No Frontside ski can make the cut as a Power Pick if it can’t cope with speed. This isn’t an issue for the Hero +, which can trace its tech roots back to the Rossi Race Department. That’s where Line Control Technology (LCT) was born, a vertical strip of Titanal (named Power Rail) buffered in an elastic laminate. LCT has big shoes to fill. It’s playing the role usually reserved for twin laminates of Titanal, but with far less mass. A little lighter weight (the Hero + has an all-poplar core) and Prop Tech, which allows the ski to deflect slightly torsionally to preserve edge contact, help this quintessential carver feel quick edge to edge. It’s a gas to make short turns that are as tightly connected as pearls on a choker.
Rossignol completely overhauled its cornerstone Experience series for 2019, in the process slightly shifting the series’ emphasis from on-trail to off-piste. The new Experience series has a more unified construction story across the top three models, so the Experience 88 Ti now uses the same construction as the top of the line E 94 Ti. The most obvious – and influential – changes to the new generation E 88 are in the tip design and the introduction of Line Control Technology (LCT) to improve ski/snow contact. These new features contribute to a ride that adapts well to changing terrain and is tolerant of all turn shapes, from the slow, short turns favored by more conservative skiers to the hair-on-fire, fall-line charges of the unleashed expert.
We usually judge a race ski for its Power properties and let the Finesse chips fall where they may, but the new Rossignol Hero Elite ST Ti stands out for its easy-going temperament in a field of more finicky rides. For example, both the Hero ST Ti and Atomic S9 can be described as “quick” and “agile,” but they go about their business in different ways. The S9 practically detonates at the end of the turn, while the Hero is more mellow, even allowing a little drift between turns. The Hero ST operates comfortably from a centered stance, slinging short turns side to side with the reliability of a metronome.
The 2019 Rossignol Hero Elite LT Ti is a new ski in several significant ways, but it remains the same model in spirit. The new elements begin with a deeper sidecut and a wider chassis overall, making the ski less true race-like and easier to tip into a tidy turn. The new model’s tighter sidecut radius feels all the quicker due to a lighter poplar core and most importantly, Line Control Technology (LCT), that uses far less Titanal than the usual two sheets to maintain snow contact. LCT consists of a central, vertical Ti laminate in a viscoelastic shell that runs end-to-end, resisting the ski’s natural tendency to counterflex.
A woman’s first turns on a Big Mountain model can feel like steering a tanker. Some have a way of swimming around when flat, others seem to wander all the time. Then there are skis like the Rossi Soul 7 HD W that provide all the benefits of extra buoyancy without feeling fat or sluggish. The reason the Rossi feels narrower than it measures is the energy housed in the glass and carbon that arches over the camber pocket underfoot. From a loaded position at the bottom of the turn, the Soul 7 HD W rebounds up and out of whatever off-piste porridge you’re in, ferrying the skier across the fall line and into another energized arc.
