Superior Spring Skis

"It's getting to the point where we're getting the pain-in-the-butt factor out of skiing," says Rick Halling, director of nordic line ski development for Atomic, the well-known ski and sporting-goods maker.

Amen, brother.

Hit the Slopes

It all sounds very noble in a geeky sort of way, but how does all this fancy tech stuff translate on the slope? It was off to Deer Valley (that's the resort that Robert Redford does not ski, thank you very much) to find out.

Right away -- on the way to the lodge -- the benefits of all this newfangled technology were apparent. There was nothing, and I mean nothing, like being able to carry skis around without channeling my inner Sherpa.

Once up Bald Eagle Mountain, I found a nice bonus to this Atomic gear: going with one common manufacturer for boots, skis and poles. Atomic has done a nice job of finding the important centered, neutral position over their skis for you. I simply had to step into this setup, and I was roughly where I should be over my rides. (This is a good tip to remember when you are renting equipment.)

Once skiing, the Nomads work as advertised. On softer powder, say on the sunny side of the Flagstaff Mountain, the skis turn simply by angling the big toe of one foot and the little toe of the other foot down into the snow -- yes, even you can do this.

The soft tails and tips made turning relatively simple. My ski buddy Stephan, who is also a ski instructor, showed a cool trick to get the best performance out of the Nomads: Keep your ski-pole tips just gliding over the surface of the snow. That kept me balanced as the skis turned from side to side underneath me.

And on faster slopes -- Deer Valley is the uber-grooming snow capital of the West, so you can really fly here -- the Nomads had enough heft and power for some real mach schnell. They tracked on-edge, were relatively stable on icy pitches and had a nice habit of not chattering.

Now, the Nomads are not perfect. Remember, they are a balance of design philosophies, so they don't do any one thing extraordinarily well.

They do not have true edge control on extremely icy terrain. You will miss the heft of a wider ski in deep snow.

	Volkl Unlimited AC4 These follow in the Volkl tradition -- extremely stable on the hard stuff and relatively quick edge to edge.
	K2 Apache Outlaw K2 continues to lead in the flash and style department, and these match performance to their good looks.
	Salomon X-Wing Fury These are solid midmarket skis that offer punch and value.
	Rossignol Bandit B3 With a high trailing tip for going backwards, these offer the best way to turn skiing with the kids into a challenge.
	Stockli Rotor A solid Swiss company offers this elegant, painstakingly crafted pair.

They are also major limits in truly high-performance situations. If you try to pull a pro move with them -- that is, ride the skis max hard on one edge and than quickly drive them under your body and push them out onto the other edge -- they tend to wash out from underneath you. And then? Well, you're just another hilarious outtake from a Warren Miller movie.

In the end, you will not be jumping the steeps at Chamonix, France, with these Atomics. But I am far from that nonsense. And so, probably, are you. These skis offer a reasonably decent taste of high-performance skiing, while still well-mannered enough for everyday use.

I even expect that after the first day you ride these Nomads, you, like me, will finish your final run, step out of these boards and, before you start clomping off to the bar for a drink, say to yourself, "Good skis."

Finally, keep in mind that Atomic is not alone in its all-mountain-ski ambitions. Most other major makers are in the hunt to sell you a do-everything ski with some high-end punch (see picks to the right). You almost cannot go wrong with any of these rides. They are all major prize winners in their category. It's more about what you ski -- and how you want to look -- than anything else.

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