Stormrider 95
The one condition that separates the best All-Mountain West skis from the merely excellent is crud. It’s the dream of perpetual powder that drives the category – there’s no other reason to have a ski this wide – but the reality is uncut powder is over and done...Stormrider 105
Stöckli has been trying to domesticate the Stormrider 105 ever since the Swiss unleashed this beast what feels like a lifetime ago. For 2020, its evolution towards a lighter, more flexible Stormrider continues by tapering both layers of Titanal so they’re thinner at...Wingman 86 Ti
The new Wingman series from Elan is a fusion of its on-trail Amphibio models and off-trail Ripsticks. The bias of the new collection is intentionally tilted toward carving groomers, an acknowledgement that most “all-terrain” skiers spend the majority of...Redster X9 WB
Atomic’s entries in the Frontside genre come from the two different categories that abut it: the new Vantage 79 Ti and 82 Ti import their Prolite chassis from the wider world of All-Mountain models, while the latest Redster, the X9 WB, is a direct descendant of the Redster X9, a tight-radius Technical ski. Like brothers that don’t get along, they’re both from the same family but they could not be more different.
The “WB” in this Redster’s name stands for Wide Body, but by today’s standards its 75mm waist looks painfully corseted. Its sidecut radius is only 13.5m in a 168cm, roughly the dimensions of a World Cup slalom. If the pilot tilts it to a high edge angle, it will tuck into a short-radius turn with the eagerness of a cutting horse cornering a calf. (Note that it earns a 9.0 for short-radius turns, one of the best scores in the category for this bellwether feature.) As long as it isn’t subjected to FIS-level speeds, its fully cambered baseline stays plastered to the snow. If the pilot gives it a little poke in the tail just for grins, it responds with a jolt of energy that carries you weightlessly into the next turn.