Armada says the TST excels at both carving on hard pack and blasting through trees in fresh powder. The TST is constructed with rocker at the tip and camber underfoot to give it float, stability, and power. Did Armada accomplish everything they set out to do? The answer for most skiers is a definite yes!
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The TST is built using Armada’s Hybrid Ultralight wood core to save weight, and it is certainly a lightweight ski. Beyond being light, the ski is also designed to reduce chatter–and does a pretty good job of doing just that. It excels at speed, and carves well on hard pack. They can take a little extra effort to keep the edges on track, but the ski is very quick edge-to-edge and transitions smoothly.
And once you get off the hard pack, these skis really love getting kicked sideways! If that is your thing, then the TST definitely need to be on your list. I have been skiing the Mary Jane chutes for the last 19 years and so it was only fair that these skis got a trip through there as well.
I dropped straight into the chutes, flicked the skis sideways to ride the tails down the snow covered wall, went a little airborne to make two more turns, and then came flying out with a huge smile on my face. From my years of experience, I can tell you that this is a great option to tackle these chutes! But, I can also tell you that this is not how I would normally ski this terrain. I would typically execute a few turns down the fall line until you can find a powder stash at the bottom. But the Armada TST didn’t want to ski that way.
Now that I’ve listed my favorite things about these skis, here are a few caveats. I am 6’2”, weigh 200 pounds, and I’m not a finesse skier. Combine that with the 183cm length I was using, and I found this pair to be too flexible for my tastes. I was wishing for the 192cm, and I would recommend going up in size if you are an aggressive skier choosing between lengths. I think that will provide you with more balance, power, control, and stability. Then again, I would’ve liked a little more maneuverability in tight trees and moguls, where the skis took extra energy to get through those tight turns. They also aren’t the perfect hard-charging skis in crud snow: I found they bounced around a little more then I wanted them to.
If you are looking for something with a similar waist width but more power, check out Zack’s review of the Moment PB&J. It’s another great quiver-of-one for western, big-mountain skiers.
So do I recommend this ski? Absolutely! They might not be the perfect do-everything ski for heavier or very aggressive skiers–but, for the vast majority of people, the Armada TST is a great every-day, all-mountain choice.
