2019-2020 Amplid Facelift 108

Intro

Amplid has been making both skis and snowboards for over a decade. In fact, they were the first company to start making both skis and snowboards from their very beginning. You can learn more about the brand in our podcast with Amplid’s co-founder and legendary snowboarder, Peter Bauer.

Our snowboard reviewers have been big fans of Amplid’s boards, with their Milligram and Millisurf splitboards getting “Best Of” awards in our Winter Buyer’s Guides.

This year, we’re testing a couple of Amplid’s skis, one of which is the Facelift 108.

The Facelift 108 is based on Amplid’s Multiplayer shape, but the Facelift 108 features the ultralight construction used in their Milligram and Millisurf splitboards. Combine that lightweight build with the Multiplayer’s playful shape, and the Facelift 108’s design certainly sticks out in the current market.

What Amplid says about the Facelift 108

“Offering freeskiers a quick and less exhausting way to access new terrain, the Facelift 108 isn’t another humdrum touring ski from another so-so ski brand. The unusual fusion of Amplid’s scientific carbon construction with the Multiplayer’s surprising performant and always playful shaping has created a gold-standard for human-powered freeskiing.

The devil is in the detail, Amplid’s BBP’s jigsaw-like arrangement of Birch, Balsa and Paulownia, carefully defines areas where strength is needed and where weight can be saved. A full-length topsheet protects these carbon beauties from skinning abuse.

A little wider than its sibling [the Facelift 102], the Facelift 108 adds extra float and a more surfy feel to lightweight touring.”

Amplid’s description of the Facelift 108 puts it squarely into the growing category of playful touring skis that we’ve talked about on our GEAR:30 podcast and in our 2019 Outdoor Retailer Awards. The Facelift 108 is supposed to be very light for the uphill (which it is), yet is supposed to maintain a playful feel on the downhill.

Shape / Rocker Profile

The Facelift 108’s shape looks pretty similar to the old Atomic Backland FR 109 — the Facelift 108 has a lot of tip and tail taper, with those taper lines extending deep into the middle of the ski.

Interestingly enough, the Facelift 108’s rocker profile is much more conservative by today’s standards. The Facelift 108’s tip and tail rocker lines are pretty shallow, and don’t extend all the way to where the taper ends.

Compared to the Line Vision 108, Atomic Backland FR 109, and Armada Tracer 108, the Facelift 108 has a significantly shallower tip rocker line and lower tip splay, and a similarly shallow tail rocker line. Like those skis, the Facelift 108 has pretty high tail splay, though it doesn’t have a full twin. The last thing to note about the Facelift 108’s rocker profile is that it has a lot of camber at ~6 mm underfoot.

Flex Pattern

Here’s how we’d characterize the flex pattern of the Facelift 108:

Tips: 6.5
Shovels: 6.5-7.5
In Front of Toe Piece: 8-9
Underfoot: 9.5
Behind the Heel Piece: 9-8.5
Tails: 7.5-6.5

The Facelift 108 has a fairly strong, round flex pattern. The ends of the ski (the last ~20 cm after the micro-cap section ends), are pretty soft. But everywhere else, the Facelift 108 is actually very strong. So while this ski has flexible tips and tails (which should make butters and presses feasible), the rest of the ski is no noodle.

That’s a combination we’ve liked on skis in the past like the Rossignol Black Ops 118, ON3P Kartel 108, and Icelantic Nomad 115, so we’re curious to see how the Facelift 108’s flex pattern translates to on-snow performance.

Mount Point

The Facelift 108 has one line marked as “ski center,” which on our pair, measured about 0.5 cm back from the true center of the ski. It then has a label that says to mount 20 mm behind that line for “All Mountain” and 40 mm back for “Freeride.” That puts those mount points at -2.5 and -4.5 cm from true center, respectively.

Both of those mount points are quite progressive / forward, especially compared to other skis that come in as light as the Facelift 108. But Amplid also says on their site that they recommend mounting the ski anywhere from -1 cm to -5 cm from center. So as always, we’ll be testing the Facelift 108 at various mount points to see how it responds to those different mount points and different skiing styles (e.g., forward vs. centered).

