Faction Prime 3.0

[mastergaper]

Thought I’d post my thoughts on the Faction Prime 3.0. I “used the search” trying to gather some beta on these before pulling the trigger but couldn’t find much outside of Powder mags review and a few others from sources I don’t exactly hold in high regard. Was looking for a versatile ski that I could do some sidecountry and shorter tours on but wasn’t interested in going full skimo.

On paper this ski seemed to check the right boxes for me, directional for ease of skin install removal, stiff with aluminum (titanal) underfoot and a carbon layer, fairly light weight, and a +20m sidecut. I went ahead and ordered some in 189cm.

Mounted them with Atomic Shifts at mfg recommended point had a shop apply DPS Phantom to the base (they have the light box) trimmed up some skins and was ready to hit the hill. An aside I had read that the Phantom takes some time to “bed in” and since the bindings were also completely new to me I decided to take them to the resort before heading into the boonies with them for the first time.

Took them to a local hill with an advertised 9” of fresh for their maiden voyage. Conditions were variable wind blown scour with some pockets of fluff, still early season. First run was down some fall line with a bit of fresh and some firm snow underneath. So far so good, stable and they liked to run. Next few runs were a bit more interesting, I had a difficult time finding the sweet spot especially as the snow got more chopped up, loading the tips and really charging seemed to leave the tails really loose and unwilling to lock into a carve. Getting a tiny bit more centered caused them to just want to put me into the back seat. Granted I suck at skiing but this was one of the toughest skis I’ve ever been on to get right, they were an absolute handful when taking them into natural ungladed trees, I had to hate fuck them to get them to even begin to think about turning.

Seems like it would be an awesome ski if you had nothing but wide open terrain to let them just run but for the mountains around here (Spokane WA) I don’t know if they are going to work. I’m left wondering if anyone else has experiences on these things and I’m just being a pussy or if I should cut my losses and seek something else out? Blisters review of the 4.0 was lackluster as well and they mentioned remounting them several times in order to try to get them to feel balanced.

-sweet blog bro-

[kid-kapow]

Good review Even made me smile wrt what it took to make them turn while tree skiing

Your thoughts mirrors this one pretty closely (item #2 if memory serves me right) were neither the prime or the dictator series fare in particularly well: https://blisterreview.com/podcasts/a...not-gold-ep-30

[mastergaper]

I made the mistake of buying 2 of the products on that Blister podcast. Add Völkl vacuum skins to the miserable products that I wasted money on.

[ak_powder_monkey]

I'm wondering how the mounting point compares to the CT3.0 on paper they look like very similar skis, and moving my mount from the "candide line" to -1 from all mountain went from a ski that I hated unless the conditions were just right to a ski that can just do anything I want it to.