Wide All Mountain Ski Comparison: 100-110 mm - Sierra Jim
See the 2015 Wide All Mountain Ski Comparison Here
For some years, there was a pretty significant trend among good skiers, especially in the west, to experiment with wider and wider skis as everyday choices.
As these skis proliferated and rocker started sprouting up on almost everything, this became more and more common, generated more and more hype, and the ski manufacturers poured out dozens of models every year.
Pretty soon, we were seeing folks out on the hill with 110-120mm wide skis on days when it hadn’t snowed in a week or more. Often, these skis would have pretty significant rocker and you could hear the tips flapping around from a hundred yards away.
Everyone seemed happy at first, and all was smiles and giggles but eventually, the trend started to reverse itself. Some of these skiers were (and still are) happy with “powder” skis for everyday use, but a pretty fair number came back to the store to buy an 88-98mm ski to go along with the big ones.
It didn’t take long for the market trend to slowly start to reverse and the ski manufacturers started knocking down the amounts of rocker and they put the brakes on introductions of new skis beyond the 118mm (or so) range.
Meanwhile, the sales of the 95-98mm skis had taken off, and the Volkl Mantra became the best selling ski in the US market a few years ago. There was soon plenty of competition as a number of really successful skis in that width range hit the market, and sure enough, sales shot up.
The folks that had a powder ski and a 95-98mm ski were pretty well set and as long as they were OK with multiple skis, it was all good. However, there were skiers that were just tired altogether of the really wide stuff, and others that only wanted one ski, but wanted a little more soft snow bias than what most of the 98s offered.
The ski makers have pounced on this trend and are now introducing a lot of new “all mountain” skis in the 103-108mm range, also called big mountain skis, or freeride skis. Many of these skis are highly useful for the skier who prioritizes soft conditions but still has to deal with packed snow from time to time. Most of these models have some rocker but usually not a lot of it.
Most are notably softer overall than the various 95-98mm skis, and many don’t use metal. A fair number of these skis are fairly light and are also marketed as alpine/touring crossover skis in the hopes that will entice buyers.
Last season we only tested a few skis in this width but for this season, we tested over a dozen. Like the two narrower all mountain categories there are a lot of really good skis in this category as well.
The Cochise returns to the Blizzard line for its third season unchanged from prior versions. When the Cochise was introduced, there was very little to compare it to in the 105-108mm width range.
For 2014, there are far more choices and the positioning of this category becomes more clear. We categorize this width range as wide all mountain skis, big mountain skis or freeride skis, and when compared to their 95-98mm brethren, these skis all have more of a soft snow bias.
These can be one ski quivers for the true expert skier with a greater than 50/50 priority toward soft and deep snow vs. packed conditions. These also make great skis for the wide end of a two ski quiver or for skiers that just don’t care for the rather floppy feel of some of the powder specific models.
This category also gives the skier a tool with greater multi-day, post storm capability than most powder specific skis. While most skis in this category are cambered with tip and tail rocker in various amounts, the Cochise one of the very few that is flat underfoot, with no conventional cambered section.
My most varied season of testing on the Cochise came a couple of years back when we had a lot of snow. Here is little capsule of that on snow review and it still holds true today:
“We had a Cochise in 185 in the store for much of this very heavy snow year for Tahoe, and I got the chance to try it in every situation imaginable. The Cochise felt grippy and solid on wind buff at the top of Mammoth, and stable and powerful in the heavy 2 o'clock crud at Squaw on a powder day.
Like the Bonafide, the Cochise is truly versatile but it is certainly more biased toward soft and heavy snow than toward packed conditions. Like many skis in this width category, this is a ski for a good skier with an appetite for speed in off trail situations.
Unlike some however, the Cochise has tip and tail rocker, so it initiated more easily then some skis with tip rise only. By not having a cambered section in the center, the Cochise sacrifices a little stability at low edge angles, and it does not engage as quickly as skis with more camber.
