If you’re going to adapt a women’s model from a unisex template, the first place to renovate is the core. Atomic swaps ash for poplar to reduce weight without losing the damping benefits of wood. Atomic’s second modification is subtler, reining in the widest point in the tail so it isn’t as insistent on a cross-hill turn finish and reduces stress on the inherently more vulnerable female knee. The third alteration elevates the heel in order to tip a women’s more rearward center of mass into a balanced stance, with more weight directed to the ball of the foot as in a natural athletic position.
To bring out its best qualities, the Vantage X 83 CTi needs to run at a respectable speed. To help encourage acceleration, the ski cuts a relatively shallow arc when riding a low edge. To cut a tidier corner requires the skier to commit to a higher edge angle, which brings out the ski’s best behavior. If this sounds like the Vantage X 83 CTi is geared for the experienced skier who likes to have some wind in his sails, well, it is. With only a dab of tip rocker, its baseline is made to connect with hard snow and its Carbon Tank Mesh and Titanium Backbone ensures the integrity of this connection throughout the recreational speed range.
In its prior life as the Century 102, the Backland FR 102 W offered the best cost/value relationship in the genre; last season, Atomic sweetened the deal. The addition of the Carbon Backbone adds more muscle and pop without any negative side effects. The Backland with a Backbone is still a superior choice for the lighter weight woman, such as a teenager getting her first off-trail ski.
What the Backland FR 102 wants to dine on is a buffet of off-trail conditions. Its double-rockered baseline fits in the twisted troughs of today’s mogul fields. The cambered midsection gives the ski extra energy between turns, inviting the skier to move to its rhythmic beat. The sense of automatic weighting and unweighting is particularly evident in powder, where the Backland FR 102 would just as soon spend 100% of its time, but then, who wouldn’t?
The Vantage 95 C W’s shape strikes just the right balance between the surface area needed flotation and the sidecut that facilitates carving. This is why this model feels so easy to ski regardless of the conditions. The Vantage 95 C W passes the acid test of an off-trail ski: how well does it handle conditions it wasn’t made for? One of our testers encountered just such terrain and came out smiling. “This ski was great, especially going over the ice cookies. I felt like I could cruise through anything.”