Weight

The Facelift 108 is quite light at just over 1750 grams for the 189 cm version. It’s not quite as light as more traditional touring skis like the Black Diamond Helio 105 Carbon and K2 Wayback 106, but the Facelift 108 is significantly lighter than 50/50 skis like the current Armada Tracer 108, the old Atomic Backland FR 109, and the Line Sick Day 104. As always, we’re very curious to see just how stable the Facelift 108 feels, and if it should be thought of as a dedicated touring ski, a 50/50 ski, or a ski you could actually use every day in the resort.

For reference, here are a number of our measured weights (per ski in grams) for some notable skis. Keep in mind the length differences to try and keep things apples-to-apples.

1476 & 1490 K2 Wayback 106, 179 cm (18/19–19/20)
1477 & 1482 G3 FINDr 102, 184 cm (17/18–18/19)
1547 & 1551 Black Diamond Helio 105 Carbon, 185 cm (17/18)
1562 & 1566 Scott Superguide 105, 183 cm (17/18–18/19)
1605 & 1630 Line Vision 108, 183 cm (19/20)
1606 & 1641 Blizzard Zero G 105, 188 cm (19/20)
1642 & 1651 Renoun Citadel 106, 185 cm, (18/19)
1642 & 1662 Atomic Backland 107, 182 cm (18/19–19/20)
1706 & 1715 Volkl BMT 109, 186 cm (17/18–19/20)
1720 & 1747 Line Sick Day Tourist, 186 cm (16/17)
1733 & 1735 Blizzard Zero G 108, 185 cm (17/18–18/19)
1745 & 1747 4FRNT Raven, 184 cm (16/17–18/19)
1752 & 1771 Amplid Facelift 108, 189 cm (18/19–19/20)
1755 & 1792 Line Sick Day 104, 179 cm (17/18–19/20)
1814 & 1845 Elan Ripstick 106, 181 cm (17/18–19/20)
1825 & 1904 Black Crows Corvus Freebird, 183.3 cm (17/18–19/20)
1843 & 1847 Head Kore 105, 189 cm (17/18)
1848 & 1903 Line Sick Day 104, 186 cm (17/18–19/20)
1849 & 1922 Elan Ripstick 106, 188 cm (17/18–19/20)
1898 & 1893 Armada Tracer 108, 180 cm (18/19)
1913 & 1943 Sego Condor Ti, 187 cm (18/19)
1923 & 1956 DPS Alchemist Wailer 106, 189 cm (17/18–18/19)
1941 & 1965 Fischer Ranger 108 Ti, 182 cm (17/18–18/19)
1950 & 1977 Blizzard Rustler 10, 188 cm (17/18–18/19)
1970 & 1979 Atomic Backland FR 109, 189 cm (17/18)
1980 & 2016 Liberty Origin 106, 187 cm (17/18–18/19)
1996 & 2012 Dynastar Legend X106, 188 cm (17/18–19/20)
2022 & 2047 Faction Dictator 3.0, 186 cm (17/18–18/19)
2026 & 2056 Black Diamond Boundary Pro 107, 184 cm (17/18–19/20)
2030 & 2039 Rossignol Soul 7 HD, 188 cm (17/18–19/20)
2036 & 2064 Salomon QST 106, 188 cm (18/19)

Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About

(1) The Facelift 108 has a progressive mount point, round flex pattern, and pretty symmetrical shape and rocker profile. So just how playful will it feel?

(2) On the other side, will directional skiers who aren’t spinning still like the Facelift 108?

(3) We’ve talked about the trend of more brands making playful touring skis, so how will the Facelift 108 compare to other options in this category like the old Atomic Backland FR 109, the Line Vision 108, Black Crows Ferox Freebird, and Moment Wildcat Tour 108?

(4) Our snowboard reviewer, Andrew Forward, is a huge fan of Amplid’s carbon construction on their Milligram and Millisurf splitboards. So will be similarly high on that same construction in the Facelift 108?