It only takes 100 yards to realize the Nordica GT 84 is going to be very easy to like. Great skis are like that; they let you know right away you’re in the presence of a faithful friend and ally. Fast technical skiing is similar to those falling-backward trust exercises done at team-building seminars, only performed over and over in rapid succession. On GT 84’s, you know they’re going to catch you every time. Nordica’s GT 84 Ti imparts this sense of all-encompassing security because it doesn’t take every ounce of the skier’s energy to bend it. Its clever core construction depends on prepreg sheets of carbon instead of glass, a weight eliminator on a par with liposuction. Its twin sheets of Titanal are also run through a weight loss regimen, producing a crisscross diamond pattern in the forebody that softens longitudinal flex while retaining a rigid beam when set on edge.
If you like your turns short, accurate and effortless, the Nordica GT 80 Ti is your kind of ski. The way it amplifies the skier’s efforts makes a less skilled carver feel like a world-beater and great skier feel like he’s doing nothing at all. Its point guard quicks come in handy in bumps, where it can fit through fall line fissures no wider than a keyhole. The GT 80 Ti’s idea of Nirvana is an endless, undulating white carpet where it can double-rail its relatively short carved turns all day long. The faster it goes, the better it skis, but it doesn’t require high speed to shine.
No Frontside ski can make the cut as a Power Pick if it can’t cope with speed. This isn’t an issue for the Hero +, which can trace its tech roots back to the Rossi Race Department. That’s where Line Control Technology (LCT) was born, a vertical strip of Titanal (named Power Rail) buffered in an elastic laminate. LCT has big shoes to fill. It’s playing the role usually reserved for twin laminates of Titanal, but with far less mass. A little lighter weight (the Hero + has an all-poplar core) and Prop Tech, which allows the ski to deflect slightly torsionally to preserve edge contact, help this quintessential carver feel quick edge to edge. It’s a gas to make short turns that are as tightly connected as pearls on a choker.
