A worthy contender for the title of most powerful ski in the Powder posse, the Enforcer Pro shares with the Bodacious an almost biological need for speed. As the “Pro” in its name implies, this Enforcer all business. It can be smeared, of course, but if you want to smudge every arc, the Enforcer Pro is probably not for you. It’s idea of a Sunday stroll is to rip through a couloir, launch a clean air and land arcing. It’s not a “learn-to” ski and should be kept out of the hands of all children, inner children excepted.
The Super 7 HD’s behavior is perfectly in synch with how most advanced to expert skiers prefer to ski fresh snow: set a rhythm from the first turn-and-rise cycle and keep that beat going with the regularity of a pulse. The Super 7 HD is essentially a giant spring with soft ends. The tapered and rockered tip and tail act as buffers to ease turn entry and exit, setting the stage for the powerful midsection to generate the energy that propels the ski up and over the turn transition.
If you attack the fall line like it insulted your mother and spend so much time on your QST’s looking for pow that you inevitably have to send them down groomers, the new QST 118 is your kind of stick. Last season the 118 led the list of Finesse skis in this genre. This year, the infusion of torsional stiffness and shock dampening puts the 2019 QST 118 squarely among the Powder Powers.
If you live at the base of a big western mountain and still possess the strength and stamina of youth, you might want to make the Völkl Confession a daily ritual. Lord knows it has the strength to lay down rails on hardpack, thanks to a top sheet of Titanal that doesn’t run the full length of the ski because it doesn’t have to. The Confession dominates just fine as is, aided by a camber pocket underfoot that instills life into this powder-devouring glutton.
The deeper the freshies or the heavier the slop, the brighter the Rustler 11 shines. Feeding it crud is like giving it oxygen. The tip that’s busy looking for something to do on groomers is in its element, rolling up and over wind berms and generally conforming to whatever it meets. The solidity underfoot breeds confidence and the tail is supportive when it needs to be. “A big mountain charger,” assesses Lucas from Footloose. “Surprisingly playful for its size, it’s a confidence booster.”
