1 / 2DPS Powderworks Koala Tour 111
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PTO Verdict
“The shape half of this decision is documented to the millimeter. The half you are paying for is a dash.”
Best for: Someone who already wants the Koala shape and does the climbing. The outline is the resort Koala 111's, figure for figure, so what changes sits underneath: the carbon-flax and paulownia layup DPS reserves for touring. How that layup changes the ride is not quantified in the workbook, and there is no product page to add anything. Workbook copy points it at steep lines and technical descents in deep terrain rather than at distance, which is a narrower brief than a pure float-and-glide touring ski. It also suits a buyer who wants the limited Powderworks build specifically, and who is content to buy the touring layup on the strength of its name, because no figure for it is published.
Not for: Anyone who needs to see the weight before spending $1,795. Three dashes in the workbook and no product page mean the figure a touring layup exists to change is not published, and that is a documentation problem, not a rider problem. Skip it if your descents are tight and technical, because 18m under 111mm is a long arc, and it is the same published sidecut the resort version carries — a change of layup does not shorten a radius. Skip it for lift-served firm snow: no hard-snow claim is made for this model anywhere, and there is no metal layer in the five-item construction list. Skip it if you need to know today that a replacement pair could be had later, because Powderworks runs are small batches and DPS publishes no quantity to judge that by. And skip it if you want a spec sheet to answer your questions, because seven of the figures you would reach for are not published.
At a Glance
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Pair It With
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Description
The DPS Powderworks Koala Tour 111 is a limited-edition 111mm ski that carries the Koala 111 outline on DPS's Pagoda Tour touring layup, at an 18m radius across three lengths. Powderworks is the brand's small-batch program, built in DPS's factory. Two models wear the label for 26/27, this one and the Lotus Tour 117. In the 26/27 ski taxonomy Powderworks sits as its own Limited Edition entry instead of under a riding category, so this ski gets no Freeride or Touring badge from DPS. The brand aims it at big lines, deep terrain and what it calls freeride-inspired touring.
The layup is the Pagoda Tour CFL one, five items long: a textured topsheet, a high-modulus carbon and flax laminate, a paulownia wood core, Rockwell 48 steel edges, and World Cup race bases with Phantom Glide treatment applied at the factory. Paulownia appears once in the whole 26/27 workbook, on that list, so it is the wood DPS reserves for skis meant to be carried uphill. Its stated reason for adding flax to the carbon is damping. One wrinkle we would rather you heard here: the printed page's sub-heading says Full Carbon Contruction, spelled that way, while the paragraph under it names the Pagoda Tour construction. We go with the paragraph, and the review explains why.
Three lengths — 176, 184 and 189cm, at 137-111-125mm, 139-111-127mm and 140-111-128mm, with the radius fixed at 18m throughout. Two figures a shopper normally gets are absent here: the weight row on the printed page is empty at every size, and DPS gives this model no product page, so there is no rocker percentage, size chart or color swatch either. Sold flat at $1,795 in a purple-and-green colorway. Bindings are a separate purchase, and mounting happens in the shop.
Specs
- Waist: 111mm
- Turn radius: 18m
- Profile: Not published by DPS for this model
- Shape: Lightweight touring, freeride-oriented
- Core: Paulownia wood core
- Construction: High-modulus full carbon + flax laminate; Rockwell 48 steel edges; World Cup race base with Phantom Glide
- Weight: Not published by DPS at any length
- Lengths: 176 / 184 / 189
Details
- Type
- SKI
- Vendor
- DPS
- SKU
- S-PWKT111-168PU-PH
- UPC / GTIN
- 810182503431
176
DPS Powderworks Koala Tour 111
By PTO Team, Based on the official 26/27 DPS Workbook and dpsskis.com data for the sibling models, cross-checked field by field. DPS publishes no product page for this model. · Spec and construction analysis
The take
“The shape half of this decision is documented to the millimeter. The half you are paying for is a dash.”
Two numbers decide whether this is worth $600 over the ski it copies, and DPS gives you one of them.
The one you get is the shape. Length for length, tip for tail, this table and the resort Koala 111's are the same figures: three lengths, three sidecut triplets, one arc that never changes with size. So the sidecut you turn on, and how much surface sits under your boot, are not in question. Whatever you make of the Koala 111, that table transfers intact.
The one you do not get is mass, and mass is the whole reason a touring layup exists. DPS prints a dash at every length and gives this model no page on its site, so there is nowhere else to look.
How big might that gap be? Four times in the 26/27 line a resort model and a touring-layup model carry the same waist and the same radius and both publish a weight column, and across those four the swap runs from 131 to 387 grams a ski. The pair on this ski's 18m arc is the Kaizen 105 against the Pagoda Tour CFL 105, which print the same tip, waist and tail at five shared lengths and the same 40% rocker badge the resort Koala 111 carries: 196 to 338 grams a ski between them. That subtraction is ours and it describes those pairs, not this one. We are not going to turn it into a figure for this ski, because DPS has not.
So the premium here is bought on a construction name. If the paperwork matters to you more than the outline does, that CFL 105 is $100 less than this ski, publishes 1,367 to 1,643 grams a ski, and is a catalog model rather than a limited run. This one is a small batch, and no quantity is published.
