Review: Down Skis CD 4

[Marius]

Down Skis - Countdown 4
www.downskis.com
lenght 180cm
price 549.- Euro incl. Shipping within Europe



Test conditions
exactly 23 days in South America (yes, I am german and do count precisely!)
50% skitouring, 25% mixed fr/tour, 25% dh-freeriding.
used in all conditions: deep pow, crusty mank, wet snow, horrible snow, hard sno, no snow, corn… not to forget this f**king wind!
I am 1.85m tall and my weight is around 80kg +backpack Rucksack (around 6-7kg. big camera…) days on skis last season: 100+
Skis I skied: lots. Beginning with Head i-m. 103pro, Kneissl tanker, Rossi Scratch fs, Slalomskis, Kuro, Dyna 4*4, Dyna J.Nobis, Legends, Gotama, Explosives, Scott Pure, Stunt, Mission, BD Megawatt , Gigawatt, AMP, Justice, Praxis PowBoard… too many to list them all.

Test
The profile of the CD 4 shows a little tip and tailrocker, a bit camber underfoot, flat tip and a tiny twintip-tail.
The dimensions of 120-102-107 show a not so big surface for a freerider with only little sidecut. Sidecut length is 125cm and the sidecutfree and long tip doesn’t tend to miscut. The back is easy to slarve, which helps a lot in steep skiing. In addition, the contact surface of the positive camber is only 100cm long – which is pretty short for a traditional touring ski and reminds more of a “clownshoe” like Rossi S7, BD AMP, K2 Hellbent... And that’s how the CD 4 skis in most runs: easy and versatile like a clownshoe. But there is are two big differences: the tail of the CD4 is much stiffer and the width is much smaller.
On piste an while fast carving-turns the ski stays on the edge and its still possible to carve down without slarving. Stiffness and torsional stiffness are pretty high and I like this.
The long and slowly rockerd tip are positive for staying on top, even in in medium-deep snow. Only if its really deep or you ski slow you feel a difference comparing to wider skis (in the alps we didn’t had this epic "La Nina conditions" the last season). With my big 60l touring backpack filled the length and surface were to short/tight. Same for clifflandings. The stiffness and sidecut are fitting for jumping, but its way easier to ski off a soft-sno landing with a wider and longer ski.



advantages
- The combination of weight, tip+tailrocker and stiffness are afaik unique atm (at least in Europe)
- Easy to turn and stable at speed at the same time
- Low weight


disadvantages
- Mount with a 3.9 or 4.1 driller! Not with a 3.6!
- Lenght of 180cm. Foe me 5-10cm more would fit better (only one lenght available)
- Limited test possibilities/ no other opinions yet (I am a lucky bastard!)

conclusion
the CD 4 is the most complete freeride-touringski or tourable freerider i ever tried. Easy turning in the woods, stiff at speed, easy to handle at low-traininglevel, light while walking up. I’d just like to have this ski some 5-10cm longer. I just did a mounting failure when drilling with a 3.6driller. don’t do that in SA. It sucks! you wont be able to tighten the screws perfectly and this will cause some problems. But anyway, and beside the fact that I have around 7-9 pairs of skis hanging around, this is my new everyday-ski. Just for the big powdays and downhill-only days there are better ones out there.

available in Europe www.downskis.com

info: my skibuddy and TGR-user Geo gave me this ski to test it. I think this fact doesn’t effect my judgment. But one should know this.

pics from SA (thanks to Peter, Moritz, Uwe, Dani and my smartphone)
Chillan

(Foto Peter)

Frey



(Fotos Moritz)

Lanin

(Foto Dani)

more pics from SA