About me: I am in my mid seventies and, despite my age, prefer steeps, powder, tree skiing and soft crud over groomers.
But I don’t fly down the hill, favoring stability and snappy turns over speed. For many years I skied Blizzard bonafides but for the last season and a half have been using Dynastar Pro 90’s.
Because of avalanche remediation I only demoed 4 skis on day one. Arriving at the slope at 8:30 the second day I was super bummed that wind, weather and mechanical problems closed the lifts by the demo area so I missed out trying what sounds like some great skis.
Here is my sadly very limited reviews of the four skis I did get to demo:
Blizzard Anomaly 94: Bonafides on steroids. Blasts through powder and crud and more spring due to fibers along the length of the ski and stronger rocker and camber. Great fun.
Stockli Storm Rider 88: easy to initiate than in previous year’s model because softer tip. Blasts through crud and rides well on powder. Fast on groomers but easy to control. Not as nimble as some others but an excellent ski for all mountain conditions.
Volkl M7 Mantra: my favorite ski for day 1.
Playful. Handles steep groomed, powder and crud with ease and stable enough to allow for some lapses in technique.
Black Crows Serpo: initiates turns easily on groomers, powder or crud including double blacks. Not as stable as heavier skis but sure a lot of fun.
Skis I wanted to demo but didn’t get a chance due to weather:
K2 All Mountain
Nordic’s Enforcer 100 or 94
Peak 98 by Bode
Rossignol Sender 94
Fisher Ranger 96
Salomon Stance
Head Kore 93
Line Blade Optic 96
Black Diamond Impulse 98
4FRNT MSP99
Dps 106
At the end of the day I decided that having two all mountain skis was ideal for me:
One light and playful like the Volkyl M7 Mantra or Black Crow Serpo (or my Dynastar 90) for light powder, crud, moguls and groomers, and one to blast through heavy powder and heavy crud like the Blizzard Anomaly or Stockli Stormrider (or my Blizzard Bonafide).
Hopefully the weather will cooperate next year and we can demo more skis.