Most powder skis are made for those who either don’t ski powder so well or those who ski it so well they need a crazy-wide ski to make their living. The Nordica Enforcer 115 Free leans towards those of elite ability who point their skis downhill a lot more than they turn them sideways. It takes an aggressive attitude to pilot this ski because its long turn radius and extra length (note it only comes in a 191cm) need speed to turn these traits from liabilities to assets. If you like to tiptoe through the trees or make tidy, little turns to control your speed, you are reading the wrong review.

The reason the Enforcer 115 Free skis like a GS race ski in a fat suit is because it’s still a wood and metal ski, with two sheets of .4mm Titanal to give this big board the power of plutonium. Were it to depend on fiberglass for its liveliness, it would weigh as much as the Queen Mary; the switch from glass to carbon is what enables Nordica to retain the Ti laminates and the special stability at speed that they confer.

The downside of Titanal laminates, and the reason one doesn’t see them on all Powder skis, is their mass makes a ski feel lugubrious as slow speeds and their torsional rigidity accentuates the width of an already very wide ski. Once a ski like the Enforcer 115 Free is under full sail, however, the metal takes command of whatever crud lies ahead. Metal indeed induces speed, and for good reason: the best way to master crud is to charge it, an assignment the Enforcer 115 Free can’t wait to undertake.