The previous occupant of this critical slot in Rossignol’s lineup, the Soul 7, was probably the biggest seller ever in the short history of the Big Mountain genre. A mostly glass ski that was light, springy and sinfully simple to ski in the soft conditions it was meant for, the Soul 7 HD left behind big tracks to fill.
The Blackops Sender Ti would make perfect figure-8’s with a Soul 7 as they share a similar sidecut and surface area, but in almost every other respect the two skis are unalike. Like rebellious progeny everywhere, the Sender Ti wouldn’t want to be caught dead acting like Dad. But the Sender Ti isn’t just different from the Soul 7; it’s better. By any criteria except perhaps liveliness and drift, the Sender Ti is superior to its multi-laureled predecessor.
The biggest differences between the two generations of Rossi’s are in baseline and construction, with the Sender Ti possessing a more continuous snow connection and a damper ride able to suck up the vibrations that come with higher speeds. The Sender Ti doesn’t just toss Titanal at the problem; it adds supplementary damping systems on both the horizontal and vertical planes. An elastomer layer Rossi calls Damp Tech smoothes out the ride in the forebody while twin ABS struts running the length of the ski resist every effort to knock it off line. A weave of carbon alloy incases its poplar core, just for good measure.
The interplay of all these damping agents is what allows the Sender Ti to feel so secure in every phase of the turn despite having a modestly rockered tip and tail. It’s as ready to drift as it is to carve, an indispensable trait in an all-terrain ski. It’s nearly flat, square tail won’t wash out when attacking the fall line on hard pack and all its shock-absorbing tech keeps crud from kicking it around off-trail. Overall, it’s a more powerful ski than the Soul 7 HD without being any more challenging to ski.
In most Big Mountain skis with Titanal laminates in their lay-up, the torsional rigidity of the metal sheets draws attention to the ski’s broad beam. Somehow, the 106mm-waisted Blackops Sender Ti manages to feel as quick and maneuverable as a model 10mm narrower.
The one demerit on the Sender Ti’s transcript is for failure to execute short-radius turns, a common complaint about all Big Mountain models due to their girth and usually shallow sidecut. It’s not really an issue, because no one tries to carve a slalom turn on a powder ski when it’s so easy to swivel it. In the blink of an eye, a long carve can be converted to a tight drift-and-twist as the need arises, as it does when a line through the trees runs out or an already snug couloir chokes down.
Brilliantly balanced between Power and Finesse behaviors, the Blackops Sender Ti belongs in the first rank of Big Mountain skis. Its Power properties are what every expert skier wants in an off-trail that will occasionally be pressed into duty on groomers. While it shares few of its forebear’s behavioral traits, the Soul 7 HD and the Sender Ti do have one thing in common: they both may wear the mantle of Ski of the Year.
