Renoun Citadel Thread

[iriponsnow]

Starting the thread- I was fortunate enough to help test and prototype these up last year. They just won powder magazine’s skiers choice!



Best ski you have yet to experience.

[Iowagriz]

Dimensions, shape and camber profile?

[iriponsnow]

136-106-125

1650 grams @ 185cm

Carbon & HDT

Not a weight wennie ski, but a true all mtn.

Early rise & flip tail (my terms)

Sorta a quiver killer of skis.

[greasyslope]

Iriponsnow- are you associated with Renoun? Either way, I look forward to your impressions.
While this ski sounds very intriguing, I don’t think I can justify the price, considering how many rocks I hit at times.

[1000-oaks]

The 178 sounds like a nice touring stick, somebody please drill two or three mounts in a pair and add a couple core shots to get the price into my zone.

[iriponsnow]

Iriponsnow- are you associated with Renoun? Either way, I look forward to your impressions.
While this ski sounds very intriguing, I don’t think I can justify the price, considering how many rocks I hit at times.

I am not affiliated with them, but have gotten to know the company quite well as a tester for a couple outlets. Basically what makes this ski different is that it has the feel of a traditional construction ski that ramps up and ramps down stiffness thanks to some of the proprietary materials, yet is made out of carbon and is extremely light. When you were noodling around on lower terrain or over in the bumps & trees it’s very pliable and soft. When you bring it up to speed railing or blasting through crud it gets stiffer, yet not a charger style ski. The end result is a very dynamic set of boards that allows you to transition from smeary turns to railroad tracks easily. They are also slightly more nimble than the 106 mm waist would suggest.

[TCNROMPER]

Powder awards are just paid for advertising...

[toast2266]

From people I've talked to that have skied them, they're legitimately impressive. They've more or less echoed the impressions posted above. I'd be pretty interested to try them.

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[ExoticSkis]

Here's a quick summary after a bunch of us spent several weeks last Spring on these expensive ($1,499) freeride boards. The non-Newtonian polymer (HDT in Renoun's marketing blurb) dampening material is real. Like the Z77, Z90, Endurance 98 and Endurance 104's we tried, the faster you ski, the quieter these get. Cyrus is rumored to be licensing the patented technology to interested ski companies both in North America and Europe... Few ski companies offer a 100 day "Try-them-or-we-buy-them-back" no-risk policy with a two year warranty against defects. Curious to see what other people think if they get a ride on these new skis designed in Burlington, Vermont.

This is the first ski we've tried in 13 years that two different testers immediately pre-ordered for next-season delivery from the company after testing....

Renoun Citadel (2018-2019)
136-106-125 185cm

Manufacturer Info:

Cyrus Schenck
Renoun Skis
266 Main St., Burlington, Vermont, United States
(802) 778-9163
info@renoun.com
http://renoun.com/

Summary:

Bottom Line: The Renoun Citadel is one of the best all-terain freeride skis we have ever tested. Two different testers immediately ordered pairs for themselves after spending several days with the Citadels. You can try this ski for 100 days and return it for a full refund if you don't like it, then live with a two year warranty against defects. Cyrus Schenk's claim to have "The World's most stable full-carbon ski ever" is not marketing hype. It is indeed true.

The Renoun Citadel 106 is Cyrus Schenk's "ski-I-could-finally-build-for-me" model after 3 years of getting Renoun off the ground as a business with actual cash flow and growing customer base. The geometry, flex and camber profile really share nothing with the now-discontinued Endurance 104 (which tons of people all over the skier spectrum really found fun and friendly). The Citadel uses an aspen laminated core with a full sheet of carbon fiber (a first for Renoun) and twice as much HTD (Hyper Dampening Technology) polymer as any other model (12 inlay strips into the core).

