Touring backcountry skis
Product 2021
Woman, Man
The Atomic Backland 80 SL, strangely this is a ski that isn’t 80 mm at the waist but 79 mm. this fact doesn’t change a dime of how excellent this product is on the snow; we adored it.
A 17.5m radius. This ski is perfect in all conditions, we awarded it without hesitation. It is impossible to find any defects on the snow. The Atomic Backland 80 SL does it all, and with an excellent level of skiing. A particularly well-designed touring ski that combines lightness underfoot (it’s around 1100g without bindings) while maintaining presence in the snow that gives you serenity on almost any slope. Its cocktail is extremely interesting because it provides a combination of softness, grip and ease when pivoting, especially when you have a backpack or you start getting tired, and less lucid.
The first thing we noticed was its excellent glide. When you are in an upright position, the Atomic Backland 80 SL pivots effortlessly, whether carving or skidding turns. You can enter the turn in any way, even unbalanced at the rear, or too much tip, skidding or even on the edge with more angulation. The tail never catches you out, something that we really appreciated in chop, crusty, and deep snow conditions.
On groomed pistes or hard snow, you can even play carving, even if it isn’t really in its statistics, it rides a 17.5m radius. You can also lengthen or even reduce the radius on the edge. Carving is easy to enter for those who master ankle, knee and hip angulation off piste or elsewhere. You do obviously have to move at a certain speed. So, to summarize, the Atomic Backland 80 SL can be ridden at a low speed, flat pivot, sustained speed in skidding and possibly carving (including small turns).
The Atomic Backland 80 SL is a narrow ski underfoot, efficient and doesn’t catch you out on downhill traverses. Its tip doesn’t seem very raised, but it works well in chop and it absorbs at the front of the ski, providing comfort and serenity.
It doesn’t go under the snow or get stuck. The ski is very responsive pivoting and doesn’t cross over and freak you out, and you don’t absorb vibrations in your legs. And a bonus? When dealing with difficult, sticky snow, you can always start a curve effortlessly to adapt to the terrain (for example forest skiing), this ski is constantly at your service. You can accelerate with this ski despite its lightness.
Its grip is satisfactory. You need to see on a very steep slope of the Atomic Backland 80 SL keeps its superbness. At the end of this test, we saw nothing that could put a shadow across its brilliantness. There’s no reason it would slip because the flex is consistent. There’s no softness at the tail, there’s no reason it wouldn’t hold fast in the steep slopes.
The Atomic Backland 80 SL is very well-designed, we continue the list of benefits this ski provides: well-dosed torsional rigidity, it’s fluid. It combines both lightness and skiability. It’s pretty rare to state, so it’s a great product that takes pride of place on the podium for our favorite skis in this category. It lands the Test4outside.com FIRST Award.
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
Receive your answers by mail. Do you have a particular question concerning the design, use, durability or other about a tested product? We will answer your question personally.
