I had to go for a business meeting to atiny little  ski resort called Himos, in central Finland. The schedule was pretty tight and much of it was spent consuming signifigant amount of alcohol. I also had borrowed telemark skis under me, and I could tell you the (novice) telemarking was not that fun under the prevailing conditions…

However, in the afternoon I was luckily able to test some 07/08 Rossignol skis. The slopes of Himos are not too high but it is still a first place up north where we can can have some pretty decent turns instead of local hills nearby that only serve well for park stuff. So, I took the opportunity to test a couple of skis and here is the brief review from pretty sloppy conditions.

Rossignol B 100 Quad, 184cm

• Heavy, felt like a totally bombproof contruction (just an impression, can’t say anything about the real durability)
• Long shark nose that probably is great in powder and won’t hook up in crud
• No twin – only a very slight flare. I’m a fan of twin tips but occasionally a feel of square tailed, “real” ski is very nice!
• Rossignol states that the radius of the skis in 25m – but it felt larger. Barely carved turns on the said hill, I had to really take up some speed at first (an when that happened I was actually over the half way from top to bottom).
• Old school pivoted/slided turns felt great on the crappy conditions prevailing. I think that these skis would kill all kinds of “tricky snow” – very predictable touch
• Kind of lazy feeling, no clear “pop” from turns to turns (ok, I was lazy as it gets on the day, so take that with a grain of salt…), coudn’t test the real speed limit but the skis felt great at speed, on the few real turns I could milk from the said hill
• Softer than I expected (compared to the very stiff B-Squad 104′s)…probably the same or just a tad stiffer than newer Gotamas
• I didn’t get too exited though.It felt like this ski is a “work horse” type – does everything you want but not didn’t provided anything really exiting (could be agood thing too if you want a ski that just does it job)
• If I could choose I probably would take these to the steep couloirs and/or busting crud on smaller hills…for a bit smaller skier I guess this would be a great big mountain ski for varying conditions
• Personally, as an ex-owner of Head Supermojos (or Im103 as the model was named back then), I have to say I like skis with a bit more turny feel…and also have a growing interest on floaty, surfy rockered skis for soft snow. Straight, stiff, old school GS/SG feel, wide skis are really good for the job they are intented for but also a bit dull IMHO

Bandit B 94 (185cm)

• After skiing the Quad 100′s I was waiting these to be more fun and energetic
• I only took two runs on these (and same conditions holding again)
• Still, I didn’t liked this ski too much:
• Felt much softer than the Quad 100
• Dead and lazy feeling but chattered on GS turns at speed
• Could probably be an OK short, fall-line turner or nimble ski in tight situations (trees, chutes) for a lighter or not so agressive skier – anyway I felt like I could either overpower and/or break the speed limit (too easily) with these skis. A clear disappointment, I have to say…