There are no women’s race skis made for consumers, only unisex skis in shorter lengths. Thus has it ever been so. If you calculated all the varieties of race models already being built at great expense by the brands committed to the category, you’d understand why creating another whole layer of duplication isn’t in the cards. Plus women who belong on these skis don’t require pandering, as anyone who has ever seen Michaela or Lindsay ski in person can attest.
Since technical skis are usually direct spin-offs from a race design, little wonder there are so few carving skis being built specifically for women. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the few sticks being made for this elite female are all excellent.
The 2018 Women’s Technical Field
What a difference a year makes. Last year, the women’s Technical category seemed like an industry-wide afterthought. This year four new women-specific skis have invaded the Technical turf, injecting life in this nearly dormant genre. All have a lightweight story to tell, which is de rigeur in the ladies’ department, yet all use Titanal in their construction, which is relatively rare in other women’s categories.
The newcomers for which we have data are the Atomic Cloud 12 and Kästle LX73. Regrettably, we didn’t get a scintilla of feedback on the new Sentra SL TI EVO from Nordica or Fischer’s My Curv. With its two sheets of Titanal around an ultralight balsa core, the latest Sentra is bound to be one of the best grippers and rippers in the category, and what Fischer doesn’t know about carving could fit in a thimble.
The review for the returning K2 Luv Machine 74 Ti is reprised from last year. The slight change to the scores for the Rossi Famous 10 is due to the addition of a bit of data gleaned from this season’s testing. Recommended models are listed in order of their Power rating.