The deeper the freshies or the heavier the slop, the brighter the Rustler 11 shines. Feeding it crud is like giving it oxygen. The tip that’s busy looking for something to do on groomers is in its element, rolling up and over wind berms and generally conforming to whatever it meets. The solidity underfoot breeds confidence and the tail is supportive when it needs to be. “A big mountain charger,” assesses Lucas from Footloose. “Surprisingly playful for its size, it’s a confidence booster.”
The experienced tester can tell in the first 100 yards that the Blizzard Bodacious is going to require some room to express itself. Like leaving the station on a bullet train, it doesn’t take long to realize speed is intrinsic to the experience. The Bodacious aims for the bottom of the mountain and annihilates any snow condition in its path. As stable as Gibraltar, the skier can trust the edge to hold through the thickest porridge or the thinnest ice crust; the Bodacious can’t be knocked off its course by anything made of snow.
Beneath the SRC’s burly Marker WC Piston Plate is an edge-to-edge layer of bi-directional carbon Blizzard calls C-Armor that turbo charges the ski’s power and stability through the middle of the turn. To augment acceleration across the fall line, two vertical carbon laminates, dubbed C-Spine, trisect the core from end to end. Working in unison with the Firebird SRC’s traditionally cambered baseline, C-Spine generates propulsive rebound that translates the dissipating energy of one turn into an aggressive entry into the next. “It’s very quick edge to edge” confirms one of the California Ski Company crew.
What a lovely ski. This was the first season that Realskiers engaged with Liberty, catching the brand just as it debuted a new series of Frontside models with a fresh technical story. VMT stands for Vertical Metal Technology, a process that uses two strips of 5000-series aluminum alloy laid vertically between bamboo laminates that straddle the core’s centerline. Two full-length carbon sheets and a central carbon stringer create a powerful platform that’s reinforced with steel mounting plates. While other brands are busy trying to make their tips lighter, Liberty has tacked on metal tip and tail protectors that add mass and damping. Put it all together with a cambered baseline with just the slightest tip rocker and a 92mm waist and you have the V92.
There must be something to this Amphibio deal, an asymmetric forebody that’s rockered above the outside edge and cambered over the inside edge. The Ripstick 96 flows over whatever run lies ahead, be it a rutted backside bump field or the pristine pinstripes of Deer Valley-quality groomage. It never loses its I-can-carve-that attitude, always striving to lay down twin tracks as if every run was down the frontside of Vail. A ski doesn’t attract above average scores unless it brings something extra to the party, which in the case of the Ripstick 96 is a little kick in the tail that scoots it through the turn transition. The boost into the next turn helps establish a rhythm that feels as natural as a waterfall.
