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Nordica Speedmachine Mach 3 Power, upon further review

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Anyone who has spent any time on the equipment forum here knows my bias in skis. While I skied on the Atomic Metron:b5 for the past two seasons, I picked up a pair of Nordica Mach 3 Powers after demoing them both last spring and this fall. December 1st was my first full day on them.

Conditions: I skied December 1st at Copper Mountain, CO, USA after a reported 10" of new snow (it snowed all day; they likely got a bit more than a foot) on top of pretty hard snow. Conditions ranged from a few powder shots (12" or so on trail's edge) to soft bumps, to wind scoured hardpack.

Ski: Nordica Speedmachine Mach 3 Power, 170 cm

Review

I have skied a lot of different skis over the past few weeks, and this was day 8 on-snow for this season. I had skied my "gold standard" ski (the Atomic B5) for 5 of those days, and this was the first day on a ski other than demos or the B5.

I skied these straight out of the box with only a fresh wax as preparation.

In a word: Wow!

I took the skis knowing that the coverage was going to be good, but I did not expect fresh. To see 8" or so in the parking lot and have it snow all day was a real blessing, but I did wonder how this front-side carvers would handle these conditions. I needn't have worried. I had an amazing day.

Powder and cut-up: The first few runs and then off-and-on as we found good shots were spent in real powder. It wasn't blower, but more like mid-winter Sierra fresh; a little heavy for Colorado. As it got cut-up, the conditions were those that can throw less-substantial skis around, but the Mach 3Ps just powered through. There was one time when the snow practically stopped me, and I actually felt the heel start to release and then pull me back in (so much for Marker pre-release!), but that was the only time all day something like that happened, and I put it down to a fluke.

The skis are narrower than some (72mm under foot), and so I perhaps ski more in the snow than some folks like. But, I rather like it, so I give the skis excellent ratings for powder and cut-up fresh that can be tricky.

Bumps: This is another condition where you don't expect front-side carvers to shine, but they did. The bumps were soft this day, and early in the day they were powder bumps. Fun to rip pretty fast, but even as they got packed as the day wore on, the skis were calm and easy to maneuver. I used different techniques, from more carve style (high edge angles, focus on edge-preference) to more slip-style, and both high- and low-speed bump runs. There were no double-diamond bumps open, so these comments were on blue bumps (Little Burn under the Timberline chair and I Dropper).

Groomed: These are the conditions where I expected these skis to shine, and they did! I actually expected that they might be a bit overpowering, but I didn't find that at all. Even on my last run of the day at about 3:15, I was able to get high angles, the skis came around with a snap, arced tighter turns than I was expecting, and carved across the exposed hardpack far better than I expected (and better than my B5s have been doing for me this year). I felt that perhaps the vertical sidewalls and other design elements really make this a race ski with a bit of a friendly face. Outstanding!

Summary: A friendly GS carver that can deliver tighter turns, all-terrain ability, and high-performance in a simple and straight-forward package.

My stats:

Height: 6'
Weight: 175lbs
Other equipment: Nordica Aggressor 150 boots
Skiing skills: 36th season skiing, ski most of the mountain, but prefer powder, and smooth steeps. New skis have me loving groomed terrain, again, even the very gentle. PSIA Level II.
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