The Ahmeek 105 - A Short History

Have you checked out our best selling all mountain Ahmeek 105s skis recently?

The Ahmeek 105s are our most versatile skis that are that perfect one ski quiver for tossing in the car and having an awesome day on the snow regardless of conditions.

They bridge the gap between aggressive and playful, freeride and freestyle. Want to get in the front seat, really pressure the front of your boots, and drive into a high angle carve? Done, the Ahmeeks will grip and energetically dive into the next turn. Want to get a bit more playful? Set a more neutral stance and utilize the full twin tail. Heading into the trees? Get ready to have more fun than you ever thought possible.

The Ahmeek 105s are truly the one pair of skis that I can take with me and know it won't matter what conditions I find, I'll always have a good time. 

A Bit of History

So here it goes...
Back in 2006 we had pressed a couple of pair of skis for ourselves, a few slalom sidecut skis and a ~80 mm waist width shape, but knew we wanted to do something a bit different.

Fast forward to 2008 and we had our first "wider" ski - we called it the "Big Mountain Carver," it was 180 cm long, about 100 mm underfoot, and had a 18 m turning radius. We had a lot of fun on these skis, we built them stiff and burly so we could drive them into turns quickly. At this point, they were fully cambered, had a traditional tip rise, and a flat tail.

Two years later we came back to this design and wanted to update it to match the styling and new construction methods we had developed for our first "lineup" of skis in 2009. At that point we really loved the rocker in some of our powder specific skis and wanted to introduce a bit into the "Big Mountain Carver." We did this in the tip and the Ahmeeks became our second best selling ski quickly. The cleaner look of the new design helped people become comfortable with the wider 100 mm shape and it was a hit! We played around with the camber/rocker profile of this shape for a few years and finally refined it to the point where we really liked the early rise tip rocker. The tail was a round and slightly turned up, but definitely not a twin. Our customers loved the fact that you could ski it like a race ski, but in softer conditions.

Then came the winter of 2014/15! We were finally hitting our stride with producing skis and wanted to streamline our lineup for the 15/16 season. We decided that we need to simply the lineup and produce two main all mountain skis, one at 95 mm underfoot and one at 105 mm underfoot. The Ahmeeks were definitely going to be bumping up to the 105 mm width.

When we were going into the first revision prototype we knew that we wanted a ski that you could get really aggressive on and lay-over like a race skis, but also wanted a bit of playfulness. That bill was a lot to ask; usually a ski is either playful or powerful/aggressive, but not both.

We decided to increase the tip-to-tail taper so you could push the skis to their limits and remain stable, but added a full twin tail to increase maneuverability. The mounting point was moved forward due to the twin tail, but the addition of camber + camber pockets underfoot took care of any hardpack edge grip worries. The flex was then adjusted many times to finely tune the combination of powerful and playful. What we came up with was a slightly softer (6-7 our of 10) shovel that quickly ramps up to a stiff (8 out of 10) forebody, midbody, and tail. The softer shovel improves flotation in powder and deflects easier than a stiffer tip, while also makes the ski feel more playful when flexed.

After a public test with around 70 testers on late February day in 2015, we finally knew that we had “the one”. The testers were amazed by its grip on hardpack, ability to both drive into a quick turn or let them run and remain stable, and their playfulness in the trees. 

Over the spring of 2015, we finalized the design and refined the tip/tail rocker. We released finally released the Ahmeek 105 with a size range from 168 cm to 186 cm in June of 2015 and it was hit from the start. Over the 15/16 season we also released a few new Limited Edition Graphics and they helped offer more options than ever with this new shape.

Fast forward to the 16/17 season and we knew we couldn’t change what had been received so well, so we kept the same design and introduced a Pure Carbon construction option with a poplar wood core. The Pure Carbon ski layup reduced the overall weight by approximately 20% and we were able to get the 180 cm Ahmeek 105s down to just over 7.2lb/pair! The Pure Carbon construction is an extra $200, but definitely worth it for anyone doing any significant uphill touring or just looking for the lightest ski!

For the 2017/2018 season the Ahmeek 105’s shape remains the same, but we’ve introduced a new rounded top edge/mini-cap construction in the 168-186 cm sizes. There is still a full sidewall on all of the skis, however the rounded design helps keep your topsheets looking fresh for years to come.

We’re excited to get back on our Ahmeeks as soon as the snow flies! We know that if you’re looking for an all mountain ski in the 105mm range, you’ll love the Ahmeeks!

Enough of my history lesson... Check out the reviews at www.skishaggys.com/collections/2017-2018-skis/products/2018-ahmeek-105#shopify-product-reviews

-Jeff Thompson

jeff@sccskis.com

PS: If you are looking for more info or more specifics, don't hesitate to shoot me an email.