2022 Rossignol Experience W 80 Carbon

The Rossignol Experience W 80 Carbon is a brand-new ski for the 21/22 ski season and is part of a completely redesigned women’s all-mountain collection. While Rossignol puts them into the all-mountain category, the 80 mm waist width is realistically blurring the line between frontside and all-mountain. As such, it’s going to want to stay on-trail most of the time, although is built with a little more versatility than true frontside-focused skis. Rossignol intends this ski to be approachable and lightweight, while retaining enough performance to work with higher level skiers, making it a great choice for any skier who’s working on progressing and developing their technique. Rossignol uses a lightweight paulownia wood core with carbon laminates and their Drive Tip Solution in this ski's construction. That’s quite a lot of technology for a ski that hits a $599 price point, which included bindings. Carbon adds energy and responsiveness, while Drive Tip Solution helps quiet unwanted vibrations, effectively turning unwanted chatter into smoother, usable energy. The shape is relatively straight-forward for a 80 mm waist ski. Mostly camber is paired with some smooth tip rocker, but differing from the previous generation of Experience skis, there’s now extended sidecut and nice wide tips and tails, which has increased overall edge grip.

Louise Lintilhac skied the 166 cm length, which is the longest available length in the Experience W 80 Carbon. Impressively, Louise’s highest score was for torsional stiffness/edge grip, suggesting even though it’s designed to be approachable and easy to ski for an intermediate level skier, you still get plenty of bite for firm snow. Stability, forgiveness, quickness/maneuverability, and overall impression all earned respectable 4 out of 5 scores. “A ski that wants to arc small to medium radius turns at medium speeds. The Experience W 80 Carbon is a great front side carver for smooth groomer laps. A slightly wider tip allows for some flotation in a mild amount of chop. Good for the intermediate skier who wants to tally lift laps all day long. And its light weight keeps knees and hips happy to boot.”

Alli Ruschp skied the 159 cm length in the Experience W 80 Carbon, which she thought was just a little short for her size. We expect Alli would’ve preferred skiing the 166, but 159 wasn’t too far off. The shorter length did change her scores compared to Louise, which is valuable information if you feel like you need to decide between two potential lengths for yourself. 5 out of 5 scores for quickness/maneuverability, playfulness, and forgiveness, with torsional stiffness/edge grip and overall impression right behind at 4 out of 5. With the shorter length, stability dropped to a 3 out of 5, but in our opinion, for a ski geared towards intermediate skiers, that’s not a problem at all. “Mid-range front side ski for intermediate lady that likes to carve, but occasionally hops in bumps or crud. 80 mm waist can handle all the resort conditions. Soft flexing and forgiving, it’s very approachable for not too strong lady. Great edge to edge control but got deflected a little at the short length when I ran into soft pushed snow. Stronger ladies will overpower this ski.”

Based on the feedback from our testers, we think the Experience W 80 Carbon is a fantastic choice for experienced beginner skiers through less aggressive advanced skiers who spend most of their time on trail and generally stick to moderate speeds. It performs really well when cruising groomers. It can be pushed a little bit into more aggressive carves, but has its limitations on steeper terrain and high speeds. Rossignol has plenty of other skis that will satisfy those more aggressive skiers. It’s nice to have a ski in the line that’s forgiving and approachable while still benefitting from the awesome shape and new technology in this redesigned Experience collection.