Van Deer H-Power 78 Skis 2027

The Van Deer H-Power 78 is the middle ski in Marcel Hirscher's H-Power line: a 78 mm frontside carver with enough width to leave the groomer. It keeps most of the hard-snow edge grip that makes the narrow H-Power 68 work, and spends its extra ten millimetres of waist on fresh snow, cut-up snow and side hits at the trail's edge.

Under the topsheet is an ash-poplar wood core between two layers of Titanal. Ash brings stiffness and edge power, poplar keeps it from feeling dead, and the metal damps chatter and pushes the edge into hard snow. Van Deer states two layers and no thickness, and publishes no camber or rocker profile, so the spec table stops where the brand's numbers stop.

For 26/27 it comes on a Marker FDT RACE PRO plate in khaki. The plate lifts the boot for more leverage into the edge and frees the ski to flex underfoot. Every ski also leaves the factory on Hirscher's own tune spec, not a generic grind, so it is meant to ski true out of the wrap.

Ski it if most of your day is on piste but you like to wander off it, and you want race feel without a specialist race ski. An ambitious intermediate will grow into it; a strong carver still finds ceiling above them. Do not start here as a beginner: it is firm and race-derived. And it pays for its range at both ends. At 78 mm deep snow will overwhelm it, so deep-day skiers want the H-Power 89 or the Freeride line; if you never leave hardpack, the 68 grips harder and turns quicker.

Length sets turn shape here, not just height: the radius climbs from 12.5 m at 159 cm to 18.5 m at 183 cm, so go short for quick, tight turns and long for speed and space. Ask us if you are between two. The plate is on the ski as sold at $1,600; the matching Marker COMP 13 binding (DIN 4-13) takes it to $2,000, and we mount it and set the release value.

Technical Specifications