The tale of the Rossignol Temptation 88 is told by its sidecut dimensions and baseline, which work together with its flex to create a smooth ride with a carving fetish.  Its 13m radius (164cm) can’t wait to carve a controlled, short-radius turn and with Rossi’s Auto Turn camber line, it doesn’t have to.

The current trend among all-mountain skis is to relocate the widest part of the forebody several inches away from the tip, so it won’t over-react in broken, 3D snow.   The Temptation 88 turns its Air Tip nose up at this folly, running the arc of its sidecut all the way up to the shovel so that the instant the tip is tilted the full length of the ski begins to connect with the snow.  Hence the Auto Turn moniker.

The Temptation 88 keeps its carving composure on firm snow thanks to a laminate of basalt that calms potential jitters at speed, the same construction that has made Rossi’s E88 a sales sensation among men’s All-Mountain East models.  The basalt gives the Temptation 88 enough torsional rigidity to bite into eastern ice and ups the performance ante enough that the 88 is probably too much ski for a standard-issue intermediate.  “It has a lot of personality,” agreed Shirley from Footloose, “quick, lively, fun, wonderful at speed and held well on hard snow.”