When I received Rossi’s first press release about the Essential, it sounded to me more like a publicity stunt than a product pitch. Demonstrating that the technology already exists to make a ski that is 77% recyclable sounds all eco-cuddly, but my jaded brain-filter filed the announcement under “Inflated Product Puffery” and turned its attention to concocting my next podcast.
My blithe assumption that Rossignol’s new ski was designed to distract attention from the absence of any real innovation in Rossi’s 2024 collection lasted until the moment I was heading downhill on a pair. Not only did the Essential immediately announce itself as the real deal, to celebrate its debut on snow it set off a string of firecracker slalom turns that were more accurate and responsive than any arcs issuing from any of the best all-mountain skis being made today.
Beneath its retro cosmetics, the Essential turns out to be a Non-FIS Slalom, with a sidecut and on-hill demeanor closely modeled on Rossi’s Hero Elite ST Ti (123/68/104). It’s a very interesting choice, given that presumably Rossi could have achieved a similar level of recyclability using any model in its line as the prototype. Surely, if any brand wanted to lure an American skier onto a recyclable ski, they’d be fishing with better bait if they used some sort of all-terrain model.
But Rossi’s intent with the Essential is multi-tiered. The choice of a race-caliber slalom ski makes sense if one of the goals is to show that recyclability doesn’t have to come at the cost of quality. (Like most European brands, Rossi places a premium on race-ski design.) One of the unique angles of the Essential program is that Rossignol has offered to open-source its construction particulars, so competitors can achieve a similar level of recyclability. Every major manufacturer has a slalom race ski template in its inventory, to which the Rossi formula could presumably be applied.
Rossi’s decision to use a slalom ski template for its groundbreaking design harkens back to pre-shaped, pre-fat days when the vast majority of all skis sold in the U.S. – when the American market was hundreds of thousands of pairs larger than it is today – were directly descended from a slalom archetype. The short, linked turns that such a design encourages aren’t much in vogue these days, at least not on this side of the pond. The tiny waist and exaggerated silhouette of the Essential generate short, dynamic turns that are strung as tightly together as pearls in a choker. It’s an athletic style that most weekend warriors aren’t well enough conditioned to emulate, not to mention the fact that its wasp-waisted shape doesn’t travel well off-trail, further limiting its inherent appeal.
The Essential’s wood veneer finish echoes an even earlier era when skis were made of wood and only wood. For those of you taking notes, wood accounts for 35% of the Essential’s composition, all of it beech – considered a heavy wood in today’s market – and all of it recyclable. The rest of the Essential’s components are comprised of 35% aluminum and 7% steel, both recyclable, plus 12% plastic, 5% fine wood and 6% waste that can’t be reused.
Making a ski from recycled materials addresses one end of a ski’s lifecycle; turning a used ski back into its elemental materials lies at the other end the recycling circle. Rossignol has a plan for that, too; working in collaboration with its retail network and MTB, a developer in recycling machinery and logistics, Rossi will collect used skis and either re-purpose them, if useable, or break them down into component elements if they’re past their useful life. The consumer surrendering his or her used skis will receive some sort of reward for doing so. Details are understandably a bit fuzzy at this stage in the project’s development.
The ultimate goal of the Essential – to spur industry-wide adoption of sourcing and recycling virtually everything that goes into a ski – is a long way off. No one ski or even one company can make much of an impact by itself. But the process of getting to that state of affairs has to begin somewhere, and Rossignol has taken an important first step in that direction.
As a lifelong product nerd, it’s particularly satisfying to see Rossi deploy as its role model an elite slalom ski, echoing a bygone era when skis like the teal-green 4S K were perennial top sellers. At the end of the day, buying a ski that supports a worthy cause provides salve for the soul, but no one is going to ski it very often if it isn’t also a great ski. By making its prototype a race ski, Rossi has assured top-tier performance, as its Race Department could build a recreational-level slalom ski with its eyes closed, so to speak. Sure enough, the Essential is stunning on snow. Old School slalom skiers will recognize its behavioral profile the moment they put it in motion, recycling sensations that may have lain dormant for decades.
Like any good race ski, the Essential doesn’t come cheap, but its $1049.95 price tag does include a Rossi SPX 12 binding.
I’m leery of recommending a Powder ski for all-terrain skiing, for if it’s equally adept at all conditions, why not ski it every day? A ski so polyvalent would not only render any notion of ski categories an absurd pretension, it would erode the very foundations of logic itself. Well, the new Blizzard Rustler 11 comes pretty damn close to pulling down the twin pillars of logic and methodology, for it seems to transition from soft snow to firm without batting an eye.
If there’s a trick to this sleight of hand, it lies in the Rustler 11’s construction, beginning with its dimensions, which straddle the border between the Big Mountain and Powder genres, depending on which length one chooses from the five available sizes. The new Freeride Trueblend core ups the amount of Paulownia in its 3-wood matrix to keep the overall weight, and in particular mass beyond the binding area, from ballooning as the ski’s dimensions expand. To keep the Rustler 11 from feeling ponderous, Blizzard trims the percentage of Titanal used in its make-up compared to its skinnier siblings, the Rustler 10 and 9.
Aside from the Trueblend core, the biggest difference between this generation of Rustlers and the one that preceded it is how the new FluxForm design distributes its allocation of Titanal. A nearly full-length strip of metal rides over each edge, but stops short of rapping around the tip or tail. In the middle of the ski, a separate, disconnected swath of Ti fills the space between the outer bands, to lend additional strength and rigidity to the midsection. Fluxform creates a ski that feels secure on edge anywhere it travels, with just enough tolerance for twist at the tip and tail to allow the ski to flow over choppy terrain rather than fight it.
