The Cyclic 115’s ample tip and tail rocker not only disengage the extremities for easier swiveling, their soft flex lets the ski bow in soft snow, compressing the cambered center section and energizing the turn exit. The Cyclic 115 knows how to set a rhythm even white guys can dance to, using its coiled rebound energy to guide the skier into the next move. Whether slashing through freshies or crushing crud, the Cyclic 115 slithers through the snow with the confidence and grace of a professional hoofer.
If the Confession feels guilty, it might be because it knows where all the bodies are buried. With two sheets of Titanal in its guts it doesn’t so much float as burrow, blasting its way through wind crust, spring porridge or ragged crud. After a run on the Confession, you’re looking for other worlds to conquer. It’s like have an army of earthmovers on each foot, rolling over once powdery pastures and turning them into pavement.
If you are an aficionado of twin-tip design, then the Blizzard Gunsmoke is your kind of ski. Characteristic of the genre, the Gunsmoke maintains a loose connection to the snow whether it’s soft or hard. Compared to the down-the-fall-line orientation of the Bodacious, the Gunsmoke is a swivel stick.
But compared to many other twin tips, the Gunsmoke is a paradigm of stability. It pushes piles of set-up crud aside like a super villain parting a crowd of civilians. Skis 114mm wide at the waist aren’t particularly easy to hoist up to a high edge, but if you have the skills to get the Gunsmoke there, it holds.
If memory serves, Seth Morrison was the first freeride athlete to have a signature model. He’s been flying the K2 flag for over two decades, often upside down into a crevice of powder surrounded by a rock garden. After a jaw-dropping aerial entry, Seth doesn’t clear out the bottom of couloirs with a sideways smudge but skis a clean line using classic technique.
Just as Morrison is a remarkable hybrid of Old School skills and New School bravura, his ski, the Pinnacle 118, is responsive to conventional, directional ski technique despite an amply rockered baseline. There’s no need to adapt your style to fit the ski or the situation; just aim at the deepest pile of snow you can find and go get it.
The elusive elixir Rossi’s quest hopes to capture is in essence the peppiness of fiberglass, so turns practically finish themselves, married to the calming qualities only metal seems able to provide. Yet marriages of metal and glass often flounder when metal tries to stifle fiberglass’s free spirit. What alchemy will allow metal to maintain its firm hand while giving glass the latitude to frolic down the fall line?
The answer is the Carbon Alloy Matrix Rossi has concocted to boost the Super 7’s power quotient while maintaining its effervescent nature. The stiffer structure can sustain high velocity impacts with calcified crud, yet the Super 7 HD still feels light and maneuverable.
