Demo day yesterday. 8" of heavy snow after a snowy week. 220lbs, 5'10". Here's my thoughts:
Blizzard Rustler 9 180: These skis split the difference between fun and charge. Good snow feel everywhere. Stiff-ish flex and good tip shape. They float well for what they are and charge decently hard in the heavier snow. Require some micromanagement and balance in the heavier snow, but with thoughtful skiing keeping them in the fall line and standing on my two feet I experienced no bad manners or tip dive on a day with lots of heavy cut up snow. Lots of fun and like the ease of mixing in shorter turns and dancing around obstacles compared to the generally chargier skis in my quiver. They also have enough underfoot stiffness and the right shape to really carve up the softish groomers, both long and medium turns are amazing.
stockli SR 95 2020 175 Note: These are a bit small for me but apparently all they have made as yet per the rep. I decided to try em.
Review: Smoother than a $100 bottle of scotch. Super easy to ski and with tons of performance and a few limitations. Long turns they cruise really nicely and just eat up the terrain with smoothness. In the heavy cut up, they did better than any ski this length and width should. Going faster in the cut up snow, I almost went ass over tea kettle a couple times, but the skis had just enough stability to keep it together. In short turns off piste, and when you suck your legs up underneath you, the ski really comes alive. I discovered this in some narrow skied out trees off JP and the SR95 challenged me to ski faster and with more agility and precision in short radius than ever have done before and then realize this thing is a powerhouse if you do it right. In terms of long raidus turns on groomers, its like trying to ski long turns on a SL ski - meh. I guess the longer versions of this ski will do better for fast cruising and long turns.
Head Kore 93 180: Easy with a nice top end. I skied these in the afternoon with my kids. The first thing I noticed getting off the lift is they have a weird "no feel" on groomers at low edge angles. "Is this thing on?" They got knocked around a bit too at low edge angles. After leaning them over a bit more they start to give feedback. Bad tune maybe? Once I got the feel of them, they actually carve a good turn and feel very solid. Prefer a more neutral pressure than I would have thought from a head ski. We went off trail with them and they are even easier to ski in cut up then those above. Just stupid easy to ski at low to medium speeds. Didn't really open it up on them, but I think if you keep them turning they will charge well enough through some really tough snow conditions off trail.
Nordica El Capo 185: Last couple runs of the day on these with a fresh stone grind. Crushed it off trail, big to medium turns, so nice to have enough ski to just be on the outside ski in the heavy stuff at the end of the day. If you want to ski it fast these are the skis. I think these are better on late day groomers then the Kore 93 and Stockli 95. Rustler 9s have them beat tho.