When it was introduced in 2020 as the Enforcer 104 Free, there already was an Enforcer 100 and an Enforcer 110, to go along with a 115, and a 93 and an 88. At the time, it seemed like a classic case of over-reach: why try to fit a 104 into an already over-served market for fat skis?
The original Enforcer 104 Free proved it belonged from the very first turn. It was easier to mix up turn shape and change direction in deep snow than on the Enforcer 110, while floating close enough to the surface to deliver the ease one seeks on a fat ski. In the duel between the two models for the off-trail skier’s affections, it was the 104’s greater maneuverability and terrain versatility that won out over the 110’s greater surface area. The agile 104 shape is still in the line; the more lugubrious 110 is not.
Now that it’s the chubbiest kid in the family, the Enforcer 104 is transparently Nordica’s best tool for tootling through the chop that is the prevailing condition on powder days. An ever-evolving crud field best describes the condition we encountered on the gently flowing slopes of the Shirley Lake area at Palisades Tahoe when we sallied forth with a quartet of Enforcers. Here’s the lightly edited testimony of Jim Schaffner after he had sampled the test batch.
“The Enforcer 104 was the perfect choice for the conditions today. I love how this ski drifts. It allows for amazing versatility in all terrain, all conditions, all turn shapes. Overall, the entire Enforcer group is the most cohesive group of skis that I have tested this spring. The versatility, perfect balance and ski-ability in all terrain make the 104 the best pick for someone that likes to travel off the beaten path, always looking for some chopped up or rougher snow conditions to plunder.”
One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Enforcer 104 is it can handle buffeting whether traveling straight downhill or completing every turn. Normally, precision in the fall line comes at some cost of drift-ability, but you can etch the top of a turn on the 104 and smear the bottom of the same arc, and the Enforcer 104 makes it all feel as natural as breathing.
I’m leery of recommending a Powder ski for all-terrain skiing, for if it’s equally adept at all conditions, why not ski it every day? A ski so polyvalent would not only render any notion of ski categories an absurd pretension, it would erode the very foundations of logic itself. Well, the new Blizzard Rustler 11 comes pretty damn close to pulling down the twin pillars of logic and methodology, for it seems to transition from soft snow to firm without batting an eye.
If there’s a trick to this sleight of hand, it lies in the Rustler 11’s construction, beginning with its dimensions, which straddle the border between the Big Mountain and Powder genres, depending on which length one chooses from the five available sizes. The Freeride Trueblend core ups the amount of Paulownia in its 3-wood matrix to keep the overall weight, and in particular mass beyond the binding area, from ballooning as the ski’s dimensions expand. To keep the Rustler 11 from feeling ponderous, Blizzard trims the percentage of Titanal used in its make-up compared to its skinnier siblings, the Rustler 10 and 9.
Aside from the Trueblend core, the biggest difference between this generation of Rustlers and the one that preceded it is how the FluxForm design distributes its allocation of Titanal. A nearly full-length strip of metal rides over each edge, but stops short of wrapping around the tip or tail. In the middle of the ski, a separate, disconnected swath of Ti fills the space between the outer bands, to lend additional strength and rigidity to the midsection. Fluxform creates a ski that feels secure on edge anywhere it travels, with just enough tolerance for twist at the tip and tail to allow the ski to flow over choppy terrain rather than fight it.
So, who needs a Rustler 11 more, a powder novice or an expert? Trick question: of course, the lower skill skier would be more grateful, but the expert will get more out of it. For the lower skill skier looking for a crutch that will disguise his lack of ability, its relatively soft, balanced flex and overall stability will make deep snow feel more consistent. For the expert, it’s game-on: no further coaching is required, just stand on it and go.
When the Blaze 106 debuted prior to the 20/21 season, it made no pretense about belonging to the same class of ski as the M5 Mantra or Kendo 88, Völkl’s established A-team. It aimed at an open opportunity to hit a lower price point ($599) and thereby poach one or two more slots of rack space from the competition. In order to control costs on this less expensive model, a central channel of the wood core was swapped out for… foam! (Pause for audible gasp from the Völkl faithful). A compensating benefit for the substitution of wood was that the ISO-core material was substantially lighter weight, so if anyone wanted to use the Blaze 106 for touring, the weight loss would be a bonus instead of a demerit.
