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Review: Heritage Lab BC100

Finding the magic in Marshal Olson’s BC100 creation.

By

Gavin Hess

Heritage labs BC100

Heritage labs BC100

Intro This story starts with my love affair with the 4FRNT Hoji, which opened my eyes to the maniacal fun of surfy reverse camber skis in powder snow. My wishes for a lighter-weight, Hoji-style ski were answered in 2023 with the advent of the Heritage Lab BC110—a lightweight powder surfer that was only usurped by…

Responses

  1. Slim

    Hmm, your comment about longer skis deflecting is an interesting one. As a tall and not light skier, I pick longer skis, but never considered how that dimension would contribute to deflection.
    I have read Bjergem in Wildsnow state that he likes to reserve his lighter boots for use with shorter skis, and your point offers an explanation of why.

    Thank you!

    1. Spencer Dillon

      Slim, I too had my interest piqued by Gavin’s comment and would agree that it often has more to do with the boots. I sized up on a new pair of skis for steep skiing, given that I’ve overpowered my shorter skis a thousand times and gone over the bars. The new skis are significantly harder to drive on the same boots (and highlight that my liners are packed out!). It remains to be seen whether this new, bigger ski will provide additional ‘stability’ or even skiability that my older, shorter skis lacked without a chain reaction of boot-beefifaction.

      I suppose nothing is free in the end. From a physics perspective, a longer (or heavier) ski will be a bigger lever on your boots and your feet within the boots. But the ski itself will I think ski ‘better’ in isolation from the boot/foot interface than a smaller, lighter ski would. Just gotta throw some extra foam in the liners beforehand I guess. It is a tough question, whether over-booting an inadequate to conditions ski will produce better results than under-booting an appropriate to conditions ski. These new skis of mine are making me think more of the former, but perhaps new liners and foam will change my tune.

      1. Ryan Krum

        To me, the goal of a cohesive backcountry set up is predictability in weird snow. Having a ski overpower a boot tends to happen suddenly and leaves me with little capacity to make a correction. Having the ski be the limiting factor is a lot more manageable – the integrity up the chain is preserved and my inputs still transfer into the ski. The feedback I receive is magnified by the light ski but my ability to make corrections is still there.

        I think it’s very easy (and common) to hamstring a set up with a light ski, but at least it’s easy to tell when you’re getting close to the limit. Approaching the limit with a light boot is a lot more on/off to me. Things are fine until they suddenly are not – when a ski deflection overpowers a boot, there isn’t much I can do about it since I am no longer able to effectively provide input to the ski.

        1. Spencer Dillon

          Totally agree. I think the tricky part is finding what that tipping point will be, especially in variable snow as you say. My new skis (1500g, almost all camber 185cm, 95 underfoot) are feeling like way more ski and harder to control than an older pair of 1800g, flat 185cm, 115 underfoot skis. Was not expecting that. Maybe it’s because the snow is extra tough and unpredictable right now, or that I’ve yet to remember how to ski this season.

          It’s just hard when you’re over-booted not to give in to the temptation to try a slightly bigger ski…

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