If you don’t own a mountain with 3,000 nearly vertical feet, you might want to consider another ski.  The Nordica Dobermann GSR EVO EDT isn’t even warm at 30mph, and 60mph feels like idling speed.

You can point it out of the fall line, but don’t think for a nanosecond that it wants to stay there. Never did a 19.5m turn radius feel more like a mathematical possibility and less like a ski that actually changed direction. “It insists on the fall line,” as the Dude so aptly put it.  Bear in mind, we wouldn’t be underlining this limitation if the GSR didn’t have a sparkling flip side: you feel nothing but the wind into which all caution has been thrown.

You could be hammering over a rutted dirt road at highway speeds and the EDT array of carbon reinforcements on the GSR wouldn’t let you feel a ripple.  This ski looks like a weapon and skis like a rocket.

The way Bill Kline rhapsodized over the Nordica SLR you’d think he’d discovered the Fountain of Youth.  The 63-year old coach for the Wasatch Freestyle program couldn’t believe how easily fall line turns spooled off the edge.  Kline’s experience suggests that the SLR is well adapted for experts who use less hip angulation and therefore want a ski that will respond at a lower edge angle.

Although it was built for race speeds, the SLR earned its highest rating relative to the field for its willingness to ride a continuous edge at slow speed.  This ironic result shouldn’t cloud the conclusion that the SLR is comfortable at speed, where it excels at “friendly, quick turns,” according to Luke Larsen, adding, “Easy to break loose if needed.”

The Cinnamon Girl has changed her dress size since last season – the better to share mold costs with the men’s Fire Arrow 76 CA EVO  – but she didn’t suffer a change of heart.  The Cinnamon 76 still likes to get after it, finding a high edge almost by itself and using a little extra heft to keep planted to the turn.  Natalie from Powderhouse appreciated how the Cinnamon “carves well in a range of turn sizes, with good edge engagement.  Easy to ski but performs well,” she summarizes, getting to the point of this ski’s particular expertise:  It’s an expert’s ski that doesn’t mandate expert skills to manage.

Technical skis worthy of the name don’t come cheap, but the Cinnamon 76 is as affordable as they get.  As is the rule in the Technical genre, the $799 MSRP includes a suitable binding.

“Go fast or else.”

That was the terse advice scrawled, ransom-note style, on the bottom of a Fire Arrow 84 EDT EVO test card. Indeed, it’s impossible to overlook this ski’s insistence on speed. The same technology that allows the 84 EDT to hold an incorruptible edge at speeds approaching that of light make it a tad disinterested in deviating out of the fall line until it’s in its happy place, around 50 mph and aiming at sea level.

We kid you not. There aren’t many skis without “Race” in their name that live in the speed range where the 84 EDT thrives. If you get queasy at 40 (your speed, not your age), you’ll never discover what makes this ski special.  Damper than a moist towelette, one hardly feels the speed, at least underfoot, as the mind strains to process life at downhill speeds.

Needless to say, the timid are better served elsewhere, and no one should mistake this beast for a bump ski. But if you want a machine with no discernable top end in a footprint this wide, this is your kind of ride.

Nordica should be able to build a carving ski to the Fire Arrow 80 Ti EVO’s dimensions in their sleep, so whatever foibles caused it to fall from our Recommended ranks should be corrected by the time you read this sentence. If you were to examine past realskiers’ reviews of Nordica models built along the same lines, you’d expect the 80 Ti EVO to grip like Gorilla™ glue on hard snow, favor the Power skier and prefer not to meander on off-piste.

Sadly for our exercise, too many test cards bore evidence of base preparation that was so off the mark it completely camouflaged the ski’s behavior.  Carving skis with deep sidecuts like the Fire Arrow 80 Ti EVO are particularly vulnerable to indifferent base tuning as they present a lot of surface area to the snow and depend on glide to function in their hard snow habitat.  We’ll endeavor to get better data on FA 80 Ti EVO as soon as the snow flies.

