, the type that make up a good deal are going to/have already booked their vacations for this coming season.  Then there's a good chunk that will just get the info online and/or wait for a deal and go where the $$ is the cheapest, without reallly giving too much thought to the nitty gritty details of the resort/region


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## eastcoastpowderhound (Aug 3, 2010)

billski said:


> What I was always told is, it's more important to see what skis they don't review.   It's how they resolve the conflict of interest between the hand that feeds them and being honest about bad equipment.  Seems to bear out IME.



In order for that to work you'd need to know which models each company entered into the test.  Most vendors have 30+ adult models in their line ups...but are only allowed to enter at most 8 models split between mens and ladies.  So just because a ski didn't make the mag reviews doesn't mean it was skied on and not liked, it may not even have been entered.  
There isn't a lot of bad equipment out there...just stuff that works better for someone given their skiing style and terrain preferences.


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## Philpug (Aug 3, 2010)

Print is dead. We will also will not be seeing SkiPress here in the US this year, shame they were probably the best (print) reviews of late.


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## deadheadskier (Aug 3, 2010)

you know what's worse than print?  

http://www.skinet.com/ski/

the web is going to be dead for them as well if they don't improve their sites.  I rarely if ever visit the websites for Ski/Skiing mag.  They need to take a hint from newspapers and make their websites an extension of their print and vice versa.


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## wa-loaf (Aug 3, 2010)

Philpug said:


> Print is dead. We will also will not be seeing SkiPress here in the US this year, shame they were probably the best (print) reviews of late.





deadheadskier said:


> you know what's worse than print?
> 
> http://www.skinet.com/ski/
> 
> the web is going to be dead for them as well if they don't improve their sites.  I rarely if ever visit the websites for Ski/Skiing mag.  They need to take a hint from newspapers and make their websites an extension of their print and vice versa.



I still like a hard copy. Not interested in getting some kind of pdf in the mail and their websites absolutely suck. They don't offer anything I can't get here or at epicski, tgr, etc...


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## snowmonster (Aug 3, 2010)

wa-loaf said:


> I still like a hard copy. Not interested in getting some kind of pdf in the mail and their websites absolutely suck. They don't offer anything I can't get here or at epicski, tgr, etc...



Agree. It's hard to read a laptop in the bathroom.


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## Terry (Aug 8, 2010)

snowmonster said:


> Agree. It's hard to read a laptop in the bathroom.



I don't even have a laptop so that makes it even harder!


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## billski (Aug 8, 2010)

snowmonster said:


> Agree. It's hard to read a laptop in the bathroom.


 and...
- it has zero start-up time
and....
- it doesn't break if you drop it
and...
- if you lose it, you're only out $4.99


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## riverc0il (Aug 8, 2010)

eastcoastpowderhound said:


> you'll have to wait a little longer for some of the gear guides this year...Ski isn't running the gear guide until their October issue....so september release and Skiing is also going to Oct.  Skiing has changed their whole format, only 2 print issues, Gear in Oct and Resort in Dec, and the rest will be 6 online editions.
> Puck it, its not really a "pay to play" thing...the equipment editors and editorial staff keep their distance from the publishers and ad sales folks.  Ski, Skiing, Freeskier...all are "free" for the ski manufacturers to enter and attend...it just costs a pile of money in test skis and lodging, airfare, and expenses for one to two guys to maintain a feet of skis and ship them around to different venues in the winter.  Powder switched their format a bit and there was a cost to attend, but that cost included lodging, lift tickets, meals and apres for up to two company guys for 4 days in Jackson Hole and a one or two page "advetorial" in the buyers guide...all for less than their normal full page rate.  The reviews in Powder will still be done by their testers and based on feedback from their testers, not ski company marketing guys.  The tests are about as unbiased as they can make without requiring their testers to ski blindfolded.


