I can tell I’m missing skiing in my bones when I start rolling my ankles on edge when standing still. By mid-summer I miss everything about it, even the frozen fingers, the end-of-day ache overcome for just one more run, … So I’ll relive skiing with delayed blogging about it.
I’m no longer a part-time resident of the-ski-area-soon-to-formerly-be-known-as Squaw Valley USA, instead taking trains to various ski areas. So we no longer own skis; instead we rent performance skis at the resort. In theory this lets me do massive ski evaluations, swapping skis throughout the day to find the perfect ski, as I did when I found my front-side skis.
Let’s rocker
I knew I wanted to try “rocker” skis. You want a long fat ski with a lot of area to lift you out of deep snow, but a long ski is less maneuverable in bumps and a fat ski is less willing to go on edge and carve. So, just curve the tip and tail up, so that on packed snow they’re flapping in the breeze and you’re effectively riding a shorter ski. The immortal Shane McConkey came up with Volant Spatulas that had reverse camber (so the center of the ski touches the snow), more like a waterski, and then improved the design with K2 Pontoons. Rossignol I think was one of the first to combine the usual camber underfoot (so the center of the ski is off the snow until you weight it) with tips curved up and out of the snow and an odd sidecut. The term of art for this is “rocker.”
The playful Rossignol Soul 7 HD
Several friends swore by the Rossignol S7 when it first came out, and Rossignol has been refining the design for over a decade into the Sky 7, Soul 7, Super 7, Soul 7 HD, … so Rossignol was the first ski I rented a few seasons ago. Even the Soul 7 has been through multiple iterations:
The Soul 7 HD is fantastic. It’s playful, so willing to make different turn shapes. It’s fat underfoot at 106 mm, yet will still carve if you push it. So rather than endlessly swapping skis looking for perfection, my default is just rent these in a 180cm and done.
Head Kore
In 2019 the Head Kore series got favorable reviews and won awards, so I specifically tried to rent it. It’s also excellent. It feels more damped and stable than the Soul 7 HD, even though it’s actually lighter (less than 2kg a ski which is really light), and a little faster. In most ways it’s a better ski than the Soul 7 HD, but somehow not as inspiring.
Völkl Mantra 102
I traveled to Zermatt in Europe, and weirdly the Head Kore was unavailable; all the skiers were bombing down the pistes on skinny short race skis. I tried some skis I wasn’t happy with, then settled on the Völkl Mantra 102. I was dubious since my impression of Völkl’s fat skis was they’re beefy planks for charging Western USA all-mountain skiers: just get them out to the side on edge and power through big turns. I’m simply and sadly not that strong. But the Mantra has morphed into a rockered ski, and it’s pretty great: definitely faster, better edge hold, still decently maneuverable.
I returned to the Völkl Mantra 102 this season and enjoyed it again, but missed the playfulness of the Soul HD and the snap of the Kore. I swapped for a mid-fat K2 Mindbender ski but was underwhelmed. It’s light and easy-turning, but I found it unresponsive and hard to get it to commit to an edge, so unwilling to carve.
For my only ski trip winter 2021-2022 😢, I rented the updated Völkl Mantra M6. It’s a big advance on the already very good M5 that I describe above! It’s so fun and versatile, almost as playful as Rossignol’s slower HD Soul. Probably the best ski I’ve ever ridden.
2023: again the excellent Mantra M6. I’d like to try the wider Mantra 102 with “tailored carbon tips.” It’s still 140/102/123 cm width as in picture above,; compared with the M6’s slightly more waisted 135/96/119 width.