Gear Review
The Wailer 112 RPC is a close cousin of DPS’s most popular ski, the Wailer 112 RP. The RPC is 3 mm wider, with a lower tip and tail profile, and a larger turn radius than the RP. The C stands for charger.
I skied my RPC somewhere around 100 days, most of which were on lift accessed terrain of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and the surrounding backcountry. These skis were unique because they excelled in a wide variety of terrain. At 2037 grams per ski for the 186 cm length, these are insanely light, yet have the stability and dampness you would normally see in a metal ski, I have yet to hit the speed limit on these.
Due to their ridiculously low weight, the RPCs are also extremely fun in the trees. With a low swing weight it was easy to get them from edge to edge quickly and noodle around the trees.
The RPC’s had great float in powder and they can easily go from a race turn into a McConkey turn. The big shovels and the farther back recommended mounting point make it almost impossible to go over the handlebars on a landing, but landing forward will kick you into the back seat. What really stood out about this ski is it’s ability to handle soft crud. Around 11 am on a powder day you can just open up huge turns at high speeds and charge through the crud as if you have superpowers.
The recommended mounting position is farther back than the average ski, so if you don’t normally mount your bindings one or two cms back, consider mounting these forward of recommended. Demo a pair and use the adjustable demo bindings to check out a couple of different mounting options.
$1299 a pair seems a bit steep, but considering how these skis held up, they’re a good investment. After a hundred plus days of skiing Jackson I didn’t get a single core shot and saved myself a small fortune in shop tunes and repairs. And unlike fiberglass, carbon skis don’t loose their ability to rebound over time so they maintained their flex throughout the season and felt just stiff and lively on closing day as they did in January. These should easily last you two or three seasons.
Overall, I was really impressed with these skis. Well engineered to be both damp chargers and easy to turn defied my understanding of what a ski had to be. Other than those long high-pressure cycles where I’d bring out a narrow metal ski, this was my every day go to. This ski was fun all day, from early morning pow laps, to mid-day chop, to tree runs off last gondi.