So, who needs a Rustler 11 more, a powder novice or an expert? Trick question: of course, the lower skill skier would be more grateful, but the expert will get more out of it. For the lower skill skier looking for a crutch that will disguise his lack of ability, its relatively soft, balanced flex and overall stability will make deep snow feel more consistent. For the expert, it’s game-on: no further coaching is required, just stand on it and go.
There are three balancing acts that a Big Mountain ski needs to pull off in order to rise to the top of the ranks. One, it has to make the transition from firm snow to soft and back again feel so smooth it’s barely perceptible. Two, it has to execute short turns and long turns without an obvious bias for one or the other. And three, the ski itself needs to feel balanced, with a round, even flex that allows the skier to always feel on center. I’m sharing this nugget of wisdom here because if the essence of the new Rustler 10 could be distilled to a single word, it would be “balanced.”
The testimony of a couple of our elite testers allude to this attribute in their rave reviews. Level 3 instructor Lara Hughes-Allen found the 180cm Rustler 10 to be “light and playful, especially off-piste. A well-balanced ski that makes for fun short turns and bump skiing. For a 102cm underfoot ski, it’s fairly quick edge to edge. Overall, this is a very comfortable ski that performs well in a variety of conditions.”
The erstwhile owner of Start Haus in Truckee, California, a longtime Realskiers Test Center, Jim Schaffner is also a world-class bootfitter and race coach. His thumbnail portrait of the Rustler 10 dovetails nicely with Lara’s assessment: “Balanced and very comfortable to ski in all conditions. It felt seamless to move from firmer to softer to broken pow. Predictable and smooth, with surprising power and rebound when you stomp on it. If I owned this ski, I would ski it on most days in Tahoe.” Mark Zila of Footloose Sports agreed, calling the Rustler 10, “A great all-around ski that would make a great single-ski quiver for the Sierras.”
Bear in mind, Schaffner is both big and strong, so the idea of a Big Mountain ski as an everyday driver makes perfect sense in his case. Also note that the considerably lighter Hughes-Allen could easily bow the Rustler 10 into a short-radius arc, despite its girth, thanks to the high edge angles she can create with her long legs at full extension. Point being, the more skilled the skier, the more he or she can appreciate the full performance range of this ski. Skiers with a less polished skill set can adopt the Rustler 10 as their designated powder/crud ski, but for everyday skiing, the Rustler 9 is a better tool for the skier who is less talented or less aggressive.
Blizzard’s Sheeva 10 optimizes the best qualities of Blizzard’s latest freeride technology, FluxForm. Introduced across six new models, 3 Rustlers for men and 3 corresponding Sheevas for women, Fluxform deploys Titanal in a different fashion than was last used in these models’ 2023 iterations. Instead of a single, truncated top sheet of Ti, FluxForm concentrates its Ti laminates directly over the edges, in strips that run nearly tip to tail. In the center of the Sheeva 10, roughly where the Ti plate was last season, is a women’s-specific platform that helps distribute force evenly underfoot without the heft of metal.
This redeployment of Titanal is the major reason the new Sheeva 10 feels more stable from end to end, but it isn’t the only reason the latest version feels at once smoother and more powerful. The other major contributor to the Sheeva 10’s stellar handling is the switch to Blizzard’s carefully crafted TrueBlend core. TrueBlend combines slender tendrils of dense beech interspersed with lightweight poplar and Paulownia in a precise pattern that is adjusted for every size. Note that the new Sheeva 10 offers six different sizes on 6mm splits, so women can dial in exactly the right length, which is key for maneuverability in off-trail conditions.
No lift-served mountain received more snow last season than Mammoth, giving the ladies at Footloose Sports ample opportunity to essay the Sheeva 10 in the conditions it was meant for. “Really fun on piste,” exulted one of the Footloose faithful. “Easy to bend into different turn shapes, good edge hold yet easy to release the edge.” Another impressed Footloose filly opined, “Overall, a nice upgrade from the older model – loved the additional stiffness in the tip. Lots of fun at high speed and handled the variable snow really well.” A tester from Sturtevant’s of Sun Valley concurred that “the new metal configuration makes the tips less chattery. Very fun!”
The new Rustler 9 from Blizzard isn’t a little bit better than its predecessor; it’s much, much better than its namesake. Among its myriad changes is a slight boost in its overall width, which tipped the new Rustler 9 into the hotly competitive All-Mountain West genre. Instead of slipping in the standings, it rose from a middle-of-the-pack position among All-Mountain East models to near the top of the All-Mountain West category. No other new ski in the 2023/24 season made as great a leap up the performance ladder as the Rustler 9.
When all criteria are considered, the Rustler 9 remains a Finesse ski, but only by the slimmest of margins. It’s still a forgiving, easily steered ski, but it now has a reserve power supply accessible to any skier who can lay it on edge. A great all-terrain ski has to be able to smear or carve on command, a trick the Rustler 9 has down cold. The tip is strong and connected enough to engage at the top of the turn, but the ski can also find the edge by smearing sideways, then tipping the ski so the edge latches onto a carve midway through the turn. This facility at finding an edge anywhere along a mid-radius arc is one of the qualities that distinguish the best all-terrain skis from the also-rans.
So how did Blizzard’s design team tweak the original Rustler 9 design to increase power without compromising its sunny disposition? Basically, they reconfigured both of its principal structural elements, a vertically laminated wood core reinforced with Titanal laminates. The change in the wood core was virtually foreordained, ever since Blizzard introduced its Trueblend core a couple of years ago. In the Trueblend iteration deployed in the Rustler 9, stringers of lightweight poplar are interspersed with denser beech underfoot, with ultralight Paulownia blended into the forebody and tail for less heft and lower swingweight.
