La Sportiva

LO5 Alpine Touring Ski

Give the La Sportiva LO5 Alpine Touring Ski some skin; seriously, it deserves some love for its all-mountain versatility, light weight, and seriously thoughtful design. Fatter than the GT and with a moderately rockered tip to cruise over rough snow and through powder, the LO5 is La Sportiva's backcountry multi-tool. The 178 weighs just about 3.5 pounds per ski, which is pretty light considering that it's not designed to be a superlight skimo board, and has plenty of features that rippers will dig: tough and powerful ABS sidewalls, a vertically laminated Light Karuba paulownia wood core, and multiple fiberglass and carbon-fiber laminates for a reasonably stiff and chargeable ride. 

La Sportiva made sure the LO5 has plenty of camber underfoot to make short work of icy pitches, rough snow, and steep, techy lines, and reinforced the tip and tail with dampening rubber layers to give you a smooth, predictable ride. The P-Tex 2000 base and 1.8mm steel edges keep you mobbing along and stand up to the inevitable rocks you'll find out there, while the flat tail gives you plenty of power and control, as well as the ability to plunge your skis into the snow and isolate blocks when you're conducting stability tests. The LO5 also has attachment points for pre-cut La Sportiva skins, so you'll be able to hammer up the skin track, pop your skins off, rally down, and slap 'em back on in no time.