Fortunately, the amount of Rocker is low enough that when some edge angles do develop, the ski is very solid and stable. The Cochise is better in truly deep snow than the 95-98mm skis, but of course does not feel as quick or nimble when the snow is a week old or bumps are starting to form up.
This ski is generally not recommended as a learning tool for an intermediate.”
The Peacemaker is the new for 2014 model in Blizzards “Free Mountain Twin” grouping. The Peacemaker is similar in build and rocker/camber to the Gunsmoke but is one centimeter narrower at the waist.
For all the seeming similarities, the Peacemaker skis pretty differently than the Gunsmoke. This is one of the lightest and quickest of all the skis in the 104-108mm range, and it is one of the best of all of them in bumps.
The Peacemaker has reasonable grip underfoot, and the dampening is good but this is not a ski that excels on really hard snow.
On snow, the Peacemaker dazzled with its nimble feel and it snaked through the rough and frozen windpack at Mammoth better than many of the skis in this width range.
As you might expect, the Peacemaker was much quicker on groomers, and in tight spots like trees than wider or heavier skis. The Peacemakers forte is really the mix of conditions that one finds when off trail in the west.
This ski favors a lighter touch from the skier over powerful input, and it is well suited for a finesse type skier looking for a wider daily driver with a notable bias toward softer conditions.
When looking at the Blizzard collection, the Peacemaker is better suited for improving skiers as well as advanced skiers of moderate aggressiveness than the Cochise.
Nordica Vagabond & Nordica El Capo
Nordica has jumped into this width category with two new ski models that are based off of their tried and true constructions from the Hell and Back, and the late Enforcer.
Both of these new skis have entirely new shapes to go along with this new 107mm width, and the shapes are identical. Both new skis have low tip rise, even lower tail rise, and both tip and tail have a subtle taper.
The Vagabond is based upon the Hell and Back, meaning no metal in the layup and a lightweight stringer down the center of the wood core, while the El Capo has metal top and bottom, and a solid core.
Because these two skis are so similar in shape, I decided to ski them back to back and review them together. It is worth noting that these skis have a very long material length, and a 185 is every bit as long as many 188s.
However, the low rockered sections at tip and tail are pretty long and so the running length is not so long as the overall look might indicate.
My first run on the Vagabond came at Mammoth and the first turns were down the tightest bumps on the infamous side of chair #1. These weren’t real bumps in the sense of calling it a mogul field but rather they were only about half formed and firmed and scoured by the wind.
Right away the light weight of the Vagabond made it feel exceptionally quick for this wide of a ski (and in a 185 length). The tapered tip helped the ski to snake easily into the turns and the tail never threatened to hang up.
I broke off the quick turns right near the bottom, and made a hard left traverse at pretty good speed. Because the hill is dropping away to the left, this gives the sensation that you are skiing around a giant round ball and that you are actually going uphill as you traverse to get more turns.
When I had the room, I dropped back down the fall line, and this time, I opened it up to medium-high speeds and the Vagabond was still easy and nimble, but the rough traverse and the varied windscoured snow was no challenge either. One more traverse left and I got to the steepest part and here I went from short to medium to long turns in quick succession.
This lightweight ski didn’t feel shaky at all until the very last turn or two, and even that was on really rattly snow. I took the last run down to the lift as an opportunity to see how fast the Vagabond could go on groomers, but I really couldn’t find a limit so, I couldn’t answer my own question.
The light Vagabond is really nimble for a ski of this width and has the typical Nordica grip,which is among the best in class. The dampening is better than expected for such a light ski but not quite the equal of a couple others in this category.
When I steered the El Capo across to the same run I had been down minutes before on the Vagabond, I was sorta thinking to myself “man ... this better be good, ‘cause the Vagabond is a hard act to follow."
I followed the previous run almost turn for turn, and the differing personality of the El Capo was evident right away. The El Capo was not as nimble as the Vagabond had been but it was glassy smooth and damp.
