It wasn’t so very long ago that the Rossignol Soul 7 HD W all but owned this category. All performance aspects considered, the Blackops Rallybird Ti that succeeded it in the line last year is a very different ski, and a better one.
Rossi packed a lot of technology into the Blackops Rallybird Ti, which is the main reason it holds so well on hardpack, a condition it wasn’t really made for. The biggest differences between the two generations of Rossi’s are in baseline and construction, with the Rallybird Ti possessing a more continuous snow connection and a damper ride able to suck up the vibrations that come with higher speeds.
The best All-Mountain West skis have the capacity to grip hard snow and pounce off the soft stuff, all on the same run. The Rossignol Blackops W Blazer gets its gripping power from a Titanal beam underfoot, which helps the entire ski stay in contact with a firm surface. The poppy spring off the bottom of a powder turn comes from a high camber line and reactive Diago fibers that run in a crosshatch pattern from tip to tail.
Making powder skiing easier by deploying a high, spring-loaded arch underfoot has been a Rossignol trademark since it introduced the first 7 series. Fans of the insanely successful Soul 7 will rediscover in the Blackops W Blazer the same load-and-release effortlessness that makes deep powder skiing feel as natural as walking.
You can tell a lot about a ski by its immediate family. Rossi’s Hero Elite Plus Ti is closely related to the Hero Elite LT Ti and ST Ti, both legit non-FIS Race models, even though the Plus Ti’s plus-sized shape (78mm) is many mm’s more ample than the 71mm waist of the LT Ti and 68mm midriff on the SL Ti. The Hero Elite Plus Ti not only uses the same construction as its gate-bashing sibs, its sidecut radius is the same as the ST’s in the167cm size preferred by slalom specialists.
Three years ago, Rossi converted all of the Hero Elite clan to a new damping system, Line Control Technology (LCT). Instead of using horizontal sheets of Titanal, as has been the case for decades among race models, LCT uses a vertical Ti laminate down the center of the ski so the forebody is more resistant to deflection. Torsional rigidity is softened a tad to allow the deep sidecut to engage gradually and progressively as the ski is tipped and pressured.
Advanced skiers who wouldn’t ordinarily care to expend the energy required to control a true race ski shouldn’t allow the Hero Elite Plus Ti’s pedigree to scare them away. It’s amenable to making any turn shape and is well-behaved whether puttering along at an intermediate’s cross-hill crawl or assisting an expert’s all-out assault on the fall line.
The previous occupant of this critical slot in Rossignol’s lineup, the Soul 7, was probably the biggest seller ever in the short history of the Big Mountain genre. A mostly glass ski that was light, springy and sinfully simple to ski in the soft conditions it was meant for, the Soul 7 HD left behind big tracks to fill.
The Blackops Sender Ti would make perfect figure-8’s with a Soul 7 as they share a similar sidecut and surface area, but in almost every other respect the two skis are unalike. But the Sender Ti isn’t just different from the Soul 7; it’s better. By any criteria except perhaps liveliness and drift, the Sender Ti is superior to its multi-laureled predecessor.
The biggest differences between the two generations of Rossi’s are in baseline and construction, with the Sender Ti possessing a more continuous snow connection and a damper ride able to suck up the vibrations that come with higher speeds. The Sender Ti doesn’t just toss Titanal at the problem; it adds supplementary damping systems on both the horizontal and vertical planes. An elastomer layer Rossi calls Damp Tech smoothes out the ride in the forebody while twin ABS struts running the length of the ski resist every effort to knock it off line. A weave of carbon alloy incases its poplar core, just for good measure.
The HolyShred brings two distinctive elements to the party that its 7 Series predecessor, the Sky 7, lacked: Titanal in its lay-up and a full-on twin-tip baseline. Almost every ski in the All-Mountain West genre has a measure of tail rocker, but no other major brand produces an unabashed, directional twin-tip intended for all-mountain skiing. The addition of Titanal gives the HolyShred the stability on edge that most Pipe & Park twintips lack.
Here’s another twist to the HolyShred story: its unusually high camber line gives it spring-loaded rebound that propels the skier off the bottom of bottomless snow. While its dual-shovel baseline suggests it might smear easier than mayonnaise, when in powder, its 45-degree braid of synthetic fiber loads up as it finds the belly of the turn; as it recoils, the rising HolyShred helps the skier unweight as he (or she) crosses the fall line, as Old School a move as camber itself.
When compelled to ski groomers, its Titanal Beam construction kicks into gear, with its neo-classic sidecut keeping it close to the fall line. Once in motion, the pilot has no inkling he’s riding a twin-tip; the tail feels solid and supportive, part of an overall balanced flex pattern. Its liveliness contributes to a sense of ease and playfulness, in contrast to the hard-charging beasts on the Power side of our ledger.
