My wife skied her 2021 Crosswinds for the first time today (same as AM85) . Conditions were snowing 1" per hour after a hard East Coast freeze meaning fresh snow on ice with fish you can see underneath. Interesting to say the least. Her comments were, butter smooth when transitioning from fresh to ice and back. It was only the last run of the day when the mountain reported 8" new snow that she said she could have used more rocker. I was on my No1 RC's and concurred. It took a lot of fresh wettish snow to put these skis out of their comfort zone. These skis ski very well/smooth through mixed conditions and shine in days like these.The transitions from "firm" snow to piled made for great testing grounds. I confirmed my prior opinion about this ski. its so smooth and predictable and went from skied off hard pack, to push piles without a blink. the tip flexes enough and on-edge they are torsionally rigid. I didnt ski them particularly fast today due to the amount of people but at moderate, 15mph speeds, they were very stable and consistent. So easy to ski the AM85.
Also to note: If the day started 8" fresh on a hard base, we would have been on our Enforcer 88/Santa Ana 93; but the icy conditions reported the day before and the snow starting at opening bell put us on our Blossoms to handle the variable snow. This was the right decision since the day started out so hard and fast and it was only with a run or 2 left in the day that we would have preferred the Nordicas. There was a point a little before that when either ski would have done well; but the Blossoms carve so much better and push through piles of used up snow about as well.
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