In its prior life as the Century 102, the Backland FR 102 W offered the best cost/value relationship in the genre; last season, Atomic sweetened the deal. The addition of the Carbon Backbone adds more muscle and pop without any negative side effects. The Backland with a Backbone is still a superior choice for the lighter weight woman, such as a teenager getting her first off-trail ski.
What the Backland FR 102 wants to dine on is a buffet of off-trail conditions. Its double-rockered baseline fits in the twisted troughs of today’s mogul fields. The cambered midsection gives the ski extra energy between turns, inviting the skier to move to its rhythmic beat. The sense of automatic weighting and unweighting is particularly evident in powder, where the Backland FR 102 would just as soon spend 100% of its time, but then, who wouldn’t?
The central concept behind the new Kore series is that fat skis built along traditional lines, like the Monster 108, weigh a ton, thanks to all the extra material they lug around. The trick to pulling off a crash diet is to strip away ounces without paring away all power and personality. The Kore 105’s Graphene, Koroyd and Karuba construction kicks butt yet weighs as much as an egg carton filled with butterflies.
The morning runs couldn’t have been much more ratty, with traces of blown-in snow filling the hollows of week-old tracks. The Dictator 3.0 let me use my bases to feather my line or switch to crisp edges as the moment warranted. They felt inherently light and agile yet whenever the edge hold was challenged, it passed with flying colors. A run that looked as inviting as the seventh ring of Hell turned into a jolly romp. What appeared perilous the Dictator 3.0 turned into a playground.
The key to the Legend X106’s unique snow feel is a feature Dynastar has dubbed Powerdrive. It consists of a 3-piece sidewall, which in the case of the Legend X series is made from vertical layers of TPU, Paulownia and ABS on the outside. Its principal purposes are to provide a dampening element and to liberate the laminates in the core from their bond with the outer sidewall. Free to shear in response to shocks delivered to the forebody, the ski is better able to stay on the snow. And the Legend X106 does it without using a drop of Titanal.