Testing it out on groomed cruisers and steep hard-pack runs, the Superspeed performed superbly. It has a distinct shaped profile with a 115mm tip, a 70mm waist and a 99mm tail, and Völkl pitches it as an all-mountain ski that has good responsiveness on groomed snow and enough float for varied off-trail conditions. The Völkl Supersport Superspeed ski, which comes with an integrated Marker binding system, retails for $1,115. Both also have price tags that forced some high expectations on my end. Both the Völkl Supersport Superspeed ski and Tecnica Diablo Fire boot came with high recommendations from my more in-the-know skiing friends. So this year, in preparation for an early-season ski trip, I decided to step into 2005 with some new, high-end alpine skis and boots. Though I'm an expert skier, my alpine gear of choice is almost a decade old.

A Gear Junkie mea culpa: I'm a bit old school when it comes to downhill skiing equipment.