I was able to participate in the annual Happy Tunes ski test again this year, and thought I'd share my thoughts and experiences here. This year's testing was at Saddleback, ME again on a 40 degree spring day (April Fool's day!). The event is arranged by the Happy Tunes ski shop, with reps and new gear from Rossignol, Salomon, Elan, Dynastar, and Blizzard (no Fischer this year 
Too bad, they had some really fun offerings last year). We were able to select any skis that we liked from any category, with the expectation that we take a couple of runs on them and provide written feedback. I was translating my scribbles for myself and thought I'd share. I did my best to get a sense for each ski in the widest set of conditions I could in the limited runs. All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone. YMMV.
Me: 45 year old male, 5'9" 155lbs.
Conditions: 40 degrees all day. Morning groomers were soft hero snow, got churned up into really nice soft corn by mid-morning, and then started to firm up a bit later in the day to be soft but choppy. Visibility was very poor; lots of braille skiing which, when coupled with new unknown skis, made for some interesting runs some of the time. I was able to find a really nice soft bump run mid-morning but otherwise it was variations on groomed. Overnight rain had also made for some interesting patches of watery ice sprinkled across the trail. Sometimes that was the trail and it hosted patches of soft spring snow. That's Spring skiing in New England
.
Anyway, on to it. These are the skis in the order that they were tested. Again, a couple of runs apiece except where noted that I went back at the end of the day to do some more runs on a couple of pairs.
Rossi Exp 86 Ti 176
This ski was enjoyable to ski on the soft groomers. It has a large sweet spot, is very forgiving, and is very easy to ski at multiple turn radii. I ended up skiing this ski again in the afternoon to see how it did with more cut-up and heavy spring corn, and it did OK there. Wanted to cut through but didn’t really have the beef to do it. Not a ski to surf/smear on top, so it ends up getting bounced around a bit in those conditions. I would consider this a candidate as a solid daily driver, as it’s comfortable and easy at low speeds and still had enough edge grip at higher speeds. I personally think that there are more exciting skis in this width if you want to go mid-80’s underfoot for a daily driver, but this would fit well in that category.
Elan Wingman 86 CTI 172
This was the ski for me today. So much fun! To start, it’s a very light and playful ski. It’s very forgiving and easy to throw around if needed. Turn shape variation is there: seems to hold well on medium and long turns and can easily be steered into short turns. I did notice that on firm and icy patches the tip likes to flap. It’s a bit noisy and I noticed it, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. I skied this again in the afternoon in the heavier cut-up and they did get bounced around a bit. They’re light, so they were easy to suft/smear in the softer corn and for a light ski actually did well on edge cutting through too. In the bumps, these skis were superb. Silky smooth and way fun! This ski seems to fill the soft snow/bump spot that my Bushwackers currently hold, but I think this is a strong candidate to replace them as they’re much more fun.
Elan Ripstick 88 172
These were OK, but didn’t really wow me. They were easy to surf on top of the soft corn, but anything firmer I noticed they were pretty noisy and had even more tip flap than the Wingman. Forgiving in the bumps, but not super quick. They definitely felt wider and slower than the Wingman.
Salomon Stance 84 177
I felt these skis needed you to be on the sweet spot to perform. If you were back at all, you were just along for the ride on a medium radius turn. Once you found it, though, they were very responsive and had some really nice pop out of short radius turns. Driving medium to long turns they had really good edge hold and were quick to change edges.
Blizzard Thunderbird R15 WB 174
Wow! These kick ass! I had so much fun ripping on these with some of the firmer groomers. Absolutely no speed limit on them, and they encouraged mach schnell skiing. They really come alive at speed, have tenacious edge hold, and are super quick edge to edge. These would be a blast as an East Coast daily carver, but also dangerous. Like racing a sports car through a school zone... They do well to cut through the soft and cut up snow, but a little too stiff to do short turns well in those conditions.
Dynastar Speed Pro 82 179
Ugh. One run and done. These skis and I did not get along at all. I couldn’t find a condition in which they would hold an edge, and even in soft snow they just seemed to want to completely wash out. Try to engage the tip, and as soon as the ski went through the fall line, the tail would just completely swing around. Ugh.