Then along came a mild market disruption called Covid, and suddenly a ski that could do double duty in-resort or ex-resort was a hot commodity. Once the Blaze 106 established a beachhead, Völkl capitalized on its popularity by creating a full family of Blazes, a clan that now extends from an 82 to a 114. Every model family has an incarnation that maximizes the benefits of the design; among the Blazes, the 104 (née 106) owns that distinction. The narrower versions lack the power and punch of their all-mountain peers, while the widest surrender some versatility that the 104 retains.
It may seem silly to profess that merely slimming down a 106 to a 104 makes a difference in how a ski handles, but balancing the shape of the overall sidecut provides a better balance between how the ski handles manky crud and the inevitable hardpack. Of course, it’s hard to separate how much difference the skinnier silhouette makes compared to the contribution of an edge-to-edge Ti plate underfoot and further tweaking of the footprint to create a 4D Radius sidecut.
Taken as an ensemble, the improvements made to the Blaze 104 make it a substantially better ski than its predecessor, no matter who is using it or where it’s going, whether on the trail map or off it. Its light weight and peppy rebound will remind Old Schoolers of how all-glass skis used to feel, and skiers of all ages will like its ease of operation and confidence-building stability.
The Atomic Bent Chetler 120 has been a headliner in the Powder genre for over 15 years, and like any ski with that long a life span, it has evolved in order to survive. But it hasn’t changed its essential character, which is an uncanny naturalness for a ski this massive. Its shape alone would give it the same flotation as an aircraft carrier, yet it doesn’t feel ponderous; quite the contrary, in fact. Certainly, part of the reason the Bent Chetler 120 maneuvers as adroitly as a much narrower ski is the way the tip and tail are rockered on both axes, so the ski is predisposed to drift just where it might otherwise over-react or hang up.
Driving the modifications to the 2025 version of the BC 120 is Atomic’s rekindled commitment to lowering the environmental impact of ski production. The core has been re-engineered with more wood (poplar), less metal (Titanal), and less fiberglass and its noxious companion, resin. Even the decoration on the topsheet – a Chris Bentchetler original design, of course – uses recycled materials. Taken together, the changes result in a 13% reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions compared to the Bent Chetler 120 of two seasons ago. The changes to the BC 120 are part of a larger effort on Atomic’s part to encourage collaboration across all brands to improve the industry’s performance in reducing its environmental impact.
All these modifications to the BC 120’s make-up don’t compromise the ski’s flotation or drift-ability, as its sidecut dimensions, HRZN 3D curvature on the tip and tail, size splits and weight didn’t change, but the core re-design compromised some of the skis’ hard-snow attributes. It needs some loose snow under it to push against to stabilize its trajectory. This is hardly a crime, as the Chetler 120 was always intended as a pure Powder ski (waists > 113mm), and none of the core changes have diminished that essential aptitude. It remains one of the elite in a genre that is gradually shrinking as brands thin the ranks of their fattest skis.
There are three balancing acts that a Big Mountain ski needs to pull off in order to rise to the top of the ranks. One, it has to make the transition from firm snow to soft and back again feel so smooth it’s barely perceptible. Two, it has to execute short turns and long turns without an obvious bias for one or the other. And three, the ski itself needs to feel balanced, with a round, even flex that allows the skier to always feel on center. I’m sharing this nugget of wisdom here because if the essence of the new Rustler 10 could be distilled to a single word, it would be “balanced.”
The erstwhile owner of Start Haus in Truckee, California, a longtime Realskiers Test Center, Jim Schaffner is also a world-class bootfitter and race coach. His thumbnail portrait of the Rustler 10: “Balanced and very comfortable to ski in all conditions. It felt seamless to move from firmer to softer to broken pow. Predictable and smooth, with surprising power and rebound when you stomp on it. If I owned this ski, I would ski it on most days in Tahoe.”
Bear in mind, Schaffner is both big and strong, so the idea of a Big Mountain ski as an everyday driver makes perfect sense in his case. The more skilled the skier, the more he or she can appreciate the full performance range of this ski. Skiers with a less polished skill set can adopt the Rustler 10 as their designated powder/crud ski, but for everyday skiing, the Rustler 9 is a better tool for the skier who is less talented or less aggressive.
There’s a reason the latest Rustler 10 is noticeably better than its forebear; two reasons, actually. Its core was given the Trueblend treatment, blending lightweight poplar laminates with sturdy beech underfoot, and adding Paulownia at the tip and tail to reduce overall heft and swingweight. Trueblend alone probably would have made the Rustler 10 a better ski by itself, but swapping a single, truncated sheet of Titanal in the old Rustler 10 for the new FluxForm chassis made the Rustler 10 makeover pack a bigger punch.
