Völkl’s RTM 84 UVO is a gentleman’s carving tool, a secure ride that can summon acceleration when a dollop of pressure is applied to its camber zone underfoot. Its rockered tip and tail are already partway bent into an arc, so the pilot doesn’t have to exert a lot of oomph to extract a smooth, continuous carve.
While the RTM 84 UVO enjoys rocketing down the hill as much as any other elite Frontside ski, it’s better at slalom turns than our short-radius score suggests. It also deserves more praise for its Finesse qualities for it isn’t hard of steering and its light enough to toss around a turn if need be. (Without its Marker bindings, the RTM 84 UVO weighs in at 1958g.)
The RTM 81 was made for marauding groomers and while its composition has evolved over the years, its preferred pathways and mode of transport haven’t. The RTM 81 is every centimeter a carving ski; well, make that every centimeter minus a sliver of tip and tail rocker to maintain street cred as a do-it-all model.
At one point in its journey, the RTM 81 was flat underfoot, and flat best describes how it skied. While it’s comforting to have some smear-ability on board even in a carving ski, if drift is its dominant trait then the ski is in the wrong genre. Last year the camber genie re-appeared, granting the RTM 81’s wish to be a real carving ski again. It’s been ripping up the Frontside ever since.
The newest edition to the Stormrider family is also its narrowest, but don’t get the idea in your head that the 83 is Stormrider Lite: it still built with 2 ½ layers of Titanal and is heavy enough to knock down castle walls.
In Stöckli-World, the frontside of the mountain is Laser country; Stormriders belong off-trail or somewhere out in the backcountry. That the Stormrider 83 performs so admirably on groomed runs is testament to Super G genes; Stöcklis always seem to ski like every run is being timed.
The key to the Samba’s go-anywhere attitude lies in its Flip Core baseline that predisposes the forebody to ride over anything in front of it without disconnecting it from the rest of the ski. As soon as the Samba is laid over, the skier can depend on every centimeter of the ski supporting her. Secure enough on edge to carve all day, the Samba saves its best moves for soft snow, where it helps the uninitiated learn to mix smearing and steering into a lively downhill dance.
