2027 Armada Whitewalker 108

Light, playful, and incredibly fun, the 2027 Armada Whitewalker 108 is a athlete-inspired ski for soft snow and creative tricks. The athlete in question is Sammy Carlson, and if he’s going to design a ski for himself, then there’s surely something to it. Must be nice to be able to take all of your goals in skiing and then put them into a concrete product. For Sammy, this means making a “slightly” narrower version of the wider skis in this line, making more of a daily driver type mentality. While Sammy’s daily ski may not exactly mirror yours or mine, it’s important to note that Sammy lives a different life and skis quite differently. This usually makes a pro model a bit harder to judge, mostly since they have all of the desired attributes of just one person.

Keeping things on the lighter side is the use of a caruba wood core. And not much else. There’s some carbon stringers to stiffen the ski, but nothing that’s going to add enough weight to make these things even remotely heavy. In the 180, we’re seeing a stated weight of 1750 g/ski which is pretty light given the overall size and width of the ski. While some may consider it part of shape and others construction, Armada uses Smear Tech in the tips and tails to enhance float without adding width. By beveling the tips and tails, Armada makes the ski less hooky and catchy and surfier and smearier. These skis certainly borrow a lot of their construction techniques from the surf industry, and it’s very telling when looking at the boards.

We really like the overall feel and composure of this ski’s build in a 108 mm underfoot width. The shape and profile are quite adept at softer and deeper snow without losing agility or quickness in any type of turn shape or style. You can easily throw these things sideways or take a more direct line down the hill. The 180 cm length states a relatively short turn radius of 16.5-meters, but it’s very easy to manipulate that arc to do all sorts of different things. From straight lining big lines to slashing and smearing short arcs, the shape mixes with the flex perfectly for variable and creative skiing. These skis also use a relatively flat camber profile to go along with quite pointy tips and tails. This boosts the ski’s creativity and allows skiers to aggressively point and shoot their way down some technical terrain in deeper snow. The tails release super easily as a result, giving the steering a wonderful feel and a rudder-like character.

While some pro-model skis can feel a bit too specific to what the skier is trying to do, the Whitewalker 108 actually has a fairly broad appeal. It’s not a ski that would feel vastly different from other top-level 108’s out there, despite its unique mesh of build, shape, and profile. As the Whitewalker skis get wider, however, that conversation does start to change and focus more on the athlete's inspiration rather than a universal application for softer and deeper snow.