The El Capo wanted to make a medium turn and seemed to be waiting for the throttle to be cracked. The faster I went, the more the El Capo wanted to go for it. The bend was continuous from the tip to the tail and felt just right. Through the roughest sections of this pitch, the El Capo felt totally controlled and it just wouldn’t shake loose.
This is not a really stiff ski, but like the old Enforcer of years gone by, the flex seemed just right, and the stability, grip and dampening are top notch.
The difference between the El Cap and the Vagabond are simply different personalities. The El Capo is smooth, stable and quiet while the Vagabond is light, springy and quick. Both do a great job and are among our favorites in the category.
The choice between these two is very much a Ginger vs. Mary Ann thing. It would be a tough choice between the two, but you sorta couldn’t go wrong with either.
Like its brother ski, the Volkl Mantra, the Volkl Gotama has been in the lineup for some years. While the Mantra has not changed much, the Gotama has gone through some significant reincarnations.
The Gotama started out as a fairly wide for its day (105mm) ski with a medium flex, and it was an immediate hit both as a powder ski and as a daily driver choice among Tahoe experts.
The first big change came when Volkl added continuous tip to tail rocker to the Gotama. This made it a better powder ski for sure, but many skiers felt it detracted from the overall usefulness of the ski.
After a scant couple of years, Volkl did another complete redesign of the Gotama with the idea of re-targeting the everyday ski for the big mountain skier. The current version has been unchanged since 2012, and it may have been the first of what is now a large category of skis. This is the only fully rockered ski in this category.
I generally pass on skiing this width range of skis at Winter Park, and so my first test came later in the test cycle starting at Mammoth. This year there was big batch of skis to test in this width and since the Gotama was a known quantity, I placed it at the front of the test group in order to “set the bar."
It is important to note that I don’t expect “big mountain” skis to be powder specialty tools. Instead, I expect them to ski like a wide all mountain ski. I immediately noted that this version of the Gotama has very little of the negatives that one might expect from a fully rockered ski.
This ski is quite solid and predictable when skiing mixed and challenging snow. Compared to skis with tapered tips and tails, the Gotama can feel a little “catchy” on the rough and wind scoured terrain at Mammoth. As I skied out the first run on the groomers, I felt that because the Gotama is a continuously rockered ski, at lower edge angles, it does not have the secure feel of a conventionally cambered model.
However, once it is up on edge I felt that it now feels much like a conventionally cambered ski, and stability is really very good. I think this is because the rocker is pretty low and you can get enough angle to quiet down the whole ski. Last year, late in the year, I got into some snow with 12-18” depth and both untracked and cut up and skied out.
In these conditions, the Gotama is not as floaty as a powder ski, but for its width, this is a very capable ski in deeper snow. The Gotama is solidly in the running as an everyday choice in this width category.
The Ritual returns unchanged except for graphics from last year. This is one of those skis that we talk about when the discussion turns to the “one ski quiver” for a good western skier.
To us, this designation means a skier with roughly a 50/50 bias between hard packed snow and softer or deeper snow, and the ability to handle most off trail type terrain. Naturally, these are neither dedicated groomer tools nor are they powder specific skis either. Many skis in this category are in the 95-98mm width range and several of them have stiff metal layup constructions.
At 103mm the Ritual is a little wider than that, and while it uses a titanium spine, it also has a slightly softer, more forgiving flex. These factors combined with a small rocker in the tip and tail cause the Ritual to be a little more soft snow or off trail biased than some of the other 50/50 type skis.
In the last two seasons, I have tested the Ritual in a variety of hard and soft conditions. In soft snow and especially crud with a bit of depth to it (say 8-12” or so) the Ritual is very smooth and easy, but it is also quite nimble and light feeling for a ski of this size. This is especially beneficial a day or two after a small dump when the prior days 12” of powder is starting to think about becoming bumps.