I actually believe the unbiased nature of ski reviews in magazines. That is because reviews are extremely generic and full of hyperbole and fully turn of word phrasing, generally focusing more on what the ski is intended to do that what it does well. I also think the mags recognize a complete review detailing how a ski performs for each individual type of skier is impossible in three sentences or less. 

What I don't buy is this whole "it is free to have skis there" or "it only costs less than a full page magazine ad in associated resort fees" stuff. If that was the case, there would be a lot more ski reviews in magazines. Maybe things have changed, but last time I picked up a ski or skiing mag, I didn't see Black Diamond, G3, Dynafit, Tab, etc (AT/Tele market) nor the boutique companies like Icelantic, PM Gear, Bluehouse, Praxis, etc. The mags have limited space and can not list every ski. So it makes sense that they take care of their advertisers first and foremost. I find it hard to believe that the smaller brands would not ship a few demos out to a testing if it was free or even relatively low cost.


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## riverc0il (Aug 8, 2010)

Philpug said:


> Print is dead. We will also will not be seeing SkiPress here in the US this year, shame they were probably the best (print) reviews of late.


+1 and Bummer. Hopefully they will have their online version. That was definitely the best gear related rag but even they have gone downhill into two line generic "reviews".


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## Mildcat (Aug 8, 2010)

billski said:


> and...
> - it has zero start-up time



I will dispute this point. The reason I rarely buy Zines anymore is because it pisses me off that I'm paying for a mag and still have to flip though 10+ pages of ads just to get to the "Table of Contents".  You could consider flipping through the ads as start up time. :smash:


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## eastcoastpowderhound (Aug 9, 2010)

riverc0il said:


> I actually believe the unbiased nature of ski reviews in magazines. That is because reviews are extremely generic and full of hyperbole and fully turn of word phrasing, generally focusing more on what the ski is intended to do that what it does well. I also think the mags recognize a complete review detailing how a ski performs for each individual type of skier is impossible in three sentences or less.
> 
> What I don't buy is this whole "it is free to have skis there" or "it only costs less than a full page magazine ad in associated resort fees" stuff. If that was the case, there would be a lot more ski reviews in magazines. Maybe things have changed, but last time I picked up a ski or skiing mag, I didn't see Black Diamond, G3, Dynafit, Tab, etc (AT/Tele market) nor the boutique companies like Icelantic, PM Gear, Bluehouse, Praxis, etc. The mags have limited space and can not list every ski. So it makes sense that they take care of their advertisers first and foremost. I find it hard to believe that the smaller brands would not ship a few demos out to a testing if it was free or even relatively low cost.



There is NO fee or cost to enter skis in the mag tests for Ski and Skiing Magazines other than lodging, transportation, and expenses for the manufacturers reps who are there to take care of the skis.  Sure, you don't see any G3 or Black Diamond ads in Ski and Skiing...but its not their demographic...so why spend 10K+ for a page in a magazine that doesn't reach your core market?  I know for a fact that Black Diamond has been at the Skiing test for the last 3years...I've skied with their company guy during the test...and had breakfast with him, beers, and gone backcountry skiing with him the day after the tests...same with guys from 4Frnt, Scott, and Kastle.  They can't just ship a few pair out though, the mags require someone from the brand be in attendance...check out the Skiing Gear Guide 2010, you'll find skis from Movement, Moment, 4frnt, Black Diamond, Fatypus, Scott, DPS, and Liberty all reviewed in the mag right alongside the K2s and Volkls.  The number of pages of reviews are limited by the mags due to $$$$, not due to a lack of attendance from a multitude of brands.  Last year the only 2 ski brands to advertise in Ski Magazine were K2 and Volkl...but they weren't the only 2 brands to get reviewed in the buyer's guide.


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## riverc0il (Aug 9, 2010)

Good to hear the boutique brands are in the mags now. To be honest, I haven't picked up a gear guide in the past three years, so I was unaware of that change. Thanks for the correction!


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