2014-2015 Romp Skis 106

Hardpack and Chalk

There are several ungroomed trails around Crested Butte that stay bumpy but don’t develop massive moguls. I love skiing fast through these smaller bumps, both weaving through some and popping off others. The 106 was excellent in these wider-spaced, firm moguls—entering the top with some speed, negotiating some tighter turns to start, then pointing it through the bottom section.

Even at faster speeds through the bottom with firm snow and lots of smaller troughs and inconsistencies, the 106 felt really stable under my feet.

After Crested Butte opened the Headwall, I spent most of my time lapping the larger, open bowl in the center and some of the tighter, more technical lines through the trees along the edge of the bowl.

The bowl had been fairly wind scoured, but there were still some softer, chalky bumps that were a lot of fun to turn around and over. I wasn’t feeling quite confident enough to truly open up huge turns down the face, but I could make strong, controlled turns while still going pretty fast on the 106. I didn’t experience any sort of tip deflection, and I was excited by how hard I could push the skis in the slightly more challenging snow. While a damper, heavier ski may have allowed me to ski a bit faster, I also appreciated how easily I could throw them from side to side and still make quicker turns.

A Little Bit of Soft Snow

Crested Butte finally received a bit of new snow in January, with about five inches over a couple of days. Throughout the day, the snow consolidated into smaller piles of soft bumps, which made for some shallow chop skiing.

Here, the 106 did really well, and again, I was impressed by how hard I could push the skis through inconsistent snow. While it is certainly not a heavy, damp ski that can absolutely rage through chop—it does have a speed limit, above which I start to lose control a bit—I could still get going pretty fast without worrying about getting totally bucked around.

I haven’t had the 106 in deep chop yet, and will update this review once I do. I don’t imagine that I will be able to really go top speed through this type of conditions on them, but that was also not one of my priorities when building this ski, and I certainly could have made it damper. However, I’m happy to slow things down a bit when the snow gets choppier if that means I have a more playful ski around the rest of the mountain.

Bumps (and Some Comparisons)

When it hasn’t snowed in awhile, I’ll usually spend a lot more of my time on groomers than on bumps. I can probably blame my racing background for this preference, but mostly I just love carving and am not as fast as I’d like to be in bumps yet.

Having a good bump ski wasn’t a priority of mine, but I was hoping that the playfulness of the ski, in addition to the tail rocker, would translate into something that is fairly quick in trees and bumps. A very good test for how well a ski can handle bumps is on Taos’ Reforma, a run under Chair 2 that falls away to the left and usually has pretty large bumps. I just spent a week at Taos charging down Reforma on a number of different skis to see how they all compare.

The 15/16 4FRNT Hoji W (review coming soon) is longer (179cm), and has a stiffer, flat tail with a long, gradual rocker line. These were definitely the most work in the bumps, and although the tail rocker prevented the tails from tripping me up too much on quicker turns, the Hoji W required a bit more strength and input to ski through the bumps aggressively.

The 15/16 Moment Sierra (review also coming soon), on the other hand, is 172cm, has tip and tail rocker with camber underfoot, and felt very light and quick.

I’d say that my 106 falls somewhere between these two skis, which is unsurprising considering it is in between the Hoji W and the Sierra in terms of length and stiffness.

Overall, the 106 skis pretty well in bumps; it’s not the quickest ski, but it’s fast enough for me. Its relatively low weight and looser, rockered tails certainly helped me move through moguls more easily, but if having an even quicker ski in bumps is a priority for you, it’d be really easy to build a ski that’s optimized for that.

Softer Snow on Kachina

In the past month, I unfortunately have not had many opportunities to ski the 106 in any fresh powder or soft chop, and will definitely update this review when I do. However, I did get to ski a run down Taos’ Kachina Peak the first day it opened this season.

Most of the terrain toward the top of the peak was a bit wind scoured and chalky, but there was some softer snow to be found in shadier sections.

Opening up some bigger turns at medium-to-higher speeds down the face, the 106 felt smooth and predictable. Although the snow itself was a little unpredictable and catchy in some places, the ski seemed to make the conditions really easy. Whether making more direct, straight turns down the fall line, or cutting across the hill at slower speeds, my tails never got hung up in the crust—something I’ve often encountered in snow with a bit of a suncrust when on skis without a substantial amount of tail rocker.

Overall, the 106 had an excellent balance of feeling light and surfy through the untouched snow, while also maintaining enough power to smooth out the snow’s inconsistencies.

I’m really looking forward to getting the 106 in some deep powder. While 106mm underfoot may be a little narrow for a full-on pow day, I actually think the ski will float quite well considering how well they stayed on top of some older, slightly more consolidated powder.

Bottom Line

My first impression of the Romp Skis 106 was that it was a lot of fun. After eleven days on these, my first impression has held true, and I’ve had a ton of fun on the 106 every day, in every condition I’ve skied it in. Romp built a ski that was exactly what I described, and exactly what I was looking for: enough ski that I can comfortably charge on it, is a lot of fun on groomers, while still maintaining a playful character.

While I can’t speak for everyone’s experience with Romp’s custom process, I was extremely impressed and happy with the ski they built for me, and am really looking forward to skiing them the rest of the season. And the ski has my name on it, something every Romp ski will include.

And while I didn’t opt for their fully custom model, I like the shapes they have available and felt that there was still plenty of specs that I could play around with to design the ski I wanted, all without breaking the bank. But, if you want to go fully custom, you’ve got the option.

I can definitely recommend checking out Romp if you’re interested in skis with a solid construction, a great feel, and that you get to have a hand in designing.

You can now read Will Brown’s review of his Romp 106, tailored to his own specifications and performance priorities.

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