RC4 The Curv GT
Fischer doesn’t F-around when it comes to carving skis. The Austrian brand is über focused on winning World Cup races, where its best results in recent years have come in slalom. A SL race ski is essentially a carving ski on steroids, made to the precise specifications mandated by FIS, ski racing’s governing body. If you want to really test your mettle, you can always seek out a Fischer FIS SL, but unless you train over 300 days a year, I wouldn’t advise it. If you belong on a true race ski, most likely it will find you, not the other way around.
The idea behind The Curv GT is to use more or less the same race construction but to jigger its shape to make its immaculate carves more etch-able by the “average” expert. All of the 3 Curv models use a Triple Radius sidecut that begins and ends gradually, connected by a tighter turning section underfoot. As long as the skier maintains a fairly upright stance at a shallow edge angle, The Curv GT behaves like a GS; if he drops his hip until it nearly brushes the snow, the short radius section will dictate a tighter trajectory.
RC One 82 GT
The new RC One 82 GT doesn’t get quite as large a dose of Titanal as its running mate, the All-Mountain East RC One 86 GT, but it’s hardly a delicate flower. A Titanal sheath rolls over the top of its Air Carbon Ti core, and another TI laminate gives it race-caliber grip underfoot. In the shovel and tail, the Ti is replaced with Bafatex®, Fischer’s own shock-absorbing synthetic. The RC One 82 GT uses the same triple-radius (short-long-short) as The Curv, so the softer zones on the ski curl more easily while the middle delivers unshakeable support.
Given its origins and substantial construction, you’d expect the RC One 82 GT to be “a blast at speed as much as mellow cruising,” as Ward Pyles of Peter Glenn discovered. “Super quick edge to edge,” he adds. “Fast, quick, rips everything,” concurs a Jan’s tester, whose boss, Jack Walzer managed to be even more succinct. Walzer’s one-word review: “Money.”
RC One 86 GT
To grok the essence of the new Fischer RC One 86 GT, think of it as a carving ski with wanderlust. As an Austrian brand, Fischer’s collective mind rarely meanders far from the racecourse, so it’s natural that the RC One 86 GT is a carving machine first and an off-trail implement second. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. All a ski this wide really needs to navigate most off-trail conditions is a dash of tip rocker, aka, early rise.
The tip-off that Fischer envisions the RC One 86 GT in Frontside environs is that it’s the head of a mostly Frontside (75mm-84mm underfoot) family. Furthermore, its construction is all about maintaining snow connection, a classic Frontside obsession. The tip and tail are outfitted with Bafatex®, a synthetic compound meant to muffle shock and keep every cm of the 86 GT’s fully cambered baseline plastered on the snow. Not to mention .8mm’s of shaped Titanal to further cow hard snow into silence.
Ranger 99 Ti
Fischer has been tinkering with its off-trail Ranger collection over the span of several seasons, searching for the fine line between lightweight, with its attendant ease of operation, and elite carving capability that can handle the transition to hard snow. For 20/20, the Ranger 99 Ti tilts the scales in favor of stability, amping up the carving power by reverting to square, ABS sidewalls straddling a classic, wood-and-Titanal sandwich. A carbon inlay in the tip lowers swingweight and overall mass, which is substantial enough (+150g vs. 18/19 Ranger 98 Ti) to keep it calm on corduroy, yet feels comparatively light when tearing through crud.
A veteran tester from Joe’s Ski Shop [MN] summarizes his impressions of some of the Ranger 99 Ti’s more subtle changes: “The 19/20 model has a slight construction change from the 18/19 model – a change in the core materials and a bit less tip and tail rocker. Makes the ski a bit better at tip engagement with a bit more all-mountain feel to it over last year’s ski. Overall, I’d say it makes what was a very good ski even better, especially for in-bounds skiing out West where you can go from powder to groomed to crud all in one run.”