The ARV / ARW 112 is a new waist-width addition to Armada’s all-mountain freestyle lineup, replacing the 116mm version of the ski. With both the JJ Ultralight and Whitewalker coming in at 116mm underfoot, offering a different waist width option in the ARV series just makes sense. The ARV 112 is an interesting offering in its own right too, because for a powder ski, it actually has a fairly small footprint with the widest point of the tip coming in at 135mm and ‘only’ a 112mm waist. But that makes these big sticks surprisingly versatile, we even liked them in the park…
Groomers/Resort Skiing:
112 underfoot is overkill for resort driving in most places but the ARV 112 does handle wide arcing turns pretty nicely and for such a wide ski, it’s easy to ski in resort. It has fairly low swingweight thanks to plenty of taper and while you mostly feel that in the air, you do notice it when turning a ski this big. The turn radius of 21m doesn’t make short turns on edge particularly natural, but with plenty of rocker, the skis pivot pretty easily in tight spots. These aren’t the stiffest or chargiest of skis in the category, but Armada has come up with a playful powder ski that you could just about shoehorn into the daily driver category out west.
“It can smear, butter, and slash on groomers like a much narrower ski. It's really fun to ski just about anywhere in the resort, trees, steeps, park, groomers, even bumps.” - Max Ritter
Powder & Mixed Snow:
These aren’t THE widest of skis but for most powder days at most resorts on the planet, these are going to do the job perfectly and be a ton of fun while doing it. Armada have the poppy, surfy rocker profile dialed with these and they were a lot of fun on smaller drops and in all kinds of soft snow. Our testers particularly loved how easily these skis turned in the deep stuff. In more mixed conditions the softer flex can mean these get bounced a bit, so they aren’t really a crud charger…
Park & Jibbing:
… After all, these are primarily a freestyle pow ski and that’s where they excel. They are super fun for (attempting) landing switch in pow, and poppy of all kinds of natural features in soft snow. The middle two-thirds of the ski are decently stable, which gives a stable enough landing platform on harder snow, so you can rock these in the park too and with that low swingweight, they even feel pretty manageable on smaller jumps and rails. The soft tips and tails make buttering a breeze, we really enjoyed these skis as a fat freestyle option.
“Low swingweight was nice and super pivoty feel with the forwards mount. The tip and tail soften off quite a lot so they feel really playful when you flex them into butters, I really liked them in the park.” - Twig
Who's it for?
The ARV 112 / ARW 112 are very playful pow ski options. They are softer and more accessible than the Whitewalker and actually pretty skiable as a daily driver for park/pow as long as you don’t deal with a lot of ice. Definitely a great addition to the Armada lineup and a worthy Best of Test winner.
Check out our Best Of Test | Powder video for more on the Armada ARV/ARW 112:
Groomers/Resort Skiing:
112 underfoot is overkill for resort driving in most places but the ARV 112 does handle wide arcing turns pretty nicely and for such a wide ski, it’s easy to ski in resort. It has fairly low swingweight thanks to plenty of taper and while you mostly feel that in the air, you do notice it when turning a ski this big. The turn radius of 21m doesn’t make short turns on edge particularly natural, but with plenty of rocker, the skis pivot pretty easily in tight spots. These aren’t the stiffest or chargiest of skis in the category, but Armada has come up with a playful powder ski that you could just about shoehorn into the daily driver category out west.
“It can smear, butter, and slash on groomers like a much narrower ski. It's really fun to ski just about anywhere in the resort, trees, steeps, park, groomers, even bumps.” - Max Ritter
Skier: Dillon Eades. P: Hanne Lundin Wallengren
Powder & Mixed Snow:
These aren’t THE widest of skis but for most powder days at most resorts on the planet, these are going to do the job perfectly and be a ton of fun while doing it. Armada have the poppy, surfy rocker profile dialed with these and they were a lot of fun on smaller drops and in all kinds of soft snow. Our testers particularly loved how easily these skis turned in the deep stuff. In more mixed conditions the softer flex can mean these get bounced a bit, so they aren’t really a crud charger…
Skier: Alex Stange. P: Hanne Lundin Wallengren
Park & Jibbing:
… After all, these are primarily a freestyle pow ski and that’s where they excel. They are super fun for (attempting) landing switch in pow, and poppy of all kinds of natural features in soft snow. The middle two-thirds of the ski are decently stable, which gives a stable enough landing platform on harder snow, so you can rock these in the park too and with that low swingweight, they even feel pretty manageable on smaller jumps and rails. The soft tips and tails make buttering a breeze, we really enjoyed these skis as a fat freestyle option.
Skier: Twig. P: Carter Edwards
“Low swingweight was nice and super pivoty feel with the forwards mount. The tip and tail soften off quite a lot so they feel really playful when you flex them into butters, I really liked them in the park.” - Twig
Skier: Twig. P: Hanne Lundin Wallengren
Who's it for?
The ARV 112 / ARW 112 are very playful pow ski options. They are softer and more accessible than the Whitewalker and actually pretty skiable as a daily driver for park/pow as long as you don’t deal with a lot of ice. Definitely a great addition to the Armada lineup and a worthy Best of Test winner.
Check out our Best Of Test | Powder video for more on the Armada ARV/ARW 112:
