2021 Rossignol Black Ops Gamer

Heavy, stable, fat, and round, the 2021 Rossignol Black Ops Gamer is built and shaped to suit all of your playful powder skiing needs. For years, Rossignol has been keeping the Black Ops skis somewhat under wraps in terms of construction, measurements, and the like, and for us industry personnel who are trying to write descriptions and reviews, that was kind of frustrating. Since then, they've opened up their secretive vault and basically re-named all of their freeride skis some form of Black Ops. The Gamer is the new name for the Black Ops 118, and retains all of the structural integrity of the ski, and for fans of the wide-bodied twin tip, that's fantastic news. Best when used in deep snow by a skilled pilot, this isn't your everyday ski, and for us in the east, we'll only get a handful of days per year where this ski is really even an option, but for when the time is right, there's not much else on the planet that I'd rather be on. If you happen to live and ski in an area of the world where this is your daily driver, then you've made some intelligent decisions in your life to lead you to this place.

The first thing you'll notice when you pick these skis up is that they've got some heft to them. Even though the build is pretty simple, with a full poplar wood core, Rossignol adds their Diago fiber laminate as well as an ABS beam as part of their Line Control Technology build system. This strip of ABS material does a great job at harnessing the energy of the ski and not turning them into unwanted vibrations. In addition, the LCT prevents the ski from counter-flexing, which for a ski of this girth, is pretty darn important. Otherwise, you'd just have this big fat ski flopping around in the powder and crud. In the 186, the skis weight 2550 grams per ski, which is partly due just to the sheer size and volume of material, but also the amount of fiberglass that's required to hold it all together in a cohesive manner. Shaped and profiled like a good powder ski should be, the Gamer has very dramatic tip and tail rocker as well as taper. While it's basically a twin tip, most of that tail shape comes in the form of rocker, with a fair amount of splay at the end. This gives the ski an incredibly splashy, smeary, and drifty personality-capable of wheelies, ollies, and slarves all over the fresh. Same goes for the tip, with dramatic taper and deep rocker lines, these things will stay on top of pretty much any and all snow. Another interesting aspect is the near-symmetrical sidecut, with tips and tails only being 5 mm different in the 186. As a result, they make very round turns, even with the 25-meter stated turn radius.

Josh Wolfgang got a chance to get on these big sticks in the 176, and had some predictable scores. As a one-trick pony, these Gamers are likely not to generate consistent scores like a more versatile all-mountain ski would. A 5 out of 5 for flotation and 4's for stability, forgiveness, and torsional stiffness were the high scores for Josh. Versatility gets a lowly 2, which is to be expected for this powder hound. Josh notes that the Gamer "is the right ski for an Alta skier or someone who just likes to point them straight and send it. I thought that it did a good job releasing the tail from a turn, which I have found other skis in this category were not so good at." Certainly, that longer turn radius and the responsiveness of the ski lend to that big mountain, hard-charging type of skier and skiing.

Fat, fun, and hefty, these Gamer skis are all good given the right conditions. While not the versatile stick of some other wide skis, they certainly have the shape and profile to handle the deepest snow on the planet, and they'll do so with grace and style. I want these skis just for the possibility of getting in snow deep enough to make them sing.