Tester:
Kris: 60-year-old who prefers finesse and technique over power, and has a love of high speeds and junky snow. Ex-PSIA level 2 instructor, Beer League and NASTAR racer.
Conditions:
Solidly frozen groomers with a fine dusting of sugar on top in the morning, breaking down into soft slush bumps and chunk by lunch. Sunny and warming, with increasing wind in the afternoon.
Skis listed in the order tested
I managed to hop on the SL CPT last year and found it to be a fairly demanding short turn specialist. The SC adds a bit of width underfoot and in the tail, and it feels a bit softer and more sprightly. It was fun and zippy when driven from the front, but it's still fairly stiff and can feel cranky and unforgiving if your technique is off. Racers and strong advanced/expert skiers who like short turns will likely love this ski.
Stockli Montero AS cm, 172, 127-74-107, R=14.8 m:
The Montero AS is another damp, smooth Stockli; but damp and smooth doesn't equate to stiff or hard to ski in this one. It can be coaxed into short turns and slow speeds, but its happy place is medium to long turns at eye-watering speeds. The AS had no problems with frozen groomers or the increasing piles of spring slush later in the day. This ski is strong enough that you could size down with very little loss in stability, but a decent gain in maneuverability.
Whoa!!! All the stability and guts of a slalom race ski with a huge dose of fun! How did they DO that??? Poppy and grippy, this is the most fun I've had on a slalom ski in a long time. Advanced and expert skiers will get the most from the Addikt 66 Pro, but it really is accessible enough for upper intermediates to learn the joy of short turns. I spent the whole time on it just grinning and giggling. This was one of the 2 winners of the year for me.
Head Kore 93 Ti, 163 cm, 128-92-114, R=13.3 m:
I've tried multiple versions of the Head Kore and Joy over the years, and I've hated all of them except the Wild Joy. I always found them to be too light and stiff to be anything other than rattly and jarring—until now. Head has added metal to their Kore line, which effectively and quite nicely dampened the behaviors I liked the least. I found the 93 Ti to be most comfortable in medium and long turns, and it lacked grip on the firm morning groomers when pushed, but was super forgiving and perfectly happy to cruise around at "normal person" speeds. The 163 was noticeably too short and too soft for me. This is a great ski for intermediates and chill advanced skiers to begin exploring the whole mountain.
Ho-ly-cow!!! The Discovery series is built with Auxetic material and Spaceframe construction, which sounds like a bunch of silly marketing technobabble. What it means on the hill, though, is massive amounts of fun for everyone. The Auxetic material stiffens the ski as you put more force into it, so the ski starts out as a mellow, easy going, go anywhere ski; it stays damp as the speeds and forces pick up; and turns into a powerful, bouncy, "Wheeeee!!!" fest when it's really driven hard and fast. Every run had me giggling and woo-hooing as we rolled into the lift maze. I had my fastest run of the day on the 86 Pro, even in the developing afternoon slushy crud. It felt really weird to check all 3 boxes for Nimble, Balanced, and Burly on my ski scorecard, but it was absolutely true for this one.
This was my other winner of the day and I would LOVE to replace my aging RTM 84s and Fischer Hybrid 8.0s with the 86 Pro.
I have to admit I only tried these because of the color, but I was
surprised by just how strong this ski is. If you're an aspiring big
mountain skier, or prefer to deal with spring crud by blowing through it
at speed, this is your ski. Short turns? No. Slow speeds? Again, no.
Medium turns? Maybe, but why?? Point em downhill, put the pedal to the
metal, and hang on! There is a small chance that my impression of big
and burly is a function of the length (178), but I really don't think
so. I seriously wish I'd had a chance to ski it back-to-back with the
standard Arcade 94 to see if there was a detectable difference.
Atomic Redster Q9.8, 173 cm, 134-84.5-118.8, R=14.4 m:
The Q9.8 is another hard charging race-based ski, with enough waist width to make it a versatile all mountain ride for strong skiers. It's on the burly end of the flex spectrum and lacks forgiveness, especially at slower speeds. Even with the 14 m turn radius in the 173 cm, it excels at medium and long turns and stays glued to the snow. The width dimensions and turn radius for the Q9.8 vary by ski length.
The QST is a nimble, forgiving ski for lovers of short and medium turns at more leisurely speeds. Its long tip rocker and soft flex makes it quick, poppy, and extremely versatile in softer snow. Even with the redesigned tail, the soft flex and easy going nature means it suffers a bit on harder groomers. The 164 cm length felt distinctly too short for me, leaving me wishing for more length, more stiffness, and more rebound. This is another winner for more relaxed skiers who want to start exploring the whole mountain.
Thank you again to the reps for Stockli, Atomic, Salomon, Head, Rossignol, and Black Crowes, and the crews from Bill & Paul's Sporthaus and Caberfae Peaks for making this such an amazing event every year!!
