Armada Locator 104 Ski Touring Skis 2022 – 2023 | Review - Mpora

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Armada Locator 104 Ski Touring Skis 2022 – 2023 | Review

Armada bring their freeski design to the ski touring market with the all-new Locator series

Why we chose the Armada Locator 104: Lightweight, powerful, manoeuvrable 

Lengths (cm): 162, 170, 176 & 184
Sidecut (mm): 131 / 104 / 123 (176 cm)
Radius: 20m (176 cm)
Rocker Profile: Rocker-Camber-Rocker
Weight (per ski): 1,425g (176 cm)

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2022 seems to be the year of freeski-specific touring skis. K2 had a crack with the Dispatch range, Blizzard unveiled the Hustle, and now the all-new Locator series for Armada is the freeskiing companies’ take on this competitive category.

Stepping in to replace the old Trace and Tracer series, the Locator range has been designed to combine best in class downhill performance with some impressively light weights. You’ve got a selection of 88, 96, 104 and 112 mm models.

These, the Armada Locator 104, are a 104mm waisted pair of touring skis that have been designed to keep the weight to a manageable level (for longer tours) while still retaining that classic Armada freeride spirit.

Armada Locator 104 Build

Armada has managed to strike a great power to weight ratio with the whole Locator series. Speaking of the Locator 104 specifically, the ski comes in at a pretty lightweight 1,425 grams per ski for the 178 cm length; helping it to remain fast and lightweight for the ascents.

While a fair bit of weight has been stripped from the construction, Armada has still managed to pack in a fair bit of material into the ski to help keep power and dampening to an impressively high level. This construction consists of a lightweight (and fairly sustainable) caruba wood core, a construction that’s been beefed up with a titanal plate underfoot.

Carbon and fibreglass make up the rest of the construction, with the carbon stringers stretching out towards the tips and tails to help improve the torsional stiffness of the skis.

Armada has then brought in their classic AR75 sidewall, which features a tougher full sidewall underfoot for focused grip and power where it’s needed before a soft cap construction stretches out to the tips and tails to reduce weight and improve how pivotable the skis are.

Armada Locator 104 Shaping

On the shaping front, Armada has opted for a pretty classic rocker profile that matches the 104 mm all-mountain waist of the skis. This profile features what Armada claims is a low pocket of camber for improved bite and power where it’s needed, but still also keeps the skis floaty and pivotable when their combined with the rocker in the tips and tails.

The rocker lines in the Locator 104s are pretty subtle which is something we can get on board with. There’s a strong effective edge for grip when it’s required, especially for a ski with this waist width.

Take a quick look at the nose of this ski and you’ll realise it’s been designed to match that loose rocker profile. The nose features a good deal of tapering which, in combination with the tip and tail rocker, will help to keep the skis shifting easily in soft snow. There’s less tapering in the tails with the tail being squared off for easy ski tail clip placement.

Who Is The Armada Locator 104 For?

We never thought we’d see it from freeskiing leaders Armada, but they’ve gone and fully stepped into lightweight ski mountaineering territory with the Locator series of skis (particularly the 96 and 88).

If you value a lightweight pair of skis for fast ascent, yet still want to retain good levels of downhill performance and versatility for mixed snow conditions, then you certainly can’t go wrong with the Locator 104. They left us constantly questioning whether we really had a pair of sub-1,500 gram skis on our feet.

What Is The Armada Locator 104 Good At?

Weight: 9/10
Carving: 7/10
Soft Snow: 7/10

Topics:

Armada Ski 100 2022/23 Ski Touring Touring Skis
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