Skialper 2016 buyers' guide. The new gold standard

**verbier61** · 11-05-2015, 09:16 AM

I've been checkin buyers' guide for years, both in english and in french.
As you know, the very large majority of them is bullshit, a few are of some (ehm.. little) interest, so far the only one I really liked was the FriFlyt one because of abundant data and flex indexes by the genius of Mr. Endre Hals. What a pity, it is in Norwegian, only a few scandi can read it

Now we finally have a GREAT buyers' guide, with tons of meticolous data (actually, all the real, analytical data one can ask for..) and comments from very good skiers who actually skied intensively all the gear. And yes, it's by an italian magazine, but it's written ALSO IN ENGLISH.
Kudos to the Skiapler magazine crew. They already did two stellar buyers' guide in 2014 and 2015, but they were only in italian. Now they made the huge effort to publish it also in english, and they would deserve all your support if you're gear geeks like I am.
Although they were born as a skimo magazine, they wisely dedided to open to steep and freeride, so the guide includes a lot of decently large sticks. Bummer there was no way to test US skis that still have a poor EU distribution (4FRNT, Moment, ON3P, etc...) but they might be included in the future should the guide have the success it deserves.
The pdf can be downloaded by the iphone and android app called skiapler.
They also told me that in a few days a direct e-commerce link will be available.
It might look like a spam, but I have no involvment with the Skiapler guys at all. I just like they way they have done the guide, and believe many of you will like it too.

**verbier61** · 11-05-2015, 09:42 AM

**geo039** · 11-05-2015, 10:53 AM

V61. Good stuff there. From what I have seen they did a great job. Stoked to get them Down for next year. Maybe some non rockered skimo stuff... I heard they like them

On a side save some trees and get the digital version

Props to Skialper!

**verbier61** · 11-05-2015, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by geo039

Stoked to get them Down for next year. Maybe some non rockered skimo stuff... I heard they like them

they used to, but the times they are a changing, you see this time they awarded the nocta, the kufo, etc... lots of rockered stuff

**geo039** · 11-05-2015, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by verbier61

they used to, but the times they are a changing, you see this time they awarded the nocta, the kufo, etc... lots of rockered stuff

Still fueled by ads

the nature of the ski industry beast.

On a side we never got contacted and many other companies neither. Maybe we did not have large ad budgets? (Essentially zero for print for us)

Again good work boys and all the luck in this venture.

**timmaio** · 11-05-2015, 03:06 PM

I would buy a PDF over the phone app.

**Vitamin I** · 11-06-2015, 03:20 AM

At 3:36, it shows nice torsion measurements in the lab. Not sure if Endre ever did that metric.

.

**skialper** · 11-06-2015, 03:35 AM

Originally Posted by geo039

Still fueled by ads

the nature of the ski industry beast.

On a side we never got contacted and many other companies neither. Maybe we did not have large ad budgets? (Essentially zero for print for us)

Again good work boys and all the luck in this venture.

Hey man, Verbier forwarded us this thread... What are you talking about? The partecipation to our test is absolutly FREE OF CHARGE. Nobody pays 1 euro to partecipate. We contacted at least 5 times Down Skis (the italian agent Marco) to have your skis. But any answer... Can I post here all the e-mails, if you want... (where everybody can read that we didn't ask any money and we underlined the free partecipation).
So, please, before writing bullshit, pay attention. That's not correct and it could be a problem.

We apologize with all tre readers of the forum for this post, but it was necessary!

**verbier61** · 11-06-2015, 03:37 AM

Originally Posted by Vitamin I

At 3:36, it shows nice torsion measurements in the lab. Not sure if Endre ever did that metric.

.

you're right. These measurements are different than (and possibly complementary with) those of Endre

**PNB** · 11-06-2015, 03:59 AM

Originally Posted by verbier61

...
Now we finally have a GREAT buyers' guide, with tons of meticolous data (actually, all the real, analytical data one can ask for..) and comments from very good skiers who actually skied intensively all the gear. And yes, it's by an italian magazine, but it's written ALSO IN ENGLISH.

Thanks for the hint, I´ll check it out.

Originally Posted by verbier61

Kudos to the Skiapler magazine crew. They already did two stellar buyers' guide in 2014 and 2015, but they were only in italian....

So what?
Do we have a problem with that?

**lordf** · 11-06-2015, 04:10 AM

Tried to order the actual thing through the website but its fucking awful to use. Even with my basic understanding of Italian and Google translate. Get them to stick a few copies on eBay or something so those of us in the UK can get hold of it.

