The Best Backcountry Skis of 2022: DPS Pagoda Tour 106 C2

Yes, it’s a cliché to say that a backcountry ski performs well in soft snow, but the DPS Pagoda Tour 106 C2 ski became a magic carpet ride of pure joy while lapping ripe corn snow on Colorado’s Loveland Pass. It could carve, it could slarve, and it could make every little terrain variation incredibly smooth and fun. All it takes is two inches of fresh, soft snow, and these skis will make you forget the price tag.

The unique soft-snow feel, as well as this lightweight ski’s appetite to go back uphill to do it again, come from the use of aerospace-grade foam integrated into the primary layer of the core. “Primary” is important when referring to layers of the Pagoda line as there are layers of carbon, vertically laminated wood and foam, solid paulownia wood, and more carbon stacked inside this ski. In addition to foam, the vertically laminated layer also features paulownia wood and two strips of damping hard ash wood down the center.

The result is a sub 3.5 pound, 106mm-waisted ski that has a voracious appetite for soft snow in the backcountry. Sure, there is some carbon jitteriness at high speeds in hard chunder, but the Pagoda Tour 106 C2 is just so damn smooth and nice when it’s soft that it’s worth it.

So, if you’ve ever wondered why there is such a dedicated cult following to DPS skis, be sure to take a pair of these planks out into the backcountry when soft snow is guaranteed. Chances are high you’ll get what the hype is about after that first descent.

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