The most prominent impression left by the Venturi 95 is of smoothness that remains unruffled no matter where it’s led. It holds an edge even when there’s no surface to edge into. When all semblance of softness has been pounded away, the Venturi 95 doesn’t bat an eye but continues to spool off medium-radius arcs as easily as a Vegas dealer spins out cards.
The Venturi 95 pulls off this neat trick by using a proprietary design that adheres a matrix of shock-sucking elastomer covered in a fiberglass shell to both the tip and tail. This feature is to shock what black holes are to light.
Often “wider” translates as “less maneuverable,” but Atomic’s Vantage 95 C W confounds the conventional in more ways than one. The widest of the women’s Vantage series, the 95 C W manages to mask its width by being more effervescent, coming off the bottom of a powder turn as light as a Champagne bubble rising upwards to the surface of a flute.
Concealed behind Line’s devil-may-care attitude is a serious ski maker who manufacturers more traditional, cambered, directional models than they do center-mounted twin tips. Its Supernatural and Sick Day series are actually old-fashioned in their wood and fiberglass constructions, with just a touch of tip and tail rocker to qualify as off-trail tools.
The simplicity of the Supernatural 100’s construction contributes to its playful attitude and easy-steering properties. As a cambered, glass ski, the Supernatural 100 pops out of the turn even in powder, giving it a lively but controlled rebound that carries the skier into the next turn. (Note its highest technical score is for Rebound/turn finish, an unusual result that highlights this ski’s special property.)
The Stormrider 95 holds so well, in fact, the pilot may not feel incentivized to slow down. On test card after test card, still-awed evaluators noted, often in all caps, “NO SPEED LIMIT.”
They might have added, “No terrain limits, either.” Like most Stöcklis, this Stormrider doesn’t lack for confidence. It knows it’s better than whatever sort of frozen water you plan to plunge into, and it has a tendency to transfer this preternatural calm to its pilot. If the true measure of a ski is how well it performs in god-awful conditions it wasn’t meant to endure, the Stormrider 95 is an all-star.
If you’re fortunate enough to catch first tracks, it almost doesn’t matter which All-Mountain West model you’re on. They all offer approximately the same flotation, and fresh snow is so consistent that skis sustain relatively little shock.
It’s on runs 2 through 20 that you’ll be particularly pleased you’re on an Aura. Cut-up snow is utter bliss if you ski it right and pure hell if you don’t. Whether you spend the day upright and smiling or upside down looking for your goggles depends a great deal on the tool you use.