When out on the groomers, the Ritual is comfortable at most speeds. and when tipped up on a high edge angle, the Ritual will pull the skier through a medium radius carve but is won’t power out with a lot of energy like a flatter tailed ski might.
The Ritual has adequate grip for what I would describe as firm snow. Really hard or icy snow is not the forte of the Ritual and that’s why we categorize it as mostly a western snow biased ski.
The Shreditor 102 is the narrowest of this series of skis that are marketed by K2 as the Sean Pettit pro models (or some such moniker).
The 102 is on the softer side in flex, and has the tip rocker that one would expect but also it has substantial tail rocker as well. This ski was only tested out west.
In the mixed and variable conditions at Alpine and Mammoth, the Shreditor 102 was most at home in soft conditions and at moderate speeds. This is a very easy going ski with a jibby, playful feel and a silky ride in soft conditions.
On the really rough stuff at Mammoth, the 102 was easy going and easy to snake through bumps, but it got knocked around a little if I skied it too fast. K2 has always been known for damp skis and this one was no exception.
Despite getting deflected a bit in the rough stuff, the Shreditor 102 felt comfortable. Out on the groomers, the 102 had average grip but was smoother than expected. This is definitely a soft snow biased ski and is best suited for those who not have “charge” really high on their agenda.
This makes a great powder ski for a lighter skier, a skier with a passing acquaintance with the terrain park, or a moderate personal speed limit.
The Quest 105 is new model that is an offshoot of the the popular “Rocker 2” series. Compared to the R2 skis, the Quest models are more directional, less rockered, and more geared toward all mountain use. The Q 105 falls in the middle of the range of flexes, within this category.
I first tested the Salomon Q 105 out west at Alpine and it got a full dose of firm snow there. Later, I got it out in the rough and variable off trail snow at Mammoth.
The Quest has a nice even flex balance, and felt effortless in the rough and mixed snow. The rockered tip steered and engaged easily, and the tail released without problems. As speeds picked up on that rough and uneven terrain, the Quest remained stable and comfortable up to the last few turns where it started to bounce around a little.
Skiing out onto the groomers, the Quest showed good grip and adequate dampening and had a light and nimble sort of feel.
Among skis in this width range, the Quest 105 is very slightly soft snow biased and is a good fit for all but the heaviest of aggressive skiers.
Dynastar Cham 107 High Mountain
The High Mountain series from Dynastar has the same mold shape and profile as the Cham 107, but the High Mountain does not have metal layers. Rather, it is built around aramid fibers as the main structural layers surrounding the light wood core.
The Cham 107 has a sharply rockered and tapered tip profile combined with a conventional cambered ski body and the camber runs all the way to the tail. In addition, the tail has a very pronounced taper that creates a defined rear contact point.
The combination of shapes, camber, rocker and flex creates a ski with a very unique feel.
This ski was marketed as a backcountry ski last year, and sure enough a couple of our employees skied it (and loved it) with Dynafits all last year. I have to admit that I had ignored this ski as a potential all mountain ski for alpine setups until I skied it starting at Mammoth. Those tests totally changed my thinking on the High Mountain.
I got on the HM 107 about halfway through my test agenda at Mammoth and like all the other skis, I got off the top of Chair 2 and made a beeline for the sidehill test arena off of chair one.
Right from the first few turns, I was dazzled by how quick and nimble the 107 felt. This ski whipped into short radius, fall line turns quicker than any other ski in this width range despite the fact that at (190 cm) it was the longest ski that I was on that day.
After a hard left traverse, I got to my second pass where I started to pick up speeds and edge angles. Through the medium radius turns and the tightest parts of the growing moguls, the HM was again amazingly nimble and the tail was very easy to release in the tighter spots.
One more hard left traverse brought me to the steepest part of the run that was also the most open. In this area, the turns flow out into a longer radius and again, entry and release were seamless. In this area, the pronounced tip rise fluttered a bit but the dramatic rocker and taper kept it really easy to maneuver between the scoured bumps and ridges.