The reason brands create families of skis is so that they can present a product at each of several key price points. In the NRGy series, the NRGy 80 isn’t just the narrowest model, it also occupies the lowest rung on the price ladder, which means a certain amount of stuffing has to come out.  This raises the cost/value ratio as long as one’s ambitions aren’t unrealistic. “It’s a very good intermediate level ski,” as one of the Footloose test army attested.

This is a round-about way of saying the NRGy isn’t just a thinner NRGy 100, it’s also lacking in the sort of NRGy an expert expects.  The rockered tip is better suited to flowing over soft snow than hooking up on a hard surface, and even the titanal lacework in the Torsion Bridge isn’t enough to calm the edge at the higher speeds advanced skiers commonly cruise around at.  As one tester who works just off the Plaza at Snowbird warned, “Speed limit strictly enforced.”

For the second year running, the Belle to Belle has changed an important aspect of its make-up without altering the who, what and where of what it’s all about.  This year the change is in the core, which morphed from the Wi-Core to the Balsa Core CA.   The balsa micro-laminates that constitute the current core do a dab of shock dampening in addition to their weight-saving duties, but not enough to elevate the Belle to Belle to previously unknown performance levels. The Belle to Belle remains best suited to women who are still developing advanced skills, mixing the occasional off-trail adventure with the usual routine of gunning down groomers.

Nordica emphasizes the lighter weight aspect of the NRGy models with a see-through topskin that exposes the filigree of the Titanal Torsion Bridge overlaid above the I-Core and its foam stringer.  Together these technologies suggest a featherweight ski for the dainty skier. In a word, ha!

The NRGy 90 is made for a confident, fall-line charger who isn’t emotionally dependent on making fully formed short-radius turns.  The power on edge it displays on hard snow is a mixed blessing off-trail, where the NRGy 90 tries to subdue 3D terrain rather than conform to it.  None of these provisos should discourage the strong and skilled, as they’ll be able to extract the NRGy 90’s best behaviors, which come to the fore when the gas pedal is on the floor.

Nordica has been gradually whittling away at wood components in its women’s ski cores, first replacing one wood stringer with foam, then another.  This year they’ve dispensed with the wood/foam pastiche and gone all balsa, the superlight hardwood with a honeycomb cellular structure.

The result is a ski that’s a dash lighter, stronger and more versatile than the Wild Belles of yore.  By inclination a carving device, the Wild Belle’s girth gives it the gumption to head off trail.  “They handled everything well,” asserted Kayla from Aspen Ski and Board, “from trees to bumps to steeps, fast, slow or sweeping turns.”   That pretty much covers all the bases but bottomless.

Over the past five years Nordica has cemented their reputation among elite skiers for making first-rate carving machines (America’s best technical skier, Mike Rogan, has been a loyal Nordica-sponsored athlete forever) and established their bona fides among close followers of the ski craft for making superior skis without tossing metal laminates into the mix.  The Wild Belle brings both these strengths into play, an all-terrain playmate that never forgets that a ski’s first duty is to hold an edge as instructed.

A torsionally rigid rocket fueled by a tank of traditional camber underfoot, the NRGy 100 takes some determination to crank up on edge, but once it’s there it could roll over a land mine and not get tossed off line.  Old, set-up snow won’t deflect it and hard snow doesn’t discourage it one bit.  While it has all-mountain chops, it reserves its best performances for powder days.  The NRGy 100 can motor through crud right alongside any other ski in the All-Mountain West genre.

With strong scores in the critical criteria of stability at speed, rebound and off-piste performance, the NRGy 100 comes through when it counts, tearing a new one out of terrain that would intimidate the less well-equipped skier. True to its name, the NRGy 100 produces more energy than it extracts, making it a solid, every day ski for the aggressive skier who wants a ski that matches his attacking style.