The blank list runs long. No rocker percentage — its Powderworks sibling gets 45%/55% and the resort Koala 40%/60%. No flex figure, no camber detail, no mount distance, no size-by-height chart, no recommended binding. We checked the printed workbook, the sibling Powderworks page, and this model's own page, which does not exist.
Sizing is half easy: 18m at 176, 184 and 189, so length buys surface area rather than a different turn shape. It also buys more ski to move around, and with no weight column published we cannot tell you how much more. We settle it at the shop. We ordered none for 26/27, so talk to us before you commit to one.
Bindings we'd pair with it
Mount point: Flat ski — sold without bindings. DPS publishes no mount distance for this model, and unlike its siblings it has no product page carrying a recommended mount option, so no figure is quoted here. Our pick: A touring binding — we do not stock one, so this is a judgment about intended use rather than a shop pick.
- A touring binding (not stocked by PTO)The intended use — skinning up
Workbook copy puts this ski in the backcountry on the Pagoda Tour construction, so a touring binding is the point of buying it. That is a judgment about intended use, not a compatibility ruling. PTO stocks resort bindings only, and a resort binding adds mass to a ski whose stated job is being carried uphill. Talk to us before ordering so the ski and the binding get decided together.
DPS names no recommended binding for this model. Its sibling Powderworks ski does flag one on its own product page, but this one has no page at all, and the printed workbook names none either. DPS does build touring bindings in partnership with ATK; those model names stay in our research file rather than on this page, because their variants are labeled with release-value ranges and we do not publish release settings. Mounting, brake-width matching and release settings are decisions a technician makes at fitting, not numbers we publish. Nothing here is a compatibility ruling.
Common Questions
- What is the difference between the DPS Koala Tour 111 and the Koala 111?
- The build and the price, not the shape. Waist, size run, tip and tail figures and an 18m radius are printed identically for the two skis. The Koala Tour runs the Pagoda Tour CFL layup, a carbon-and-flax laminate over a paulownia core, at $1,795; the resort Koala 111 runs the Koala construction list, no flax, at $1,195. The resort ski also publishes a 40% rocker / 60% effective edge split and a size chart, and this one publishes neither. Its weight column is disputed between DPS's own two sources — the site gives 2,050g, 2,200g and 2,300g per ski, the workbook 1,900g, 2,050g and 2,200g — and we use the site figures.
- How much does the DPS Koala Tour 111 weigh?
- DPS does not say. Workbook page 25 leaves that row empty at all three lengths, and there is no product page for this model — we checked the site's sitemap, its search and five candidate URLs. For scale, DPS publishes both weight columns for four resort-and-touring model pairs that share a waist and a radius, and the swap runs 131 to 387 grams a ski across them. The pair on this ski's 18m arc, the Kaizen 105 against the Pagoda Tour CFL 105, differs by 196 to 338 grams at their five shared lengths. That arithmetic is ours and belongs to those pairs, not to this ski.
- What is inside the DPS Koala Tour 111?
- Five things, in the order DPS lists them for the Pagoda Tour CFL build: a topsheet it calls textured; a laminate of high-modulus carbon run together with flax; a core of paulownia; steel edges hardened to Rockwell 48; and race bases from its World Cup range, treated with Phantom Glide before the ski leaves the factory. Of that laminate, DPS writes on its Pagoda Tour pages that it combines the energy and strength of carbon with the natural dampening qualities of flax. Two cautions. The workbook page for this ski carries a sub-heading reading Full Carbon Contruction above a paragraph that names the Pagoda Tour construction; the same sub-heading sits above the Lotus Tour 117, whose product page uses that badge and describes the Pagoda Tour CFL layup in the same breath, which is why we go with the paragraph. And while no metal layer appears in that five-item list, a technology block that runs identically across DPS's other product pages mentions an aluminum tail bar, so we will not tell you the ski has no metal in it.
- What does Powderworks mean?
- It is DPS's limited small-batch label. In its own words, a special batch of limited release skis with unique designs and constructions, brought to life in the DPS factory as a window into its R+D work. Two models carry it for 26/27: this ski and the Lotus Tour 117. The 26/27 taxonomy files Powderworks as Limited Edition rather than as Freeride, Powder or Touring, so DPS assigns this ski no use category of its own. No batch quantity is published, so nothing official says how many exist or how long they last.
- Is the DPS Koala Tour 111 good on groomers?
- DPS makes no hard-snow, groomer or edge-hold claim for this model. Its workbook page is about steep lines, technical descents in deep terrain and freeride-inspired touring, and there is no product page carrying anything further. The five-item construction list contains no metal layer, and an 18m radius under a 111mm waist is a long arc on firm snow. With no flex figure and no camber detail published, there is nothing official to settle it either way — so read this as what the brand is willing to claim, not as a verdict on hardpack.
- What length DPS Koala Tour 111 should I get?
- Radius is 18m at 176, 184 and 189cm, so a longer ski buys surface area rather than a different turn shape. It is also more ski to swing, and no weight column is published to say how much more. Two of the usual aids are missing here: DPS publishes no weight for any length, so the cost of going longer cannot be counted in grams, and it publishes no size-by-height chart for this model, although it publishes one for the Koala 111 and for the Lotus Tour 117. We help settle it at the shop.
