Völkl has been making superior powder boards since the days of the Snow Ranger and Explosiv. The Confession is the modern version of a venerable wood-and-metal construction with camber underfoot, a retro touch that gives the ski liveliness to go along with its power. As a concession to the Confession’s 117mm waist width, the metal contribution is only one laminate and is confined to a central band rather than running wall to wall.
The Bash 116 is the top model in Völkl’s twin-tip series. This conjures images of swimmy baselines and flopping tips, and there’s some validity to these apprehensions, as the Bash has a fully rockered baseline and a tapered tip. But everything else about this powerhouse is as solid as cement. Once you put it in motion, there’s no sensation of its twin-ness; it behaves 100% like a directional ski. Why anyone would want to throw a freight train like the Bash in reverse is beyond my understanding.
What was old is new again, as Blizzard returns the Bodacious to its original construction, replete with a double dose of Titanal. With the new Rustler 11 available as an option for the less aggro skier, the Bodacious could revert to the badass, big-turn ski envisioned by Arne Backstrom, the big mountain phenom who came up with Flipcore idea. The 2018 Bodacious is once again an absolute beast. I’m reasonably sure that if a 196cm Bodacious hit a brick wall at 40mph, there’d be nothing left of the wall.
To the Rustler 11, combating crud is like a career in service to a noble cause. Horrid snow gives it purpose, a reason to get up every day and do good work. Its tip is intentionally loose, allowing it to contort to whatever heinous condition lies around the next tree. Underfoot, the Titanal reinforcement one can see poking through the top-sheets gets busy, maintaining torsional rigidity through the midsection.
Atomic’s Bent Chetler is a delightfully off-the-wall ski that turns out to behave like the most normal kid in its class. You fear it will roll edge to edge with the reflexes of a locomotive, but it actually responds to tipping and bending with the pliability of a yogi. Created by Chris Bentchetler to facilitate terrain park tricks in the backcountry, the Backland Bent Chetler biggest trick maybe the way its midsection stays anchored to the snow whether it’s hard or soft.