The Citadel 106 is shockingly light for its size (1744 grams and 1721 grams each ski on our 185cm test pair [which actually measures 182cm tip to tail straight tape pull]) and feels extremely light underfoot...mimicking a touring ski-like feel. The tips have a moderate rocker profile, midbody is cambered and the tail is nearly flat with minimal rocker. The initial impression we had when clicking into Citadels mounted with alpine bindings (we used Tyrolia PRD12 adjustables) is that this ski will be light-handling and shouldn't be pushed too hard or fast since it might get skittery and wash-away as it folds under pressure. We couldn't have been more wrong. The Citadel pretty much surprised everyone by taking strong, forceful input pressure under high edge angles at high speeds like a GS ski, but with half the weight and half the effort you'd expect. The Citadel can deliver a high-performance, sporty, athletic, confidence-inspriring ride at slow or high speeds with complete security and composure on soft or packed surfaces, even when it feels like a lightweight underfoot. It's quick, fun, stable, easy, sporty, serious, quiet, secure and playful all at the same time (yes..it's hard to believe our own words, but read on...).

At 106mm underfoot, the Citadel can set, hold and switch edges on packed surfaces like a ski with an upper-80s waist, isolating and quieting firm condition vibrations with an eerie, almost elegant feel along its entire length. On packed groomers, you can run it flat with a drifty, almost smeary style, or ride it deeply on-edge like a GS-sized carver with some hip-dragging angles. In cut-up or junky conditions, you can dance through the crappy snow with surpising agility because of the low mass underfoot, or set a solid trajectory through the crud and power-track your way to your turn points with very little deflection or kicked-around feelings. The soft flex of the forebody can lead to some perceived flap at speed through junk, but the line always seems to hold solidly on-track so you don't need to make corrections or put your skis back on your line. Powder surfing is completely intuitive, essentially effortless and a nice mix between directional and smearingly surfy feel with on-demand depth and turn shape changes with almost zero effort. In each environment, the Citadels lived up to the Renoun reputation for becoming quieter and quieter the faster you ski them...so the family trait endowed by the twice-the-usual dose of HDT polymer seems to be nicely demonstrated in this design.

The ExoticSkis test crew is pretty skeptical and devotedly critical since we find most ski tests in the large magazines to be shallow and all too often full of hyperbole and lacking criticism of ski personality traits and behaviors. After the first few days on hardpack, crud and powder outings we wondered how a ski like the Renoun Citadel can deliver such an easy-to-handle, yet high level of performance in all these different conditions and surface environments. Many skis deliver a "great", "pretty good" or "OK" performance at one or some of the conditions we put the Citadels through, but we can't remember a ski with this much fun-factor and so little disappointment in so many kinds of snow with so little pilot effort required.

In summary, the premium-priced Citadel represents an honest-to-goodness reference standard of 100-110mm freeride skis for the huge swath of skiers between beginner and professional hard-core charging athlete. That's a wide market segment. The geometry and componentry of the Renoun Citadel simply work better at delivering a ton of fun for all kinds of surfaces than nearly any other skis we can think of for the majority of skiers out there. Beginners and pro-level hardcore Nice work. The bar has been raised, which is good for skiers everywhere. Everyone really loved this ski.

Link to full review with pics.

[lynchdogger]

Bought a pair of 191 cm from iriponsnow (thank you!) Finally had them mounted and skied them yesterday at Sunday River from noon on after Christmas morning festivities. Went with mount on manufacturers line and if we're to do again would mount at least 2cm back for my style of skiing. Feel the manufacturer's line is too far forward. That said ski delivers and is super fun expect on pure icy groomers. Powerful ski and like other carbon skis the more energy you push into them the more they throw back. Was able to make all sorts of turn shapes and very damp at speed unlike other carbon skis I've tried and did not find a speed limit. I would never pay retail for this ski or any but would say worth the price. Will become my go to bc touring ski and fresh snow tree ski.

