Introducing The Open Road's ski technology reviews

I ski all the time. At least once per week during the winter, but usually twice (or more). This past 10 days I skied four (or was it five?) times. Heaven.

Part of the reason I skied so often, however, was because I wanted to evaluate the latest in ski technology. I grew up skiing the unparalleled powder of Utah and can remember back when skiing was almost a chore because the skis, boots, clothes, and sundries (e.g., goggles) were stuck in the Stone Age. My goggles, for example, used to fog up at the beginning of the day and I'd discover where I was at the end of the day. Today, it's hard to find a pair of googles that will fog up. Technology has advanced.

What better place to review the latest and greatest in ski technology than here at CNET, the world's #1 source of technology news? But rather than muddle through the technical details of the newest ski technology, I gathered a group of expert skiers to determine how that technology translates into everyday, real-world experience on the slopes.

We're not professional reviewers. We don't have anything to gain from a positive review and nothing to lose from a negative review.

We're not reliant on the ski companies' advertising dollars. What we do have is a love of skiing and the best mountains on the planet to test out the industry's best gear.

Over the next few days, I'll be posting our reviews. We're halfway through the ski season (or, given the amount of snow that has been falling, really just one-third the way through), but I've heard from a surprising number of you that you expect to hit the slopes this season.

Here is the gear you should take with you. We evaluate clothing (Kombi, North Face, Spyder, Mountain Hardwear, Arc'Teryx, and more), skis (Volkl, Rossignol, K2, and more), and boots (Tecnica, Nordica, Lange, and more). Where possible we link to Backcountry.com, for two reasons: 1) We know the management team there (It's a Utah company) and 2) It runs on open source.