Touring backcountry skis
Product 2022
Woman, Man
The Dynafit Blacklight 88 is a freeride touring ski, very lightweight underfoot. There’s no inertia in the tip or tail. It’s very pleasant for climbing, you can really grip on the cross-slopes because it has long edges.
Its fairly firm torsional structure means you don’t whizz around like a helicopter on the slope.
In the descent flat pivoting is very easy, even in an upright position, the ski goes crossways easily, it’s not rocket science! The other immediate impression we had was the very stiff zone underfoot. On the front and rear the flex is well-dosed but underfoot you have to deal with the rigidity. It’s not a problem on skidding and carving curve initiations because the fore and aft deal with it. But, on hard snow or in conditions where you want a fluid action (on the edge or not), it’s difficult, you must be perfectly positioned, moving quite fast and do wide turns to lessen the radius. If you do the opposite, average radius (carving or skidding/carving) it’s difficult, unless you are a heavy built skier: you immediately feel the rigidity underfoot. You can exploit the skis, but you need experience and to ski fast.
Sa fluidité est limitée sur la carre. The solution is to enter the skid and then to bite with the edge, this works better. All the short turns are done skidding, which is usual for a touring ski where you need a ski that can skid.
Overall, this Dynafit Blacklight 88 is tough to master, there’s very little fluidity, the softness that we like on other skis.
However, off-piste, the Dynafit Blacklight 88 lifts out very quickly. We thought it was very pleasant in these conditions. The tip absorbs the turns and shocks. The rigidity underfoot is rather interesting because it gives the ski energy at the end of the turn (and also helps you to manage the weight of a backpack).
A skier that likes skiing in an upright position will love it as it pivots easily in dodgy snow, with lumps and bumps, when it chatters. The tip isn’t massively high to look at but it works really well, it travels well above the snow. In both short and wide turns in powder this Dynafit Blacklight 88 is a real pleasure. The ski’s behavior deteriorates on hard snow and as soon as you try and go on the edge, it loses fluidity because of this stiff zone underfoot.
Perceived quality: nothing gobsmacking that would excite the buyer. A very traditional construction despite its high price and carbon. The bonus: the quickly spotted indication of the middle of the boot in relief, very practical for adjusting the bindings. The square-tip design is rather nice. Its glide on cold and very cold snow is terrible. In terms of grip, we had a test ski that was (badly) serviced, so we won’t diagnose the grip. A ski that could show off on very steep slopes because it’s very tight at the waist, and the long edges are efficient.
The Dynafit Blacklight 88 is within its designed statistics, well-conceived, capable of dealing with the main off-piste skiing difficulties. It lacks fluidity due to a certain rigidity underfoot. 90% of ski tourers will love this ski.
For 123-88-111 en 172 cm
We used this equipment over a long period of time
These are our thoughts after intensive use:
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