2022 2023 Armada - ARV 96
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The 2023 Armada ARV 96 is a versatile all-mountain park ski. A medium flexing option that pretty much lets you take on anything you want. You can take it to decent sized jumps and you can swerve around the smallest of features.
Labeled as an improved all-mountain ski and an energetic and stompy ski in the park, the 96 have energy on takeoffs and feel stable on landings, even on big features thanks to being a touch stiffer. They definitely feel better landing than anything in the jibby mid-90s category I’ve tried. There’s also a nice low swingweight thanks to the spin-tip and thinner edges placing less weight at the extremes of the ski. The 96s also have plenty of pop, certainly more than most of today’s noodles, like the Blends.
The rocker profile is smooth with a slightly more defined tip/tail than the Poacher and Chronic, so they don’t slice as well through crud and there’s a bit more deflection. But despite the tips and tails also being lighter/softer than those other skis, they still do a decent job. The flipside of that coin is that they are less likely to catch up in tight transitions both around the mountain and in the park. They don’t have much early taper either, and the new, extended sidewall seems to have made them torsionally stiffer, so for a rockered ski, they still do a decent job on icy days, which was another former weakness.
Labeled as an improved all-mountain ski and an energetic and stompy ski in the park, the 96 have energy on takeoffs and feel stable on landings, even on big features thanks to being a touch stiffer. They definitely feel better landing than anything in the jibby mid-90s category I’ve tried. There’s also a nice low swingweight thanks to the spin-tip and thinner edges placing less weight at the extremes of the ski. The 96s also have plenty of pop, certainly more than most of today’s noodles, like the Blends.
The rocker profile is smooth with a slightly more defined tip/tail than the Poacher and Chronic, so they don’t slice as well through crud and there’s a bit more deflection. But despite the tips and tails also being lighter/softer than those other skis, they still do a decent job. The flipside of that coin is that they are less likely to catch up in tight transitions both around the mountain and in the park. They don’t have much early taper either, and the new, extended sidewall seems to have made them torsionally stiffer, so for a rockered ski, they still do a decent job on icy days, which was another former weakness.
The rocker profile is smooth with a slightly more defined tip/tail than the Poacher and Chronic, so they don’t slice as well through crud and there’s a bit more deflection. But despite the tips and tails also being lighter/softer than those other skis, they still do a decent job. The flipside of that coin is that they are less likely to catch up in tight transitions both around the mountain and in the park. They don’t have much early taper either, and the new, extended sidewall seems to have made them torsionally stiffer, so for a rockered ski, they still do a decent job on icy days, which was another former weakness.
