The Blizzard Firebird SRC feels like a GS ski trapped in an SL’s body. The slalom shape dictates a short-radius turn whenever it’s raked on edge, but its serenity at speed and willingness to open up its natural radius make it feel like a GS ski. Jim Schaffner’s staccato commentary reflects the SRC’s dual personality: “SL to GS to SL to GS, etc, etc, etc…” all those et ceteras plus an ellipsis to emphasize a string that never ends. “Best all-rounder SL,” Coach Schaffner concludes.
Two key features that Blizzard added last year to its traditional wood and Titanal construction contribute to the SRC’s Zen-like serenity on edge. Carbon Armor is an extra slab of bi-directional carbon under the binding that amplifies force in the heart of the arc. To keep the ski planted like it had roots in the snow, two vertical carbon struts, called Carbon Spine, tri-sect the laminated wood core. Carbon Spine kicks in at the bottom of the turn, sending the skier off into the next arc as if fired from a crossbow.
The new Völkl Secret 102 should not be mistaken for a set of training wheels. If you don’t have the requisite technical skiing skills, the Secret 102 can sense this shortcoming the way German shepherds can smell fear. As you digest the contents of Perry Schaffner’s critique of the Secret 102, cited below, please remember she’s fresh from a collegiate racing career and is an active coach who crushes every turn as if it owed her money.
“This is a great powder/off piste ski. Really carries speed well. I skied the top in the choppy powder [at Snow Basin, UT] and it cut through it fairly well. Additionally, it was surprisingly lively on the groomed snow. Obviously a little more challenging to ski it in groomers since it is fairly wide under foot. I think this is a great ski if you mainly ski powder with some random days of groomers thrown in there.”
When the Powder ski genre was just gaining traction, Völkl’s Snow Ranger stood head and shoulders above the field, largely because it was so powerfully built. Völkl has made many sorts of Powder skis since, including the legendary Katana – perhaps the studliest Powder ski ever – the infinitely rockered Shiro and the twin-tipped Bash. The Confession, the German brand’s current Powder specialist, is perhaps closest in spirit to the Snow Ranger. It’s lighter than the Katana, cambered so its more connected than a Shiro and most definitely directional.
The Confession is so stable through its midsection that it can be railed on hardpack, but steering its 23.8m-radius sidecut and tilting its 117mm of waist width high enough to lock on a carved turn is no connection for old men. It’s so strong that with a little muscle it can be steered through anything, but it does require a firm hand at the controls and abiding faith in the power conferred on those who attack the fall line.
GS race skis rule the open slopes, and they do so mercilessly, running as hot as they can. They oblige the skier to see things their way, rather than submit to some half-ass effort at arcing. They don’t show much interest in deviating from the fall line until they reach Mach One, and even then they don’t bow into fat, round arcs but barely deflect off their beeline course.
Like many gross generalities, the statements above don’t pertain to every member of the GS family. True, several non-FIS GS skis behave like über-specialists that only respond to well-trained technique, but Völkl got the memo that GS skis ought to be generalists, not specialists. The Racetiger GS can tuck into almost any shape of turn, grab it by the throat and ping off the edge with the energy normally associated with a slalom ski. Far from being finicky, it earned the best aggregate Finesse score among all the GS entries in the genre.
The Rossignol Soul 7 HD W isn’t similar to the most popular Big Mountain ski of the last decade, it’s identical to it. Part of this model’s enduring appeal is the allure of its Air Tip design that decorates the shovel with filigree that appears jewel-like when illuminated from behind. Like a potential date who’s both brainy and attractive, the looks draw you in but it’s the substance that makes you stay.
All the real action in the Soul 7 HD W happens in the camber pocket underfoot. The roughly medium-radius (16m @ 164cm) sidecut ends where the tip and tail rocker begin, effectively consigning the lovely tip to the simple assignment of keeping its nose out of the snow. Right behind the eye-candy shovel is a long fiberglass arch, loaded with energy. When the skier compresses the camber line at the bottom of a powder turn, the glass deforms; the instant the energy lets up, the arch recoils and the skier is delivered back to the surface, where it’s a cinch to slip across the fall line and sink into the next rhythmic arc.
