Women at the top of their game can now buy Rossignol’s highest-performing, gender-specific ski ever. The lineup includes: REV 105 (144/105/131), REV 90 (135/90/116), REV 75 (125/75/109), REV 85 Pro (131/85/113), REV 80 Pro (129/80/111) and Rev 80 (129/80/111) with sandwich cap construction and World Cup-ready bases while the lightest of the bunch, the REV 75, sports a carbon jacket. Several women-specific skis in Head’s MYA lineup also feature ERA 3.0. Head forwards its dampening Intellifibres to eliminate the bane of rockered technology-high-speed chatter. Heralded as “Rocker done right,” the lineup features 20 per cent rocker and a progressive radius (essentially a dual radius that performs like a GS ski when ridden casually, but can dig in for quick slalom turns) anywhere from 13.5 to 16m, depending on underfoot width-on demand. ERA 3.0 (a combination of technologies, ski shape and geometry) is the name of this year’s broadcast. Recent World Cup-podium domination has made it clear-when Head’s R&D department comes up with a new technology, skiers listen. The mountain is your canvas-these All-Mountain boards your brush. Forget what you learned in high school it’s time for new tricks. Post-Euclidean geometry and profiling results in slarving, ollieing and slashing. Rocker in all its variants is just the beginning. And while ski manufacturers make sure you’re welcome to just keep on carving, if that is indeed your style, newer technologies are opening up the lexicon.

Underfoot measurements in the 80s are now commonplace, but manufacturers are pushing the envelope beyond 100mm. Competition for the 2013 ski season is fiercer than ever. The lion’s share of R&D finds itself here in the All-Mountain category as ski manufacturers blend their top technologies into that perfect quiver of one.

Dps 2013 skis