Lightweight skis from skilab.com: K Wild

On the ninth day of Christmas
Dr. Lee-ang sent to me
A pair uh-uv K A Wild skis!

The good doctor and his interests have impressed me ever since I read his reports and more about him on the internet six or seven years ago.   Soon I enjoyed watching him and Kelvin (skibuilders.com) build a pair of skis, and he offered to make me some.  I declined because I was not strong enough to lift them, and said I would be very interested if he ever wanted to try a pair of light skis. 

Finally with the genesis of the skilab.com he decided to go light big time, taking on the challenge of the amazing Movement Logic X built with Swiss America's Cup competition technology and production management by the famous Nanni Tua.  The result is the K Wild (jelly?) and I am a lucky tester of it.

Details are: 170cm length, 127-92-115mm width, with a smooth flex and slight early rise.  Mounted with La Sportiva ATK RT bindings  using TLT5 Performance boots, the total weight of ski, binding, and boot is 5.5lbs!

My first test day was inbounds at Crystal on January 10, 2012.  Conditions were two inches of overnight fluff over somewhat crunchy base on which the skis turned easily and smoothly.  I had to pay a little more attention than with heavier skis, and took one fall when I found a nice patch of 5-6" powder under the lift at the top of Green Valley and then turned to traverse left to a more open fall line.

Next was an hour after sunset on January 11, 2012 on icy "groomers" (too hard snow to even make courderoy) at Summit West.  I had some difficulty holding an edge, maybe due more to my lack of skill than the ski's strengths.

January 14, 2012 I skied them inbounds at Stevens in 5" fluff on a hard base, again with some edgehold concerns.  Later in the day after 5" more had fallen, they skied smooth and easy.

January 15, 2012 they skied even more comfortably under blue skies, windless weather, and about 10" more powder. 

January 16, 2012 they were a perfect dream in 20-24" Utah like backcountry powder near Stevens Pass.

Anyone who has a 297bsl please PM me to give them a try yourself!  After a few more tweaks Kam hopes to put them into production in three different lengths and perhaps a few widths.  Following in the footsteps of the 1960s Mechanical Engineering professor at U Nevada - Reno who created Hexcel skis, Dr. Leang is UN-R's  21st century skimeister.   Check out www.skilab.com

I've been waiting to hear about these! Pictures? Sounds like they didn't blow up as soon as you clicked into them, so they passed the first test. 5.5 lbs... wow, that's impressive. Nice work Kam!

New K Wilds are under 5 lbs the pair!  170cm long, 92mm underfoot with inserts. 

New 2013 Kwilds are stiffer and stronger with a slight weight increase.  They skied fantastic at Alpental a few weeks ago, as well as in New England and Norway recently!

vimeo.com/63220548 vimeo.com/63220648 vimeo.com/63220728

Specs for my pair are 125-90-112 and 170cm, coming in at 5 lb 4 oz, heavier than intended.
But no damage after over 55, 000 earned vertical, plus a morning of lift-served skiing.
Compared to my Movement Logic-X, a wee bit heavier, just as versatile in varied conditions, but even better in unconsolidated snow because of some very helpful tip rocker / early rise.
The only performance drawback of my pair is that they ended up with more camber than intended.
So overall, dial back the camber to where it was intended, and lose just a few ounces while retaining the durability, and this is pretty much the perfect quiver-of-one ski IMHO.
A few random pictures here of what they've been through (often mixed in with other stuff):
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