The Nordica Enforcer 88 belongs on any list of the Ultimate 88’s.  It looks like a shrunken Enforcer 100, but the truth is closer to the other way around: the current Enforcer 100 is based on the Energy 2 Ti construction of the Enforcer 88.  Neither characterization is entirely accurate, as Nordica knew when it created the 88 that it would spend more of its life on groomers, so it tailored the Enforcer 88’s design accordingly. One could make a strong case that, when all factors, such as a skier’s skill, sex, preferred terrain and turn shape are considered, the Enforcer 88 is probably the most versatile Enforcer of them all.

For anyone who loves a short-radius carve or whose heart beats a little faster at the prospect of moguls, tight trees or the two in tandem, there’s no question the 88 is the pick of the Enforcer litter.  Its oddly abrupt front rocker might make you suspicious it’ll be a floaty, disconnected smear stick. But it isn’t the 88’s Persian slipper shovel that controls its performance, whether on piste or off, but the pronounced camber zone that lies right behind it. Once you’re rolling on hard pack, you don’t notice the tip, but as soon as you’re off-trail, you’ll be glad you have it out in front, softening the blows delivered by choppy conditions.

Because we had a short (172cm) Enforcer 88 in our test corral at Mt. Rose, a few of our ladies took it for a spin.  Meghan Ochs, whose usual choice in a recreational ski is a Non-FIS Race model, raved, “I loved this ski. I’m surprised, given its turn radius, length and width. It performed like a full-on frontside ski, but still fun & lively off piste!”  If you could just watch Ochs arc ‘em for a fistful of turns, you’d grok the full implications of her remarks.

One of the traits one expects an All-Mountain East model to exhibit is an agnostic approach to snow conditions and turn shape. In the sidecountry, you can’t insist on a single turn radius to get you down the hill.  Ideally, your ride will be able to switch from a carver to a drifter at any given moment.  The Enforcer 88 acts like it’s trained all its life for these circumstances. It’s never out of balance, which is about the highest praise an all-terrain ski can receive.

The Enforcer 88 has the empowering property of making anything seem possible. It doesn’t matter what the conditions are or what type of turns you care to carve. It’s stable enough to navigate scoured wind crust yet ready to ping off hardpack like a pinball, with barely a transition between the two contrary conditions. Its score for short-radius turns is off the charts, yet it can lay into a big-bellied arc as comfortably as a cat curling up on a sofa.

Allow me to cast a light on the Enforcer 88’s versatility via a vignette culled from my personal time on skis in early March of 2020, before the pandemic hammer fell. I was insanely fortunate enough to be granted access to early trams at Snowbird, which in turn made it possible to share a chair ride out of Mineral Basin with Ed Chauner, who has spent four decades on this massive mountain, instructing, patrolling and guiding. We got to chatting about gear – wonder how that happened? – when without prompting Chauner expounded on the Enforcer 88’s ability to handle any condition Snowbird could concoct, which for a patrolman is virtually all of them. Any ski that can handle Snowbird whether teaching, hauling a sled or leading a troop off-trail is more than capable of handling every-day, in-resort skiing, while making it look easy in the process.