**skialper** · 11-06-2015, 04:36 AM

Originally Posted by lordf

Tried to order the actual thing through the website but its fucking awful to use. Even with my basic understanding of Italian and Google translate. Get them to stick a few copies on eBay or something so those of us in the UK can get hold of it.

Ciao... we're closing the upgrade to the new e-commerce... on monday it will work...
Now you can try with the app, if you want. iOS or Android, as well!

**geo039** · 11-06-2015, 09:04 AM

These Skialper guys are on point actually. Through the normal challenges of getting things sorted we crossed wires in communication and Paz was in contact (note: we all work 2 jobs here and there are no "agents"). It was a blur to me and as we don't really do print I missed it. I am a big boy....this was my mistake and I apologize for the incorrect commentary on contact points.

That beings said I never noted that it was "pay to play" just noting that for guides like you guys put together this year take money to create and the key revenue streams continue to be through advertising, Secondary steams through direct DL are great and I would fully support a "consumer reports" style revenue model in the ski industry. I don't think we are there yet but maybe someday. Specs are B/W but once we get into reviews these lines get blurred. Nature of the beast and human nature in general.

As you can see from my original post I actually bumped this to give more visibility so I am stoked, as most, to see more great work you guys are/will put out. I suspect our paths will cross soon and interweb babble will turn to what really matters.

Again, good luck boys and all the best on the adventure.

-G

Originally Posted by skialper

Hey man, Verbier forwarded us this thread... What are you talking about? The partecipation to our test is absolutly FREE OF CHARGE. Nobody pays 1 euro to partecipate. We contacted at least 5 times Down Skis (the italian agent Marco) to have your skis. But any answer... Can I post here all the e-mails, if you want... (where everybody can read that we didn't ask any money and we underlined the free partecipation).
So, please, before writing bullshit, pay attention. That's not correct and it could be a problem.

We apologize with all tre readers of the forum for this post, but it was necessary!

**lordf** · 11-06-2015, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by skialper

Ciao... we're closing the upgrade to the new e-commerce... on monday it will work...
Now you can try with the app, if you want. iOS or Android, as well!

Thanks guys, theres a few of us in the UK that are interested in this as it puts any of our mags to shame,

**skialper** · 11-06-2015, 09:40 AM

When it will be ready and working we'll post here the link ;-)

**skialper** · 11-08-2015, 05:12 AM

Ciao lordf,
here a link with a full description of the project 'Buyer's Guide' and the commerce for buying some paper copies!
www.skialper.it/buyersguide

**lordf** · 11-08-2015, 05:34 AM

Originally Posted by skialper

Ciao lordf,
here a link with a full description of the project 'Buyer's Guide' and the commerce for buying some paper copies!
www.skialper.it/buyersguide

Thanks chaps, sent the link to a few friends who are after it as well.

**Ocean** · 11-08-2015, 06:03 AM

Originally Posted by skialper

Ciao lordf,
here a link with a full description of the project 'Buyer's Guide' and the commerce for buying some paper copies!
www.skialper.it/buyersguide

The e-commerce site only lets you buy a paper copy if you select 'Italia' as the delivery country.

**baerski** · 11-08-2015, 08:10 AM

How can one get a copyin the USA in English

**skialper** · 11-08-2015, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Oceanic

The e-commerce site only lets you buy a paper copy if you select 'Italia' as the delivery country.

Ciao ocean...now it must work! It's a new service and maybe some settings are not ok...

**skialper** · 11-08-2015, 09:10 AM

the same address: skialper.it/buyersguide

**Lindahl** · 11-09-2015, 09:57 AM

How do I order the English version? The e-commerce page is all in Italian.

**timmaio** · 11-09-2015, 04:03 PM

I tried to order but it says "No shipping method available. Please review tup address, or contact us if you need help"

It also requires me to input a Tax ID which I don't understand.

Cheers

**rabbit** · 11-09-2015, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by verbier61

I've been checkin buyers' guide for years, both in english and in french.
As you know, the very large majority of them is bullshit, a few are of some (ehm.. little) interest, so far the only one I really liked was the FriFlyt one because of abundant data and flex indexes by the genius of Mr. Endre Hals. What a pity, it is in Norwegian, only a few scandi can read it

Here's every Fri Flyt test ever made:
http://www.skitest.com/