This past weekend I made two absolutely incredible decisions: 1 – I got out of town and headed to Taos, New Mexico; and 2 – I brought along a pair of 2016 Head Venturi 95 skis.
Click here to get your own pair of Head Venturi skis.
As seems to happen with many of my ski trips, I scheduled our trip in the midst of a dry spell. Without any new snow, I wanted a ski under 100mm underfoot, but because I prefer to ski off piste, I opted to avoid a designated carving ski. The last time I skied Taos, the chair up Kachina Peak had not yet been installed, and I spent most of the weekend hiking for turns.With the new chair up and running, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I knew I’d find steep bumps, tight trees, and a few groomers to connect the dots, so versatility was a key factor in my ski choice. Now, I don’t mean to brag, I don’t mean to boast, but I like hot butter on my breakfast toast – almost as much as I liked these skis.
For my style of skiing, which is mostly straight down the fall line, keeping speeds fairly high, the Venturi was a dream. Effortless in bumps and the more technical (Kachina Peak) lines that featured no-fall zones, cornices, trees, bushes, shark fins, small cliff drops, and a few terrified intermediate skiers who had disregarded the menacing warning signs posted all over, warning off all non-expert skiers. The Venturi 95s were super quick and responsive, they were forgiving, and they were reliable. Wide enough to float in the few stashes I found, soft enough to be an easy-flexing, quick-turner, but stiff enough to charge the groomers back to the base chair with a very high speed limit.
Like many skis that share the Venturi’s rocker profile (rockered tips and tails, camber underfoot), these skis handle very easily, but what set them apart was their stellar performance and versatility in variable conditions and terrain. While not built to dominate groomers like a race ski, the Venturi has plenty of grip. At the upper speed limit for this ski (which is really fast), there was barely any tip wobble, thanks to Head’s TTS system (Tip and Tail Stabilizing Technologie). In steep, technical lines they were reliable, quick, and responsive. Another point in their favor is that they are super durable, so even though I skied them really hard, there’s very little evidence of the action they saw this weekend. I kept looking for something about the ski that I didn’t like, but the Venturi refused to disappoint.
Bottom line: the Head Venturi is probably the most versatile, fun, and reliable all-mountain freeski I’ve been on in a long time.