When the pitch spat me out on the groomers, I had an opening in traffic and so I dove right down the fall line without stopping. The taper and rocker of the “elf shoe” tip are dramatic enough that you can’t really engage it very much and so as speeds picked up on the groomers, there was a little bit of flutter from the tips.
This was not significant and didn’t affect the stability of the ski and in any case it was not as much as several other skis in this width range. The tail on this ski is stiff enough and cambered enough that you can really stand on it and you’ll get a strong firm feeling at speeds.
To me, the Cham 107 was one of the biggest surprises of this test. I give this ski a soft snow bias and you have to live with the tip flutter a little but this ski is a great combination of solid and nimble and an all mountain ski for the west.
This ski had very good alpine cred to go along with it’s great utility as a backcountry tool as well.
Stockli StormRider 107
By the time I got around to testing the SR 107, I had tested all the other Stockli models I was interested in and had already concluded that I was going to bring in the brand.
Normally, this category would not be tested on the hard snow at Winter Park but this year, I did do a few and the SR 107 was one of them. To make a long story short, the grip and dampening of the SR was at the top of the heap among this width range of skis.In fact the grip was better than many of the narrower all mountain skis.
Out West, I couldn’t wait to get the SR into soft and deep snow but conditions didn’t enable this at first. At Mammoth, I got the 107 into the weird conditions available there at the time.
From the first turns, I felt that this ski was easy to initiate, and it smoothed out the rough and mixed conditions seamlessly. The 107 is not particularly stiff, but it does have the feel of a medium to long turn biased ski.
The SR 107 has a slight tip rocker and the extremities are modestly tapered. These factors along with the flex make this ski very maneuverable, considering that it is one of the heavier skis in this this width grouping.
We had a 183 demo in our store for the rest of the year, and the SR 107 got skied in every condition that the west had to offer. While there were no deep days that spring, there were some wind blown crud days, and the Storm Rider was a staff favorite in a wide range of conditions.
One of our female testers (a freeride competitor) came back to work one day and handed me some of her her test cards. The card for the SR 107 had one word written on it; "WOW.”
I believe that is an accurate description.
When the intro season started, there was much interest in the new Soul 7 due to several factors.
First, this was a new width range for Rossi where they really had not had much going on in the past. Second, Rossi was making a pretty significant move toward reducing rocker in many of their wider skis and this was a big move from the company that brought us the S3 and the S7.
Third, and probably most interesting, was their use of a light, honeycomb material in the tip and tail in order to reduce swing weight. Corresponding to that, they were using a translucent top skin in the extremities so you could actually see through the honeycomb material. This is one of the higher profile skis in this category and it got a lot of test laps last year.
Out on snow, the Soul 7 got it’s first laps at Winter Park. Normally, I wouldn’t test this category of ski on the firm groomers there, but this is an important category and I did test a few completely new models in order to a general feel for the category on conditions that are sort of at the “edge of their box” so to speak.
When lapping the groomed hard snow in Co. the Soul 7 was adequate if not outstanding in grip and dampening. The Soul did, however, feel very light and maneuverable, and while it takes a while to go from edge to edge, the overall feel was nimble. When tipped up and engaged, the Soul 7 has a pretty tight natural turn radius within the context of this category.
Out west, the Soul was tested several times and it was clearly more in it’s element. On the rough, wind scoured, snow at the side of chair one, the light and nimble feel of the Soul 7 made it very easy to slip between the half formed bumps and the grip on the styrofoam-like scoured off spots was just right.
On the other hand, the light tip did get knocked around a little in those rough conditions. Later I got the chance to ski in a bit of soft snow that had blown around from one of our 6-inch “mega dumps” and this is where the Soul was at it’s best.
The flex felt just right and ski would bend and come around with little input necessary from the skier. Through all the testing, the recurring theme of light and nimble came forth. I would place this ski as a little soft snow biased and a nice choice within the category for any size skier that prizes off trail capabilities.