Elan Amphibio 18 Ti2 172
These skis felt too stiff to have any life in soft snow. On firmer groomers, I could see that there was something there, they have good grip and seemed to prefer medium to long turns, as I couldn’t bend them enough in soft snow to get tighter radius turns. They feel like strong hard snow carving skis, but just didn’t have the flex pattern to have any life in soft snow.
Blizzard Rustler 9 172
These skis felt vague and I felt like I couldn’t get them to engage the tips. On soft snow I could surf and smear them around, but that was about it. In the bumps there was too much tail; I kept catching it on the backside of bumps. This felt like a similar problem I had with my Brahma 82 until I moved the binding back 25mm. I don’t know what it is with me and the Blizzard 80+ width all mountain skis. I just don’t agree with their binding mount location. Their narrower frontside skis are perfect, it’s just this wider family of skis. Dunno. I thought about moving the binding on these to confirm this, but just didn’t really feel like it would be worth it so I moved on.
Salomon QST92 176
This was a good soft snow ski that provided a stable platform and was easy to ski at medium to long turns. I could steer them into shorter turns, but it wasn’t what they preferred. They seemed to have a decent mix of cutting through cut up snow but also had good ability to surf on top of the softer snow. I felt like they liked to be ridden more than driven. I was also very pleasantly surprised to find that they were very damp and held really well on the hard snow and icy patches. The rep said they’ve got rubber underfoot and if that’s what did it they did well with it.
Salomon Stance 90 176
With the two sheets of metal in this I felt it was a little too stiff for soft snow for me. They did OK in terms of being able to cut through the chop, and had some surfiness to them, but felt like I was riding them more than I was able to drive them.
Blizzard Thunderbird R14 Sport CA 170
I really enjoyed this ski last year on a firm groomer day, and was really looking forward to getting on them again today. They didn’t disappoint, but weren’t quite as much fun in these conditions and not as much fun as their bigger brother the R15 WB. First off, I felt they had a fairly narrow sweet spot, which I didn’t remember in last year’s version. They are a very light ski and easy to bend, so they did pretty well in the soft snow. I was pleasantly surprised to find that for such a light feeling ski they did well in cutting through the chop and not getting thrown around.
Too bad, they had some really fun offerings last year). We were able to select any skis that we liked from any category, with the expectation that we take a couple of runs on them and provide written feedback. I was translating my scribbles for myself and thought I'd share. I did my best to get a sense for each ski in the widest set of conditions I could in the limited runs. All thoughts and opinions are mine and mine alone. YMMV.Me: 45 year old male, 5'9" 155lbs.
Conditions: 40 degrees all day. Morning groomers were soft hero snow, got churned up into really nice soft corn by mid-morning, and then started to firm up a bit later in the day to be soft but choppy. Visibility was very poor; lots of braille skiing which, when coupled with new unknown skis, made for some interesting runs some of the time. I was able to find a really nice soft bump run mid-morning but otherwise it was variations on groomed. Overnight rain had also made for some interesting patches of watery ice sprinkled across the trail. Sometimes that was the trail and it hosted patches of soft spring snow. That's Spring skiing in New England
.Anyway, on to it. These are the skis in the order that they were tested. Again, a couple of runs apiece except where noted that I went back at the end of the day to do some more runs on a couple of pairs.
Rossi Exp 86 Ti 176
This ski was enjoyable to ski on the soft groomers. It has a large sweet spot, is very forgiving, and is very easy to ski at multiple turn radii. I ended up skiing this ski again in the afternoon to see how it did with more cut-up and heavy spring corn, and it did OK there. Wanted to cut through but didn’t really have the beef to do it. Not a ski to surf/smear on top, so it ends up getting bounced around a bit in those conditions. I would consider this a candidate as a solid daily driver, as it’s comfortable and easy at low speeds and still had enough edge grip at higher speeds. I personally think that there are more exciting skis in this width if you want to go mid-80’s underfoot for a daily driver, but this would fit well in that category.
