There are moments in life when you recognize an instant rapport, be it after a few minutes of dinner party banter or when you sink into the first few arcs of an inaugural run and your skis respond as if your connection were telepathic.
This is how the new Nordica GT 84 Ti EVO introduces itself, as accommodating as the most obsequious servant, unassumingly tearing the mountain to ribbons while ferrying its master, unperturbed, to the end of the gravity stream. Before this season, no one could have ever skied the GT 84 Ti EVO as none existed, yet taking it for a spin feels like coming home.
When Nordica was first trying to find its feet as a ski company, it found a toehold among the firmament of A-list brands in the Frontside genre. A case could be made that, for a few years running, Nordica was making the best carving skis in the world.
Among the major brands, Head probably holds that distinction now, but Nordica’s new GT series serves notice that it would like to reclaim its crown. The new construction of the GT series is a major departure from Nordica’s more recent Frontside family, yet it’s already familiar to Nordica fans. Essentially, it doubles down on the Titanal Torsion Bridge used in the All-Mountain NRGY collection, adding a sheet of the cut-out titanium to the base and replacing the foam core channel with poplar and beech.
If we were to categorize skis according to their attitude as opposed to their actual dimensions, the Blizzard Latigo wouldn’t even be in the Frontside family. The grandchild of the burly Cochise, the Latigo’s lineage is all about adapting to off-road conditions. That it still connects so well on groomers is testament to the clever inversion of conventional wisdom embodied in Blizzard’s Flip Core.
How to describe perfection? Is it a list of all the ingredients the perfect thing contains? Is it the meticulous construction that assembles all the pieces into a fluid whole? Is it the action the product makes possible, the interconnection between man, snow and gravity?
It’s all of these elements, of course, but to Matt Finnegan of Footloose, perfection entails the alchemy to make their amalgam evaporate, leaving only sensation behind. “This ski just disappears underneath the skier,” he marvels, capturing the sense of unfettered freedom the Laser AX inspires. Nothing is impossible on an invisible ski.
K2 has made a tidy living by making performance skis that don’t flaunt their talents but tenderly embrace the less talented and encourage them to be better. People who are already struggling don’t care to be berated for their shortcomings by a ski that behaves like a bully; they’d rather find a friend who can coach them into competent players.
The K2 iKonic 80 Ti is such a companion, wise in the ways of the carving world and eminently approachable. If it feels lighter than the norm it’s because it is, K2 having pared away every gram of unneeded bulk and concentrating the remaining mass directly over the edges. Stripped to its essentials, the iKonic 80 Ti delivers better snow feel, the ineffable quality that doesn’t try to mute or homogenize every skiing sensation.
