Featured Image: Matt Power
When Faction Skis was started more than 12 years ago its founders aimed to disrupt the ski industry with skis that provided a different aesthetic and feeling on the downhill. Toying with super fat skis, rocker, lightweight hybrid cores, recycled materials, symmetrical twin tips and a nod back to traditional, hand-crafted manufacturing techniques, the Verbier-based company continues to hover at the forefront of the freestyle skiing world.
Today, Faction designs skis for top athletes such as Candide Thovex, Johnny Collinson, X Games gold medalist Alex Hall and a slew of other professionals, including Will Berman, Cody Cirillo and Duncan Adams, and eye-popping up-and-comers like Mac Forehand and Caroline Claire. You might have also just seen Faction’s skis on the podium of the Freeride World Tour, as hometown hero and Faction athlete Elisabeth Gerritzen took home the top spot in Verbier.
All told, Faction designs skis that promote good times in the mountains: from symmetrical, freestyle skis that excel in the terrain park to lightweight, directional backcountry touring twigs that’ll get you up and into the couloir of your dreams. Below, we’ve featured three of our favorites, which were tried and tested by the best skiers on the mountain at our 17th annual Ski Test in Aspen, Colorado. Keep scrolling to find out which skis are best for you heading into next winter.
Dictator 3.0
Skiers who love big lines in exposed terrain will drool all over the Dictator 3.0. Faction pairs light yet stable paulownia and medium weight poplar wood for an energetic ski that won’t tire you out. Dual Titanal layers are then added to power this baby up. A full traditional camber profile helps the ski dictate moves over tough terrain while its 105 mm waist allows it to excel in deeper snow. Dual turn radii—shorter in front of the binding for tight turns and longer in the tail for added stability—round out this ripper. Imagine this: four graceful hop turns down a skinny couloir with a straight-line exit to the apron. It’s made easy by the Dictator 3.0.
CT Mademoiselle 2.0
Introducing the CT 2.0x Mademoiselle. Built to celebrate and inspire lady rippers, the CT 2.0x Mademoiselle boasts the same kick-ass construction of the OG–a poplar and beech wood core, symmetrical sidecut, carbon stomp pad underfoot and an anti-chip micro-cap sidewall–but with a new topsheet design and shorter lengths. Made to pop all over the park, carve through corduroy and take you confidently all over the mountain, the CT 2.0x Mademoiselle turns the entire mountain into your own personal playground.
Prodigy 3.0
Don’t let the Faction Prodigy 3.0’s near symmetrical dimensions fool you, this thing charges down the mountain like it’s a chieftain leading a thunderous horde into battle. Its poplar and ash wood core strikes an ideal balance between stiffness and energy, while its dual-radius sidecut—less in front of the binding for tight turns and lengthier in the tail for added stability—ensures it can handle anything the mountain throws at it.