Elan Wingman 86 CTI 172
This was the ski for me today. So much fun! To start, it’s a very light and playful ski. It’s very forgiving and easy to throw around if needed. Turn shape variation is there: seems to hold well on medium and long turns and can easily be steered into short turns. I did notice that on firm and icy patches the tip likes to flap. It’s a bit noisy and I noticed it, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. I skied this again in the afternoon in the heavier cut-up and they did get bounced around a bit. They’re light, so they were easy to suft/smear in the softer corn and for a light ski actually did well on edge cutting through too. In the bumps, these skis were superb. Silky smooth and way fun! This ski seems to fill the soft snow/bump spot that my Bushwackers currently hold, but I think this is a strong candidate to replace them as they’re much more fun.
Elan Ripstick 88 172
These were OK, but didn’t really wow me. They were easy to surf on top of the soft corn, but anything firmer I noticed they were pretty noisy and had even more tip flap than the Wingman. Forgiving in the bumps, but not super quick. They definitely felt wider and slower than the Wingman.
Salomon Stance 84 177
I felt these skis needed you to be on the sweet spot to perform. If you were back at all, you were just along for the ride on a medium radius turn. Once you found it, though, they were very responsive and had some really nice pop out of short radius turns. Driving medium to long turns they had really good edge hold and were quick to change edges.
Blizzard Thunderbird R15 WB 174
Wow! These kick ass! I had so much fun ripping on these with some of the firmer groomers. Absolutely no speed limit on them, and they encouraged mach schnell skiing. They really come alive at speed, have tenacious edge hold, and are super quick edge to edge. These would be a blast as an East Coast daily carver, but also dangerous. Like racing a sports car through a school zone... They do well to cut through the soft and cut up snow, but a little too stiff to do short turns well in those conditions.
Dynastar Speed Pro 82 179
Ugh. One run and done. These skis and I did not get along at all. I couldn’t find a condition in which they would hold an edge, and even in soft snow they just seemed to want to completely wash out. Try to engage the tip, and as soon as the ski went through the fall line, the tail would just completely swing around. Ugh.
Elan Amphibio 18 Ti2 172
These skis felt too stiff to have any life in soft snow. On firmer groomers, I could see that there was something there, they have good grip and seemed to prefer medium to long turns, as I couldn’t bend them enough in soft snow to get tighter radius turns. They feel like strong hard snow carving skis, but just didn’t have the flex pattern to have any life in soft snow.
Blizzard Rustler 9 172
These skis felt vague and I felt like I couldn’t get them to engage the tips. On soft snow I could surf and smear them around, but that was about it. In the bumps there was too much tail; I kept catching it on the backside of bumps. This felt like a similar problem I had with my Brahma 82 until I moved the binding back 25mm. I don’t know what it is with me and the Blizzard 80+ width all mountain skis. I just don’t agree with their binding mount location. Their narrower frontside skis are perfect, it’s just this wider family of skis. Dunno. I thought about moving the binding on these to confirm this, but just didn’t really feel like it would be worth it so I moved on.
Salomon QST92 176
This was a good soft snow ski that provided a stable platform and was easy to ski at medium to long turns. I could steer them into shorter turns, but it wasn’t what they preferred. They seemed to have a decent mix of cutting through cut up snow but also had good ability to surf on top of the softer snow. I felt like they liked to be ridden more than driven. I was also very pleasantly surprised to find that they were very damp and held really well on the hard snow and icy patches. The rep said they’ve got rubber underfoot and if that’s what did it they did well with it.
Salomon Stance 90 176
With the two sheets of metal in this I felt it was a little too stiff for soft snow for me. They did OK in terms of being able to cut through the chop, and had some surfiness to them, but felt like I was riding them more than I was able to drive them.
Blizzard Thunderbird R14 Sport CA 170
I really enjoyed this ski last year on a firm groomer day, and was really looking forward to getting on them again today. They didn’t disappoint, but weren’t quite as much fun in these conditions and not as much fun as their bigger brother the R15 WB. First off, I felt they had a fairly narrow sweet spot, which I didn’t remember in last year’s version. They are a very light ski and easy to bend, so they did pretty well in the soft snow. I was pleasantly surprised to find that for such a light feeling ski they did well in cutting through the chop and not getting thrown around.