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[cstefanic]

I'm going to bump this as I recently got a new pair of 185s through the warranty program. I think I agree that the manufacturer's mounting line is too far forward--my original pair were there and I felt it skied with very little tip. I'm thinking of mounting this new pair back a cm or two but I'm curious if this feeling is more prolific amongst people that have skied them, or just lynchdogger and me?

Outside of that, I used them to tour and found them to be amazingly versatile, and when inbounds they love to rip.

[ExoticSkis]

On our test pairs with adjustable PRD-12 bindings, we found the factory mount line to be more in the jib freeride position for fast pivots and rotation around the ball of the foot antics and tight tree work....definitely feels like you're short up front....we ended up moving the binders back about 2cm for best overall mountain cruising and powder conditions...and after a season of usage, we left the bindings in the rearward position. It depends on how you ski... Pretty versatile and super friendly ski all-around with the ability to be skied in lazy-mode or more rowdy when you want in all kinds of conditions and terain...bigger-than-average performance envelope. Cyrus did a great job on the Citadel design.

[madriverfreeride]

Isn’t they’re proprietary material just d30? Theres no way that shit works in the cold, you ever try to put on a cold back protector or knee pads? They’re stiff as hell until they warm up to body temp.

[bsavery]

Isn’t they’re proprietary material just d30? Theres no way that shit works in the cold, you ever try to put on a cold back protector or knee pads? They’re stiff as hell until they warm up to body temp.

Hmm, clearly the renoun engineers forgot to consider their skis would be used in the cold.

[madriverfreeride]

Hmm, clearly the renoun engineers forgot to consider their skis would be used in the cold.

Or they decided to say fuck it and use the material strictly as a marketing gimmick. Only way to sell overpriced skis when you aren’t a well known company is to market it well.

[HAB]

I mean, the fact that it's conceptually similar to D3O doesn't mean it's literally the same material that's in your knee pads. Not to mention that I can't imagine you'd want anything as soft as body temp D3O in a ski.

I've never skied anything from them and have no horse in this race, but saying "it sounds kinda like D3O, therefore it must suck" is pretty dumb.

[madriverfreeride]

I mean, the fact that it's conceptually similar to D3O doesn't mean it's literally the same material that's in your knee pads. Not to mention that I can't imagine you'd want anything as soft as body temp D3O in a ski.

I've never skied anything from them and have no horse in this race, but saying "it sounds kinda like D3O, therefore it must suck" is pretty dumb.

In the older model skis it literally was strips of d30 so that idea didn’t come from nowhere. Harder to figure out if the new skis use the same material hidden behind marketing buzzwords or if they actually switched to a proprietary material.

[RENOUN]

Not d3o. We originally worked with them but obviously found limitations pretty quick. We have our own formulation now that works better in operating temps for skis (i.e. freezing).

[RENOUN]

Exactly! We've grown every single year for 9 years straight, won ISPO Gold twice, and 3 Powder Awards by straight faking it

[madriverfreeride]

Exactly! We've grown every single year for 9 years straight, won ISPO Gold twice, and 3 Powder Awards by straight faking it

I’m sure your new material works significantly better than the originals that had d30 did, but those awards don’t actually say anything about how your skis ski, seeing as they’re all given out at tradeshows with no ski time on the product. All those awards mean is “hey we think this product could be cool/ innovative if it lives up to its claims”, not to mention any award from Powder magazine is a joke, almost as good as getting a good review in the freeskier buyers guide.

Also I’m not saying the skis are shit, but there’s nothing special about any of the shapes, and I did ride some of the early ones And thought they were okay but not great. I would be interested to see a damping graph of the same ski built with and without HDT, but at temperatures that skis actually operate in, say 15 degrees F, and 40 degrees F, not at 70 degrees in your lab.

[grameleon]

I got the 184s and am 6’1” and 195# and they are awesome. Great through the trees and on powder, but as stable as you could hope when going straight down. Makes it hard to go back to my heavier skis after being on them for a few days