Voile Hyper Manti Skis

I opted for the Hyper-Manti (181) because I wanted something light but with a little more versatility than my old skis, that at 98mm underfood, felt too narrow to take on a trip when fresh snow was a possibility. On paper the Hyper Manti fits that bill and after a few turns, I am very happy with my choice. Pros: - Obviously the weight is pretty outstanding for a ski with these dimensions making it an easy choice for longer tours or hut trips where you'll be putting in lots of vertical. - Edge hold was excellent for a 100+ waisted ski at this weight. I had a chance to ski these on some fairly hard groomers and was generally pleased with how well they bit into those surfaces, provided I kept my speed in check. I expect this will be a good spring ski when conditions can be firm up top before softening into corn. - Carving the softer groomers was a blast. They were plenty stiff to rip big fast turns as long as the snow was soft enough to hold an edge. - Nice camber underfoot for fast edge transitions. The skis had plenty of energy throw you into the next turn, so much so, that I found myself reliving the old slalom days. - Forgiveness: I skied some old refrozen crud through the trees which I generally find to be the most challenging for a light backcountry ski, to say nothing of my legs. Without the weight I definitely wasn't blasting through anything but overall was pleased with how easily I could get the tails to release and check speed when needed. - Reinforced binding area. I know this has become pretty common in manufacturing carbon skis but its great to know that you're mounting bindings into something solid. Kuddos to Voile for doing so. Cons: So far not a ton but some things to consider. I consider this a dedicated touring ski and not something I'd want to ski more than occasionally at a resort without soft snow. They had a very specific speed limit on a firm inbounds groomer following a freeze/thaw cycle. At lower speeds the edge-hold really encourages you to push for more but I found that I quickly got to the point where the skis started to chatter and I had to throttle back or risk exploding. I hesitate to list this as a negative for a carbon touring ski but it's worth noting in case you're pushing the speed in variable snow that might put you unexpectedly on some hard ice. I'm guessing that the regular Manti with a the heavier layup would have more dampening and a higher speed limit but of course you'll pay for that on the climb. That said, the Hyper-Manti does as well if not better than any other ski in this weight class/width that I've skied so it's really about your priorities and what kind of trade-offs you're willing to make. I am also not sure if this is a negative but I'm unclear if the reinforced mounting area/plates extend far enough behind the toe piece to mount the voile ski crampon? I'm a huge fan of those fixed crampons but have ripped them out on other light skis in shallow snowpackss after accidently stepping on a rock. Not sure how much weight is saved by only reinforcing the toe and heel binding locations but it would be nice to know that the area in-between is equally as solid for securing the Voile 'disks' that holds the crampon in place. Last 'con' - what's up with Voile not providing a boot center mark on the ski? I got by fine using their chart for distance from the ski tip but still, it would be great to have the mounting line on the top sheet. I'm sure there is a thoughtful explanation for why Voile does that but it adds to my mounting time and work-bench beer consumption. Overall: It's easy to get excited about a touring ski after reading it's weight and width specs but skier styles and abilities are so varied that you just don't know if you'll like it until making a few turns. I bought the Hyper-Manti sight-unseen, so to speak, and the gamble paid off. In the past, I've struggled to find a ski with balance between traditional forward-stance skis that arc big turns and

Bought late fall 2021, and I've finally had these out enough to offer a few thoughts. TL,DR: kind of shocking how good they are for how light they are. So far basically everything I was hoping. PNW, 6', 170lbs, 181s with Backland Tour w/brakes (kids mean resort days) and Dynafit Hoji Pro Tours. I haven't actually bothered with a scale, but I think my setup is now lighter than my kid's 140s based on heft in hand. I had plenty of giggles and hoots in the trees with 6-12" of low temp fresh, though I'll still be grabbing my Drifters for full-on pow days. I was a little concerned about getting kicked around on mank/crud/refreeze, but haven't found it to be a problem yet, keeping in mind that they don't have a layer of titanal. I was somewhat surprised to see that I'd hit 60 on a groomer without feeling too much flap and chatter, but I can imagine a better skier finding a speed limit. Out of bounds, I had reasonable edge hold on a long, icy traverse across a big slope that was hard enough I didn't want to attempt any turns, and they swung around beautifully when I did need to initiate a few scrape-y sketchy jump turns. Obviously going up was only hindered by my legs and lungs. The top sheets did seem to shed snow ok, but they're maybe my only cons at this point - they seem a little easy to chip and nick, and I'd have preferred a simpler, single (not white) color. But if that's tradeoff for skis that are lighter than the water I need to carry for a long day tour then I'm sold.