The Soul 7 has been possibly our most popular ski over the past 4-5 years. There was a complaint on the first versions of this ski that the skis were too soft and chattery. Now, the 2018 Soul 7 HD has carbon stringers along with Rossignol's all-new Air Tip 2.0 which provides internal reinforcement that eliminates instability for concentrated power and energy throughout the ski. I can tell you that all of this technical jargon made quite the difference. When I recently skied the Soul 7 HD at Arapahoe Basin- I had a day where I encountered almost every condition you could imagine and the ski shone bright in each scenario. Obviously this ski floated beautifully on top of the 4-5 inches we were treated with that morning. The fresh snow was great but being a spring day, underneath was crunchy and honestly, unforgiving. The Soul 7 HD was able to float perfectly over the top of the fluff but dug in a serious edge when you needed it. There is no metal in the ski but it sure does grip and rip like one that does. Groomers were great too- no chatter at all. I am 5ft 10in and 220lbs the 180cm is absolutely perfect.
Being a big fan of the original Soul 7, I was pretty psyched to hop on the HD version, which I hoped would ski with a higher speed limit and more stability on hard snow than its predecessor. I took the new Soul to Colorado's Loveland Ski Area. True to its rap sheet, the ski floated, smeared, and maneuvered with unbeaten ease down steep faces that were untracked but wind-packed and a bit chunky. These are the conditions in which a lot of otherwise-fun soft-snow skis get hooky. The Soul (still) doesn't, and the added stiffness helps when you need to bust choppy pockets.
As far hard-snow performance, the addition of carbon does stiffen the Soul and make for a more stable ride. They key is that it does this without compromising any of the skiability of the previous model. So all Soul lovers will be pleased, and the ski will undoubtedly convert some skeptics. It does still have a speed limit, though, so if you're a larger skier or ex-racer/hard-charger, you still may look elsewhere.