“This ski was a total surprise to me,” confessed Matt from Footloose.  “It gets my award for Best 97 Waist that skis like an 80-something waist.   I just wish it wasn’t a twin tip…”

We concur on all points. One of the bigger shocks of our 2016 test is that the Nordica Enforcer didn’t make our self-imposed cut line, but the less highly touted Soul Rider did. Our test crew doesn’t normally cotton to twin tips, and we don’t even report on the Pipe & Park category for which this feature was invented and where it remains ubiquitous.

But a turned-up tail by itself is no disqualification in our estimation.  It doesn’t have to denote a smear stick with too short an attention span to figure out which way is forward, just as the absence of metal laminates doesn’t doom a ski to second-class citizenship.  Nordica has been making some of the finest all-glass skis of the last decade, so it’s not like the Soul Rider’s relatively high marks for Power traits are an anomaly.

Other comments from the Footloose contingent reveal a ski that’s up for anything.  “It would be a great ski in any situation,” penned Jimmy G, “in the park or powder, male or female.”  Michael C summed it up in three little words:  “fun, nimble and stable.”  Sounds delightful.  Now if only it weren’t a twin tip….

Nordica didn’t change a thing about the Nemesis except how they build it.  It’s still a lightweight 98, they just set aside the Wi-Core construction they used last year and substituted the new Balsa Core CA, aiming to make what was already a favorite among our testers even lighter and stronger.

Nordica is known for their expertise at building light constructions that retain the torsional rigidity required to cut into ice and bully broken crud into submission. The Nemesis is also mild-mannered enough to allow lower skill skiers to control it at a low edge angle, making it an excellent candidate for the skier trying a ski this fat for the first time.

Another attribute that makes the Nemesis suitable for the not-quite-expert is its aptitude for shifting from carving turns to smearing them. As one of our intrepid testers applauded, “Great carve for how wide is.  Nice schmear, too.”  The carving capacity comes from its traditional camber line that doesn’t have to be hauled to a high edge angle to engage.  The schmear factor derives from a tail that will let go of the turn and plenty of width to drift on once the whole operation is sideways.

Put it all together and you have a sweet second ski for a broad range of abilities.

We understand why other ski tests awarded top honors to the Enforcer: if the skier is strong enough, it’s a love affair waiting to happen. Our most powerful skiers would also place the Enforcer among the best in show, so we’ve included it among our Recommended models so skiers who fit its profile can find it at America’s finest shops.

Because of their Pipe & Park heritage, twin-tipped skis are expected to be bantamweight smear-sticks with the on-edge accuracy of a spatula.  The Enforcer demonstrates that a designer can add a turned-up tail to any sort of ski, including an All-Mountain model with the bomb-shelter construction of the Enforcer.

A powerhouse that is most adept at crushing crud flat, the Enforcer can show some serious carving chops when compelled.  As the good doctor Gleason from Telluride’s The Boot Doctors declaimed, “Remarkably precise; slight pressure variance results in a spectrum of turn shapes.  The gentle tail shape allows smear and needed forgiveness in demanding places, yet the hold and crispness is at the top of the pack.”

The stronger the skier, and the more he has to ski manky conditions (think pro ski patrol), the greater the Enforcer’s appeal.  It likes speed and expects its pilot to bring some pressure to the party.  Under the command of a powerful skier, it performs in the most challenging conditions as well as any ski in the very competitive All-Mountain West category.

The Santa Ana illustrates an interesting point:  if a wide-waisted ski has a short meter-radius measurement, which dimension dominates behavior?  As your Editor at realskiers has contended for 20 years, the width dictates response as it doesn’t matter what the math says about turn shape if you can’t tip the ski.

Getting back to specifics, the Santa Ana is first and foremost a powder ski.  It shares the shape of the men’s Enforcer, so it has plenty of surface area to keep the fairer sex afloat.  Utterly unlike the Enforcer, however, is what’s inside those dimensions, namely balsa wood with some carbon reinforcement.  So while the Enforcer is for the accomplished only, the Santa Ana accepts all applicants.

