by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Now that the Fischer Ranger series share a common construction, they also share a similar behavioral profile. Nothing affects a modern ski quite as much as the addition or subtraction of Titanal, so when Rangers were made both with and without Ti laminates, their performance profile would change radically from one model to the next. In 2023, Fischer homogenized the Ranger line by doling out a measure of metal in every model. By dint of its extra width, the Ranger 108 earned a mite more in its midsection, making it the smoothest Ranger in the new family.
The Ranger series has always been aimed squarely at off-trail skiing, where surface area dictates the degree of flotation, which in turn has a direct bearing on how easy a ski is to swivel. News bulletin: skiing deep snow isn’t like skiing hardpack. Not just in the obvious way that snow you sink into and snow you can barely dent require different tactics, but in the subtle ways that deep snow affects stance and turn finish, which can’t be carved and therefore has to be swiveled to come across the fall line.
The point of the previous paragraph is that the wider the off-trail ski, the closer it inherently comes to optimizing its design, at least for the purposes of skiing powder, which is the only reason to own a Big Mountain model in the first place.
Blessed with more flotation and power than its stablemate, the Ranger 102, the Ranger 108 delivers the sort of elite performance experts expect. When allowed to run across a field of syrupy corn snow, it’s a gas to lay over like its waist was 20mm thinner. Of course, connection at the top of the turn is inhibited by the usual steep front rocker and pulled-back contact point found in virtually every Big Mountain ski, but most of the Ranger 108 is in the snow and unperturbed by the jolts delivered by irregular terrain.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Don’t let the model name fool you: Völkl still calls this ski the Mantra 102, but the addition two years ago of Tailored Titanal Frame, Tailored Carbon Tips and a tweaked sidecut has totally transformed its personality. The Mantra 102 circa 2022 was a barely tamed beast, subduing all in its path; the latest incarnation is a pussycat that readily bends to its pilot’s will. It behaves like a different ski.
One measure of a ski’s steering facility is the skier’s perception of width. In its first incarnation, the Mantra 102 was notable for feeling wider than it measured; the 2024/25 version “skis narrower than indicated, making it very easy to turn,” according to veteran tester Theron Lee.
The combined effect of a triad of new features is what made the Mantra 102 suddenly so tractable. Like every Big Mountain ski in Christendom, the Mantra 102 is double rockered, but it imparts the sensation of full, tip-to-tail contact, in part because Tailored Carbon Tips keep the entire rocker zone quiet. Tailored Titanal Frame keeps the mass in the forebody proportional to the ski’s length, facilitating earlier turn entry. The slightly wider tip encourages more pull into the turn, opening up the short-radius spectrum, while the skinny tail helps the skier stay close to the fall line, making crud and powder a hell of a lot easier to plunder.
A big contributor to the Mantra 102’s outstanding performance on any snow surface is its first-in-class rebound coming out of the turn. Part of the magic of the Titanal Frame design is the freedom its three-piece top sheet has to flex and compress a full-length glass layer that reacts to this pressure like a coiled spring. Now that the Titanal Frame is tailored by size, the whole ski is more responsive. The Mantra 102 naturally rises as it uncoils during the turn transition, so it’s unweighted while crossing the fall line.
Regardless of how relatively narrow it feels underfoot, the Mantra 102 is still a wide and torsionally stiff ski, so it’s not ultra-quick edge to edge, but that’s its only performance limitation. In mid- to long-radius turns, it’s as secure as a Swiss bank account.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Every other model in the new Anomaly series expects to become the all-day, everyday ski for whomever is wise enough to acquire it, and justifiably so. The 84, 88 and 94 are differentiated by their terrain biases, but not by skier size or ability. Any reasonably proficient skier would be thrilled by their quietly assertive power and sensitive steering.
But if your plan is to ride the Anomaly 102 every day, it would be very helpful if you were very good and didn’t mind skiing very fast. It also wouldn’t hurt if you were fairly stout lad, say in the 200-pound+ club. The bigger, the better and the faster you are, the more you’ll prefer the 102 over its slimmer siblings.
The widest Anomaly isn’t built any differently than the other Anomalies, there’s just more ski under you in a 102. The main benefit of added girth is higher flotation, so Blizzard’s design team bumped up the 102’s float-ability by skewing the size run long. With a wider silhouette stretched out over an elongated chassis, the Anomaly 102’s natural turn shape is on the long side. Even when coaxed into a tighter-than-normal turn, the 102 doesn’t veer far from the fall line. One reason the 102 is best left to experts is that it all but obliges the pilot to maintain a fall-line orientation, for with speed comes power, and with it the fortitude to blast through day-old chop.
The net effect is the Anomaly 102 delivers a cushioned ride that is more supple and terrain-absorbing rather than terrain-smashing. Its narrower body allows it to initiate turns more easily regardless of the snow conditions. Like the Cochise, it still favors the skilled skier who likes to motor, but it’s easier to drive, like switching from a one-ton pick-up to a luxury sedan.
The Anomaly 102 is a fantastic ski, as fast and as smooth as a bullet train, one that doesn’t make local stops for middle-of-the-pack intermediates. It’s not made to nurse the uninitiated into competence, but as a reward for those who have put in the time learning how to play with gravity on big mountains.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
The first edition of the Santa Ana 110 swapped the Enforcer 110’s poplar/beech core for balsa, but otherwise faithfully replicated its unisex structure, including two full sheets of .4mm Titanal. That’s a lot of ski, too much for most women hoping to make powder skiing easier, not more demanding. Three years ago, Nordica found the solution, Terrain Specific Metal: the wider the ski, the more metal is cut out of its forebody. The widest model in the 2025 Santa Ana series is now the Santa Ana 102, an acknowledgement that the best women skiers don’t need skis the width of a barge to float their petite frames in deep powder.
Opening up the Santa Ana 102’s performance envelope is largely attributable to a new Pulse core that bisects its vertically laminated wood core and inserts an elastomer laminate in the middle. Splitting the core makes it easier for a lightweight skier to bend it, and the shock-sucking center smoothes out the ride from tip to tail. The top Ti laminate of Terrain Specific Metal provides more than enough bite for hard snow, and keeps the ski calm underfoot on choppy traverses and tracked-up run-outs.
All powder skiing entails some foot steering, which is lots easier when there’s less mass to toss around, so the trimmer shape of the new Santa Ana 102 helps make it more maneuverable.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Blizzard’s Sheeva 10 optimizes the best qualities of Blizzard’s latest freeride technology, FluxForm. Fluxform deploys Titanal in a different fashion than was last used in these models’ 2023 iterations. Instead of a single, truncated top sheet of Ti, FluxForm concentrates its Ti laminates directly over the edges, in strips that run nearly tip to tail. In the center of the Sheeva 10, roughly where the Ti plate used to be, is a women’s-specific platform that helps distribute force evenly underfoot without the heft of metal.
This redeployment of Titanal is the major reason the Sheeva 10 feels more stable from end to end, but it isn’t the only reason it feels at once smoother and more powerful. The other major contributor to the Sheeva 10’s stellar handling is the switch to Blizzard’s carefully crafted TrueBlend core. TrueBlend combines slender tendrils of dense beech interspersed with lightweight poplar and Paulownia in a precise pattern that is adjusted for every size. Note that the Sheeva 10 offers six different sizes on 6mm splits, so women can dial in exactly the right length, which is key for maneuverability in off-trail conditions.
While the Sheeva 10 is a powerful ski compared to its predecessor, it’s still simplicity itself to steer. Using Paulownia in the extremities and trimming the Titanal strips down at the ends lowers swingweight, making it easier to swivel, an essential trait in deep snow.
