Nordica Hot Rod Afterburner

Pulled from my original post:

Conditions: I skied December 20th at Copper Mountain, CO, USA after a reported 5" of new snow (it snowed all day, but not too hard) on top of a decent base. Conditions ranged from a few powder shots (12" or so on the upper mountain) to soft bumps, to ungroomed blues.

Ski: Nordica Hot Rod Afterburner, 170 cm

Review

I have been skiing the Mach 3 Power since I stopped demoing in November, and this was day 10 on-snow for this season. I have really enjoyed the Mach 3 Ps for their edge power (especially under foot) and their ability to shape turns and adjust turn styles. Since the snow was expected to be soft and the Afterburners are 84mm underfoot, it seemed a good time to get out on them for the first time.

I skied these straight out of the box with only a fresh wax as preparation.

In a word: Fun!

For a ski this wide, they arc wonderfully on the more packed conditions, are light and lively everywhere on the mountain, and showed some special capabilities in the low-visibility cut up snow near the summit.

Groomed and semi-groomed: The first few runs we took were from the top of the American Flyer chair down to the American Flyer run, and then up and down the Timerline chair for a couple of hours. I was guiding a group of OHG members, and we were hunting for good snow without turning up the volume too much.

While arcing down from the chair on the groomed, I was relieved that they felt just as snappy as I remembered. For a wider mid-fat, they handle very well on edge, allow for a wide selection of carved arcs, and seemed to encourage me to really work the progressiveness of my edge angles. Unintentionally, I jetted away from the group as I picked up more speed than I realized before stopping at the top of the run. As a result, I dialed it back and skied very slowly with a lot of drifted/brushed short radius turns. The skis handled the change wonderfully. No sense that they wanted to lock on the edges, and yet no complaints when I wanted to lock into an arc, either. Nice!

Bumps: Off Timerline, most of the bumps we skied were fairly gentle. The 170s were a good length to guide through the bumps, I could keep the tips on the snow, and did not feel that I was tossed around by the skis at all. I could dance them through very short turns or let them run a little. Overall, they helped smooth out the rough edges of the bumps.

Powder/Bumps: Later in the day, we headed up Sierra lift and tried both sides of the ridge (Retreat a couple of times, and Little Trees once). This is one of my favorite areas of Copper, with big powder bumps on Retreat and rolling powder in the trees of Little Trees. In these conditions, the Afterburners motored through the change-ups from untracked to cut-up, smooth rollers to 3' bumps (all snow-covered). What I noticed was that I didn't have to notice! No anticipation of snow changes was necessary. Just follow the tips down the runs.

Summary: A delightful wider ski that offers a broad range of performance for the improving and even expert skier. My lighter weight and preference for snappy skis and turns has me on the 170. The 178 may appeal to those who prefer a more GS feel or who want more float. For me, the 170s were a very nice choice.

My stats:

Height: 6'
Weight: 175lbs
Other equipment: Nordica Aggressor 150 boots
Skiing skills: 36th season skiing, ski most of the mountain, but prefer powder, and smooth steeps. New skis have me loving groomed terrain, again, even the very gentle. PSIA Level II.

 I demoed these skis at Crystal Mountain among a few others and liked them enough to purchase a pair. I was looking for a ski that could handle crud better than my Salomon Pocket Rockets.  I skied the Nordicas three times and just couldn't get them to respond well.  I don't know if it was the 170cm length, but I ended up putting them up for sale and got rid of them quickly.  One of my ski buddy's purchased a pair and loves them, so maybe it was just me.  I do know that he has problems with them in anything over 12" of fresh, but that's to be expected with an 84mm waist.  I got a pair of Volkl Mantras last summer and skied them this season (08-09) and found them to be excellent.