For a ski that’s rockered at tip and tail, the Black Pearl 78 reaped rave scores for its connection to the top of the turn and its natural facility at short-radius turns. The Black Pearl 78 gets its sneaky quicks from its Flipcore baseline. The secret to Flipcore’s success is that it places no stress on the transition between the slightly elevated tip and tail and the camber zone underfoot. As soon as the ski is tipped, any amount of pressure melds the rockered areas with the middle, creating a continuous edge that doesn’t need any extra oomph to hold, even on groomers. For a ski with a high performance ceiling, the Black Pearl 78 owns the distinction of earning the highest score in the genre for Short-Radius Turns and the second highest for Low-Speed Turning.
Blizzard raised the performance bar on its top Quattro models, injecting a large dose of carbon into its Frontside flagships. C-Spine Technology consists of two bi-directional carbon layers that work in concert with the Quattro 8.4 Ti’s existing Titanal laminates to improve damping and responsiveness. If the benefits of all that carbon were condensed to a single word it would be “smoothness.” The addition of C-Spine hasn’t altered the Quattro 84 Ti’s groomed snow orientation – its score for Off-Piste Performance remains around a full point below the category norm – but it has made it a mellower, more secure ride within its hard snow domain.
The Elan Amphibio 84 XTI is a Power ski conscripted into the ranks of our Finesse Favorites lest its ultra-silky moves be misconstrued as hard to extract. If you can stand up under your own power, you can ski the Amphibio 84 XTI. Any pressure to the inside edge and it’s “Look, Ma, I’m carving!” The Amphibio 84 XTI’s acts like a turn conductor, indicating when to tip, how long to hold the beat and when to snip off the end of each note to make room for the next. The sidecut acts as its metronome, cambered for early contact on the inside edge and subtly rockered on the outside edge. The shape of the top surface reinforces the to-and-fro rhythm, convex in the forebody to accentuate pressure on turn initiation, a concave tail to lubricate release.
The Liberty V82 is a carving ski that thinks it’s an all-mountain model. It doesn’t know it’s supposed to be a specialist, laser-focused on maintaining snow contact as it stitches an endless braid of medium-radius turns. Of course it can do that if that’s what you like, consider the box checked, but if that’s all you ask of it, shame on you. No other ski in the category is as open-minded about turn shape. Not only will the V82 make short-radius turns, it will make them to order. It has the same as-you-like-it attitude towards turns medium and long. Whatever the V82 does, it does with distinction. It matches its pilot’s moves as if it were his shadow.
The new Liberty V76 resists easy classification. It certainly has the shape to qualify as a pure carver, but lacks the my-way-or-the-highway attitude. It’s also missing its own plate and binding system, passing on the opportunity to add damping and standheight. Its baseline, on the other hand, is pure Frontside, almost fully cambered and made to stay connected with snow. Its average score of 8.63 for the principal Power properties attests to its technical capabilities. The behavior that earned the V76 a succulent 9.0 for Forgiveness/Ease is its large performance envelope and therefore suitability for a considerable slice of the skiing public. It transitions from short, sinuous tracks to medium to long without the slightest indication it prefers one over another.
