Rossignol created the Hero Master for Masters’ racers who, as in their adolescence, have to economize and use one ski for two events. But the Hero Master could live a long life without ever seeing a start house or a finish gate and still pass on to the celestial podium fulfilled. For this sweetheart loves to open up the gas line and burn fuel by the barrel, flying down America’s groomed highways with its sirens on and lights blazing.
Rossi’s Famous 10 doesn’t fiddle around. It has carving on its mind, and doesn’t care who knows it. Set it up to turn and it’s going to deliver; as fast as you can tip it side to side, it’s ready to etch miniature parentheses in the snow. Unlike All-Mountain skis, whose dreams consist of endless prairies of powder, the Famous 10 maintains a laser focus on its métier, applying high edge angles to hard snow and letting its nervous-twitch-quick reflexes whip it in and out of simulated slalom turns.
The top model in Salomon’s Frontside Performance family of X-Max carvers, the X14 Carbon is easier to steer than a GS race ski, but it has the same notions about how to attack a fall line. (We interrupt this review to report that Salomon’s X-Lab 175, a state-of-the-art non-FIS GS race ski, requires the skier to commit to every turn like it was a 30-year mortgage; relatively speaking, the X14 Carbon only requires the involvement of a one-night stand.)
Atomic knows a thing or two about high speed carving and have a few thoroughbreds in their race stable to prove it. The only problem with just adopting an Atomic race ski is acquiring the strength to bend it. Marcel Hirscher and Mikaela Shiffrin work out year round to be fit enough to be in absolute command of their equipment. This level of dedication isn’t normally found among amateurs who never intend to kick out of a starting gate.