Galena Gleason of Telluride’s The Boot Doctors loved its Finesse properties, giving the Santa Ana a rhetorical high-five: “Go Nordica! You have made a ski that anyone can ski.  Great ladies ski – easy breezy.  Intermediates to experts will ♥.”

Nordica slipped the I-Core Torsion Bridge of the NRGy series into the El Capo mold from last season and lo, the NRGy 107 was born. How one feels about surrendering some of the El Capo’s superior strength to create a kinder, gentler Big Mountain ski depends on where one stands on the Power/Finesse divide.  Skiers who lean into their skis as if they owed them money will miss El Capo’s gluttony for digging into high-speed turns, but skiers with just slightly less testosterone will see the NRGy 107 as an improvement.  “Surprisingly nimble, lightweight construction,” enthused Charlie from Peter Glenn.

While the NRGy 107 feels agile rolling into the turn, once on edge it’s heading into a long-radius arc unless you can tilt it to a high enough edge angle to tighten its course.  As is characteristic of the NRGy series, the 107 can’t disguise its penchant for staying close to the fall line where it can indulge its speed fetish.

When the Patron debuted two years ago, it immediately established itself as an exceptional Big Mountain stick.  Now that Nordica has stocked this genre with three models, the Patron remains the most surprising of the lot. No ski 113mm underfoot should feel nimble and lively, but the Patron exudes these qualities. A ski this rockered shouldn’t feel so connected to the snow, but the Patron defies this expectation, as well. And no ski without metal should grip on groomers with this level of accuracy, but there you are.

The Patron’s pleasant habit of contradicting conventional wisdom extends to set-up crud – where metal-less skis are apt to be kicked around – and even bumps, where most skis this size turn like tankers in a bathtub.  We’re not recommending you take the Patron absolutely anywhere, we’re just saying that if the spirit moved you, you could. Of course it prefers its snow fresh and uncut – every fat ski ever made purrs in this medium – but the Patron continues to distinguish itself for its fortitude in conditions where other skis of its ilk flounder.  Considering that powder “days” are more like powder hours, this ecumenical attitude is what makes the Patron such an enduring pleasure.

It seems counter-intuitive, but the best place to test powder skis isn’t in powder. Don’t misunderstand: the most fun place to test anything, from horseshoes to harmonicas, is in powder.  But all you really learn about a ski in deep, uncut snow – that you can’t learn elsewhere – is how much float it delivers, which should be fairly evident from its dimensions.  To really meet skier expectations, a great Big Mountain ski should handle all conditions well, including chop and groomers.

The Helldorado earns its stripes with performance that doesn’t wilt when the freshies are finito.  Few other skis of its size can cut up firm snow with the facility of the Helldo, which seems to forget it’s a powder ski when confronted with any wide-open piste. Crud waves the white flag when it sees the Helldo charging in its direction, but that won’t save it from decimation by the pitiless power of this ski. Timid skiers will be out of their depth on the Helldorado, but the proficient will think it’s heaven-sent.

A case could be made that Nordica has been building the best all-glass (i.e., non-metal) skis on the planet for the past several seasons. Models like the Steadfast, Hell & Back and Patron raked in best-in-show awards in their respective genres since their introduction.  Nordica’s La Nina is cloned from the Patron, purloining every aspect of the unisex model but two center channels of its wood core, which La Nina replaces with foam.

Aside from this modest weight-trimming gesture, La Nina is the Patron in a slightly skewed size run that includes a161cm iteration.  What distinguishes both the Patron and La Nina is the ability to impart a carved turn sensation in powder.  This trait derives from the mildly cambered zone through the ski’s midsection that behaves like a hard-snow ski in a fat boy’s body. Not only is this critical area arched like a traditional ski to make it more responsive, it’s also given a 14m shape so it can reel out short turns on demand.

Women who like to let the horse they’re riding run fast and free can drop the reins on La Nina and let the freshies fly without fear of throwing a shoe.