M5 Mantra
Let the word go out across the land: the Mantra is back! The new M5 Mantra actually isn’t a replica of an older, cambered version revered by so many of the Volkl faithful; it has an identity all its own. The M5’s unique construction restores the cambered baseline and tighter waistline of earlier Mantras, but how its various components are assembled that set the fifth generation Mantra apart from its antecedents. Among all the things the new Mantra does better than the model it replaces – tighter turn entry, better edge grip on hard snow, a higher speed range – perhaps the most exciting is rebound, an end-of-turn kick in the pants that launches the skier out of the old turn and across the fall line. It’s a quality a lot of modern all-mountain skis are lacking and one the M5 Mantra glorifies.
90 Eight
When Völkl added 3.D Glass to the 90 Eight (and several other models) last season, it was a game changer. What had been a fairly docile off-trail specialist turned into a peppy all-terrain model that could handle its business on hardpack. The reason 3D.Glass made such a resounding impact lies in the way this bottom layer of fiberglass runs up and over the sidewall in the ski’s midsection, creating in essence the bottom half of a torsion box that marries up with the 3D.Ridge glass on top. By converting a laminate construction to a de facto torsion box, the 90 Eight became a firecracker off the edge, with better grip in all conditions.
Black Pearl 98
The tale of the Black Pearl 98 is instructive on several levels. On the construction front, this Pearl has been through several phases, including periods when it was a direct copy of a men’s model. It still uses the same tool as the unisex Bonafide – perhaps the greatest all-terrain ski ever – but Blizzard switched to a Women’s Specific Design (WSD) a couple of seasons ago. What’s notable is that the model that most closely matched the Bonafide was a flop, but the WSD Pearl 98 is so well-balanced women want to take it everywhere. The current Black Pearl 98’s became a couple of steps quicker last year when it adopted a tighter sidecut with an earlier contact point. Along with the weight savings from WSD, its new, deeper sidecut makes the Black Pearl 98 feel narrower and consequently quicker edge-to-edge.
Bonafide
The Blizzard Bonafide absolutely, positively doesn’t care about the prevailing snow conditions. It can transition from brittle corduroy to 18 inches of fresh without a hitch in its stride. It’s this chameleonesque character that makes the Bonafide a perennial contender for the title of best all-condition ski, end of story. The Bonafide is able to bully beat-up snow because in many respects it’s built like an Old School GS race ski, which was the powder tool of choice in the era just prior to the proliferation of fat skis. Last year the Bonafide was given a wee bit more shape, making its carving performance even crisper without detracting one iota from its drift-ability in gnarly old snow. Extraordinary performance is the product of insightful design and the quality of its execution; the Bonafide attests to Blizzard’s scrupulous attention to both.