While the Soul 7 once out-sold every other model, not just in its own series, but in the entire market, the steady heartbeat of Rossi’s collection has been the Experience 88, in a series of iterations that spans a generation of skiers. The latest E88 is in several ways utterly unlike its ancestors yet totally in keeping with their spirit. It’s the first E88 with metal in it, but instead of dual slabs of Titanal there’s but a band down the middle, swathed in viscoelastic goo. The carving-centric sidecut of the past has yielded to the all-terrain necessity of a tapered tip and tail. The E88’s even-tempered attitude remains intact.
Line Control Technology (LCT), the keynote tech of the new Experience series, wasn’t made for the masses but for racing, in order to maintain snow contact under the most adverse conditions. Our team essayed the Non-FIS Race Hero Elite LT Ti and ST Ti, as well as the Frontside Hero Elite Plus Ti. All are remarkably easy to ski, with a subtle roll on and off the edge instead of the abrupt, light-switch edge change of many race skis. The slalom (ST Ti) has a particularly large performance envelope, notable for a ski with such a tidy turn radius (13m @ 167cm).