by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
From a global performance perspective, Head understands that not all Kores will be treated equally. The Kore 85 W, as the narrowest of the clan, is expected to spend a good deal of its life on groomed snow, so it’s stiffened up accordingly. The Kore 85 W is nonetheless an off-trail ski by dint of its baseline and sidecut, so it has a special fondness for powder. An underappreciated Kore feature that makes it even more effortless to ski in deep snow is a chamfered top edge that lets the ski slice sideways with almost no resistance. Since all powder skiing entails some foot-swiveling, this seemingly minor feature has a major impact.
For east coast skiers who seek out variable conditions, the Kore 85 W offers an ideal amalgam of quick turning chops and a baseline meant for irregular terrain, making it a perfect companion for pucker-tight tree skiing. “Loved this ski!” exulted one of Willi’s flock of female testers. “Handled well in the turns and felt like I was gliding!” “Great ski,” concurred another Willi’s woman. “It handled high speeds well, turned well and handled the crud just fine.”
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
As a vector member of the AME Women’s community, the revised Nordica Santa Ana 87 epitomizes the qualities that can take an intermediate woman to the next level. It’s a breakthrough ski, a step above whatever this recreational skier is currently using, be it a rental, a hand-me-down or a package ski made for soft snow and green trails. Skis like the Santa Ana 87 open the door to skiing the whole mountain, ready to take you off the beaten path whenever you are.
Within the 4-model Santa Ana line-up, the 87mm-waisted Santa Ana 87 hits the sweet spot for the women who wants to be able to travel off-trail without losing the carving qualities they’ll want when skiing the groom is the only game in town. The key contributor the SA 87’s accurate grip on corduroy is a top Titanal laminate that runs nearly edge to edge underfoot, accentuating edging accuracy over the smeary drift of its wider sisters.
The SA 87’s modified metal topsheet is an inherited trait passed down from its predecessor, the Santa Ana 88, but what lies beneath is a new core that contributes to a smoother flex and more effortless edging. The Double Core at the heart of the Santa Ana 87 slips a layer of elastomer into its wood-core lay-up, so it’s easier for a lightweight skier to flex it while still holding a precise trajectory through tracked-out trails.
First-time Peter Glenn ski tester Carlene Johnson, whose comments were consistently spot-on, filed this snapshot of the Santa Ana 87’s limitless potential: “This was my favorite ski of the day!” she exulted. “It was great at both upper and lower mountain runs in a variety of snow conditions. It was so responsive to even the smallest movement and the edges dug in to everything I needed it to and it was just a phenomenal ride!”
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Lest anyone wonder how little Liberty earned a place near the top of the most competitive field in the women’s market, they did it the old-fashioned way: they earned it. I had the opportunity to ski both the Horizon 92 (in a 167cm) and its unisex template, the Radian 92 (179cm), and both delivered a limo-smooth ride with an unshakable edge in every circumstance. Despite skiing on a much shorter length in the Horizon, security through every phase of the turn remained unperturbed by clumpy crud or slick hardpack.
While almost all models in the AME genre are part of a larger clan of off-trail-oriented skis with a wider footprint, double-rockered baselines and tapered tips, the presumption underlying the category’s out-sized popularity is that it will perform equally well on-trail or off. The shorthand for this on-trail/off-trail dual aptitude is “50/50;” on this scale, the Liberty Horizon 92 is temperamentally closer to a 60/40 groomer/off-piste ratio, with a particular penchant for short-to-medium radius arcs that don’t stray too far from the fall line.
One of the inherent perils of a fat ski in a short length is that just as it crosses the fall line and the ski begins to flatten out, it will lose its tenuous edge hold and spin out, making a mess of the turn transition and knocking the legs out from under the lower-skilled skier’s confidence. Despite the considerable handicap of supporting a skier some 50 pounds over its target load, the Horizon 92 stayed on trajectory through every turn. Skiers who love the sensation of a clean, unwavering carve will appreciate its capacity for spooling out an endless string of short-radius turns that never lose their intimate connection with the snow.
If pressed to pigeonhole the Horizon 92 in a pithy profile, I’d call it a Power ski with excellent manners, like a personal valet. It’s preternaturally calm and composed, never calls attention to itself, does exactly as instructed and is always there when summoned.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
This season, everything about the retiring Kenja 88 remains the same in the Secret 88 – except the name, and of course, the graphics. The reason Völkl changed the model name and nothing else was nothing else needed fixing. A fistful of evolutionary changes has been applied to the Kenja 88 in the recent past that collectively has elevated the Secret 88 – and its unisex counterpart, the Mantra 88 – into the first rank of the most competitive category in the ski market.
Three inter-related design features give the Secret 88 its amazing performance range. First among equals is Tailored Titanal Frame, that breaks up the top Titanal laminate into three separate pieces. Breaking the Ti topsheet into three disconnected parts allows the center of the ski to be more readily compressed, so the skier can load up a fat fiberglass layer just below the metal bits. When the stored energy in the distorted fiberglass layer is released at the bottom of the turn, the skier is fired across the fall line and into the next turn.
The second game-changing feature that elevated the Secret 88 above the ordinary is 3D Radius Sidecut, that works in conjunction with the ski’s double-rockered baseline to create a long-radius sidecut that harbors a tighter turning ski inside it. The cherry on top of this high-performance sundae is called Tailored Carbon Tips, a clever way of using carbon to neutralize shock in the shovel, where the ski takes the brunt of impact with the snow surface.
The unisex All-Mountain East category is as chockful of options as the women’s field, and in this hotly competitive domain the Mantra 88 still rules the roost. It so happens that the Secret 88 and the Mantra 88 are essentially the same ski, which suggests that even the strongest female skiers, physically and technically, won’t over-tax the Secret 88’s assets.
by Jackson Hogen | Sep 3, 2024
Nordica’s Santa Ana 92 has a baked-in bias for off-trail skiing, but it can spend all day on groomers and never skip a beat. That’s because its Titanal topsheet scallops only enough metal from its forebody to shed a little weight and soften torsional rigidity, so the ski will conform to irregular terrain instead of trying to crush it.
The sculpted top metal laminate uses different dimensions according to the presumed snow condition a given Santa Ana is likely to encounter. Since the Santa Ana 92 is certain to include a large portion of groomers in its daily diet, its TSM topsheet runs nearly to the edge in the binding area. The sharply rockered shovel plays no role in edge engagement, but once the edge finds the snow, it locks on like a terrier with a tennis ball. When the snow is soft, the double-rockered baseline makes it uber easy to slip and slide to the submerged edge, cornering like a roadster through the rubble.
While Terrain Specific Metal plays a leading part in the Santa Ana 92’s proficiency in a broad range of slope conditions, it’s not the only technology in play. New to the Santa Ana collection this year is a multi-laminate Pulse core, which adds wood and a rubbery elastomer to the TSM sandwich, so it’s easier for a lighter skier to decamber the ski and generate power out of the turn.
