When Nordica was first trying to find its feet as a ski company, it found a toehold among the firmament of A-list brands in the Frontside genre. A case could be made that, for a few years running, Nordica was making the best carving skis in the world.
Among the major brands, Head probably holds that distinction now, but Nordica’s new GT series serves notice that it would like to reclaim its crown. The new construction of the GT series is a major departure from Nordica’s more recent Frontside family, yet it’s already familiar to Nordica fans. Essentially, it doubles down on the Titanal Torsion Bridge used in the All-Mountain NRGY collection, adding a sheet of the cut-out titanium to the base and replacing the foam core channel with poplar and beech.
A case could be made that Nordica has been building the best all-glass (i.e., non-metal) skis on the planet for the past several seasons. Models like the Steadfast, Hell & Back and Patron raked in best-in-show awards in their respective genres since their introduction. Nordica’s La Nina is cloned from the Patron, purloining every aspect of the unisex model but two center channels of its wood core, which La Nina replaces with foam.
When Nordica opted to add an 85mm ski to its NRGY line of All-Mountain skis, they could have elected to downgrade the product to meet a lower price point. Blessedly for the skiing public, it elected to eschew this option, instead lowering the price without diluting the product. The NRGY 85 uses the same I-Core Torsion Bridge as its big brothers, the NRGY 90 and 100. But while the big boys are fairly rigid beams that take energy to deflect, the NRGY 85 is terrific at short turns, bowing readily into a slalom-radius arc tighter than you’d expect a 19.5m ski to engender.
