Sorry for the off color title today. Couldn't resist. Wednesday Brian and I skied Sugar Bowl. The goal of the day was to take a good look at Hart skis hence the bad title pun. Hart skis you ask? Yes, Hart skis. Started in 1943 by Hartvig “Hart” Holmberg in Minnesota. Hart had been a force in the US ski industry and peaked in the freestyle ski era of the late 70's and early 80's.. In particular you may remember the Javelin model or images of Billy Kidd or Susie Chaffee (if you are old enough) on Hart skis. The companies ownership changed hands at some point however and US distribution subsided or went away completely for some years. Until now. The next chapter of the Hart story puts ownership in the hands of the grandson of Hart Holmberg and the headquarters are back in the USA. Current production is in Italy and all the skis are hand made and hand finished. Plans are on the table to move production back to the US in Minden Nevada (just over the hill from Heavenly Valley). Interesting. Another Stockli perhaps? A US built Stockli in a few years? We went to Sugar Bowl to find out!
We met Eric, the local Hart rep at 10:00. Erik is a good guy. We enjoyed our time with him. Nice guy and fun to ski with. He has come on board as the West Coast representitive and has only been at it for a few months. Eric doesn't have all the answers yet but he was honest when he wasn't sure of things. Eric had four skis for us to try. A 63 waisted model called the Attack, a 67 waisted Phoenix, an 86 waisted Fuelie Scarab and a 91 waisted Fuelie Boss. These were 07/08 models and there would be changes for next year including a change to bamboo for the cores. Prices would go down a bit from this year but we are still talking about $1000 skis. Expensive but worth it? Click in to the Markers and let's go see! I am not going to do a full review here but overall the skis were good. Not mind blowing, but good. We had taken a Palmer, a Fischer race ski, a Stockli Stormrider XL and a Head iM78 to use as comparison skis. The Head and the Stockli stayed in the car as there was no competing Harts available. The Fischer and certainly the Palmer were more exciting than the Harts overall. I would rate the Harts a shade below excellent. The jury is still out however. There were some questions about the tune and set up of the Harts that I would like to check into more. There are also a few models that were not there to ski that we will pick up and take to Mammoth. I also see the line changing and evolving over the next few years- particularly if they make the move to Nevada. I like the idea of precision skis with a traditional bent being made in the US. There are currently a number of new US makers that all seem to have a "big mountain" only mentality. Hart does race, freestyle, and all mountain models. I am not ready to load up the ski wall with Hart models just yet but I would love to be on board from the beginning if Hart can achieve it's goals over the next decade. Mammoth will tell all. At the price point we need to find a ski that can compete at the Stockli level of excellence to be able to sell them effectively. It will be fun to find out!
For more information on Hart, you can visit their website at: http://www.hartskis.com/home.php
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