Like all race Atomics, the Redster DD XT is made to accelerate. As soon as it’s laid over, it hits the after-burners and rockets into a simulated race run. All you have to do to feel like Marcel Hirscher is hang on.
Once up to cruising speed, anything seems possible, even staccato slalom turns. The sense of unlimited power percolating under the skin of this Redster gives the skier the confidence to push it, secure in the knowledge that the DD XT can’t be flustered. To keep it on an even keel, the DD XT likes to be driven at a high edge angle, virtually obliging the skier to widen his stance and commit to every turn.
The singular trait of the Blizzard RC Ti that sets it apart from other elite Technical skis is the light caress it applies to a short turn. Most powerful carving skis earn their bona fides by being burly trench diggers, ripping up the corduroy carpet with the subtlety of a Sherman tank. Relatively speaking, the RC Ti is a waterbug, creasing the snow surface but not disfiguring it, zipping back and forth with the accuracy of a Chopin étude.
It’s a natural impulse to compare any ski to the model that immediately preceded it in the same family, so the arrival of Rossignol new Famous 10 invites one to contrast it with the Unique 10 that came before.
The two skis are surprisingly quite different. The Famous 10 has considerably deepened its sidecut to accentuate carving action and short-turn facility. The new ski’s construction trades the Unique 10’s Air Core for an all-Paulownia core supporting the same Sandwich Duracap design used in the men’s Pursuit series.
K2 learned from past mistakes not to overload a women’s ski with metal, but a single dose of Titanal gives any ski more bite on hardpack and superior serenity at speed. The Luv Machine has a Titanal laminate to reinforce its Channel Light Core, made from fir, bamboo and Paulownia with milled out sections to further trim away ounces. A fully cambered baseline gives the Luv Machine extra zing, carrying the skier effortlessly through the turn transition. Light as cotton candy with the gripping power of caramel, the Luv Machine 74Ti is one sweet ride.
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.
