Colorado College alum is king of the lightweight skis

CHAFFEE COUNTY • The word “cold” did this day no justice.

Frigid. Brutal. A morning temperature of minus 9 degrees that crept up to minus 1 by lunchtime. Sane people were watching the Broncos-Ravens playoff game from somewhere warm, while I was out in the elements at Monarch Mountain. Diamond dust glittered in the chilly sunshine and the 4 inches of new snow — sticky like molasses from the low temperatures — was dragging down skiers all over the mountain.

But I was floating on air, or so it felt while riding the Wailer 112 by DPS Skis.

Launched by Colorado College graduate Stephan Drake, DPS has become one of the hotter ski brands among powder lovers and backcountry enthusiasts. They’re lighter than most skis on the market, thanks to a carbon fiber design that has been raising eyebrows since Drake launched the company in 2005.

For 36-year-old Drake, DPS is the culmination of a lifetime of powder chasing, an obsession that has taken him from Alaska to South America.

“There’s this crew of globe-trotting, passionate skiers I would ski with every summer,” said Drake, of Salt Lake City. “The ski industry didn’t really reflect, in the equipment and the brands, the lifestyle we were living.”

So he designed his own.

Drake came to CC from New York in 1997, largely to ski, doing laps on the steep couloirs of Pikes Peak after class. He ski-bummed around Aspen, worked as a ski guide and wrote for ski magazines. Summer inevitably found him in South America, where he grew disenchanted with his skis.

Most skis made today are “rockered,” an upward bend that helps skis float through powder. But Drake was rockering his own skis, which he would do with “a violent kick.”

“They were very narrow,” he said. “They didn’t have rockered. They were produced for tourists who go to a ski area a couple times a year or racers.”

They were heavy, too, especially for skiers lugging them up mountains in the Andes.

With an engineer friend, he started a company called DrakeBoinay to experiment with carbon fiber.

Says the DPS website, “(Drake) wants light, ultra-high performance versions of the double metal laminate clunkers he is skiing on. Surfing and snowboarding have it right; light equipment is best for both energy conservation and high-performance riding; carbon is the ingredient to make it happen in skis.”

The skis were well-reviewed, but manufacturing problems doomed the company and only a few thousand skis were made. He started over in 2005 with DPS, short for “Drake Powderworks.” They began selling a few hundred pairs online annually, even as they sweated to set up steady production at their factory in China.

For Drake, an English literature major in college, it was a “three- or four-year apprenticeship” in ski design under his partner, engineer Peter Turner. By 2009, they were ready for store shelves. Reviews were glowing, particularly for the Wailer 112 RP, their all-mountain ski for mixed conditions.

“All I can say is that the 112 RPs versatility, stability and fun factor are off the charts. In 3-4 inches or more of new snow, I am confident that these skis will make a lot of people very, very happy. And what I know for certain is that the 112 RPs will even make you happy skiing dirty snow and chunked-up ice,” wrote website Blister Gear Review.

“Skiing on these skis is game-changing to say the least,” raved website Ski Theory. “Any skier, elite to intermediate, will benefit from this ski. DPS has more genius in the works, and those who really love to ski will be smart to take notice.”

I found the reviews to be spot-on, for the most part. Even in the dense few inches of new snow at Monarch, turns were light and nearly effortless, as the lightweight skis surprised me with their durability and carving prowess. On groomed runs, I had to fight the urge to blast down the hill on skis that felt like rockets. On jumps, landing was smooth and I never lost speed.

That said, I don’t believe these skis are for everyone. For starters, they’re not cheap, running $799 to $1,249, depending on how light you want to go.

Beginner skiers might find the featherweight skis daunting and should consider a starter ski with a little more heft for confident turns.

Sadly, given this winter’s mediocre snowfall, I wasn’t able to test them in deep powder, but I hear they do quite well.

Their appearance also sets DPS skis apart. DPS ski designs are amazingly simple: a solid color and logo. That’s also part of Drake’s vision. Globe-trotting powder hounds care about function, not style.

“It’s part of the brand. The way the brand was designed is that simplicity,” Drake said. “It’s such a completely passionate devotion to traveling the world to find that best run in the best snow and that best terrain. You’ve trained really hard. All your equipment is working right. Your mind is in a clean space.

“The skis are intended as a reflection of that space.”

The downside of success is that Drake doesn’t have the time to go there himself as often. With two dozen employees between Utah and China and DPS skis in 160 shops around the world, there’s a lot more work.

“I give it my best, but every year it gets harder to do,” he said.