The 20/21 Cochise represents a return to its traditional values by cutting back on some of its beefier elements without scrimping on the 2 ½ layers of Titanal that give the Cochise its indomitable determination to teach crud a lesson it won’t soon forget. The new Cochise whittles away at the tip and waist width and plumps up the tail, reducing the sidecut radius by 3m in a 185cm. While this encourages the rejuvenated Cochise to finish its big, banked turns, quick, little arcs are still not part of its repertoire.
To get the 20/21 Cochise to feel more like the original, Blizzard tinkered with several possible core changes. Bear in mind this re-design comes after several years of Rustlers, Blizzard’s softer, gentler Big Mountain collection that uses Paulownia, balsa and ISO-core alongside the poplar and beech laminates that have been used in the Cochise’s clan forever. Blizzard attempted to modify its new TrueBlend core for the Cochise, but its added width meant more mass, inhibiting the maneuverability the R&D team was trying augment. So the 2021 Cochise core added Paulownia to its matrix, lightening the load and improving its responsiveness.
The cumulative changes to the Cochise 106 contribute to a general improvement to its on-trail comportment so it’s truly an all-terrain ski, as it was conceived to be. Even though it has changed, it hasn’t contorted into something its not: it’s still the same Power ski it always was.
For two years, Rossignol treated its Black Ops models as if they were part of a clandestine operation known only to insiders. The problem with marketing a secret ski collection is you can be too successful at keeping it quiet. After serving as second fiddles behind the legendary 7 series, Black Ops models have now been thrust into the spotlight as their replacements.
The Holy Shred 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 tail rocker, but no other major brand produces an unabashed, directional twintip intended for all-mountain skiing. The addition of Titanal gives the Holy Shred the stability on edge that most Pipe & Park twintips lack.
Here’s another twist to the Holy Shred story: it’s 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 preferred terrain if you can find it – its 45-degree braid of synthetic fiber loads up as it finds the belly of the turn; as it recoils, the rising Holy Shred helps the skier unweight as he (or she) crosses the fall line, as Old School a move as camber itself.
Just because the archetype of the All-Mountain East ski is a model that’s equally adept in all conditions doesn’t mean that every AME ski fits this description. The new Völkl Blaze 94 is undeniably biased in favor of soft snow; the only question is whether said snow is in-resort or in the backcountry.
Every detail about the Blaze 94 reinforces its predisposition for off-trail pursuits. Its transparent topskin lets the world see where its predominantly wood core is bisected by a channel of foam, a weight savings best appreciated by those who intend to haul their skis uphill. The tapered tips, the rounded but still skin-friendly tails, the lightest-in-class weight and a rockered forebody that allows the skier to pivot into a short-radius turn with impunity all speak to an off-trail attitude.
The fact that every Völkl-recommended Marker binding happens to be of the backcountry persuasion is an indication as transparent as the Blaze 94’s cosmetics that Völkl envisions it in an off-the-beaten-path environment.
But of course that’s not where our test panel put it through its paces. Our troops treated it like an in-resort, everyday ski with an off-trail family tree, which describes most of the AME category’s membership. In this context, the Blaze 94 impressed with its facility at short turns, aided by a generous front rocker and a tight turning midsection. A Titanal mounting plate underfoot helps quiet the ride while the long-radius tail re-sets the course for the fall line.
Realskiers doesn’t dole out a “Most Improved” award, but if we did, the Blizzard Brahma 88 would win it running away. The previous Brahma 88 was already a brilliant ski, so the jump in status isn’t due to drubbing a foil but in moving the definition of perfection forward.
The old Brahma 88 already used a poplar/beech core and two sheets of Titanal, so it wasn’t the Power side of the Power/Finesse divide that needed shoring up. Two performance points in particular required attention: a flex pattern that allowed for easier turn entry/exit and optimizing flex, shape and baseline by size.
The reason flex is primordial is because if a ski can be made easier to bend without losing its grip on hard snow, the pilot can use less of his/her precious energy reserve getting from turn to turn. But historically softer skis haven’t been able to withstand the vibrations induced by traveling fast over hard snow, handling as well as a Yugo with bald tires.
So it’s a joy to discover an all-terrain ski with the strength and stability of an Old School GS race ski that can be reined in to less than 40mph and still move edge to edge with the ease of a figure skater. Like a gifted drummer, it can keep the beat no matter what tune you ask it to play.
By the look of it, the Atomic Bent Chetler 120 will ski like a flat-bottomed boat. Both bow and stern are rockered front-to-back and side-to-side, forming convex contact points that can serve as a prow when going forwards or a pivot point to rotate into rearward. Given how greasy this platform looks, it’s a surprise when it behaves… normally. Of course the Horizon Tech shovel, as the multi-axis rocker is called, wants to drift a bit before connecting to a turn, but when tilted on edge it knows what to do. After a few turns you become less conscious of its width and more aware of what a smooth, balanced ride it delivers.
Any ski of the Bent Chetler 120’s substantial dimensions will deliver the goods in pristine powder; the real test comes when the fresh stuff runs out. This is when all that surface area and relatively straight sidecut lets the skier use the Chetlers like giant putty knives. It doesn’t matter if the snow is clumpy or broken into choppy fragments, once you’ve poured over it on your Chetlers it will be smooth again. If all that drifting sounds lame, you can always resort to charging the fall line where you’ll find the Bent Chetler 120’s rise to the occasion.
