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.

As useful as LCT is for it does, it’s just as valuable for what it doesn’t do: turn the Hero Elite TL Ti into a rigid beam. Solid sheets of Titanal aren’t just heavier; they also make the ski less supple torsionally, so it has less give when riding over irregular terrain. It may have been my over-stimulated imagination, but it felt to me as if LCT allows the Hero Elite LT Ti to flex, however minutely, along the longitudinal axis, taking the punches delivered by the snow and yielding to it for a microsecond before biting into the surface. Probably my imagination, but it does describe how this ski flows over and through all types of terrain, not just beer league gates.

Mike from Granite Chief captures the essence of the Hero Elite LT Ti experience: “Made me feel like a racer (I’m not…) The most stable ski in the category! I have never felt more comfortable scraping my pant legs on the snow.” The Hero Elite LT Ti might not be the fastest Non-FIS Race model on the market (we have no way of knowing, really, but it doesn’t feel as burly as some others), yet it might be the most fun. And that’s how it’s similar in spirit to the Heroes that preceded it: it’s a flat-out gas to ski fast.