Atomic just announced the replacement to their current all-mountain Vantage series: the 2021-2022 Maverick and Maven skis.
Blister Members can check out our Flash Review of the new Maverick 95 Ti for our initial thoughts on its on-snow performance, but in the meantime, let’s discuss the background of these new skis.
When designing the Maverick (men’s) and Maven (women’s) skis, Atomic reportedly went through 144 prototypes and worked with more than sixty testers, including many skiers without any industry affiliation, which is fairly rare. There was also a focus on testing in a wide variety of terrain, including all over North America and Europe.
The result is seven directional all-mountain skis reportedly designed with versatility in mind. One of their product managers sums them up as “the perfect blend between a race ski and a freeride ski.”
The Maverick and Maven skis feature a mix of new and existing tech from Atomic. All of the skis have Atomic’s “HRZN Tech” tips, which we first saw on the Bent Chetler and that basically consist of a convex insert in the rockered portion of the tip to reportedly increase flotation and maneuverability in soft snow.
They also feature what Atomic is calling their “OMatic” core (that’s “Atomic” with the letters jumbled around). I’ll leave it to the comments section to discuss the merits of that name, but anyway, Atomic says they were trying to achieve the “ultimate balance of stiffness and flex” with the poplar wood cores in these skis. And while they both use a poplar wood core, the Maven skis are reportedly “purposely tuned for women.”
In the Maverick 100 Ti, Maverick 95 Ti, and Maverick 88 Ti, the poplar wood core is sandwiched between two layers of “titanium” and fiberglass. I’m working on clarifying whether the metal is in fact titanium or instead the aluminum-alloy “titanal” that we see in the vast majority of skis, but I digress…
In the Maven 93 C, Maven 86 C, and Maverick 86 C, the construction is similar overall, but the metal layer is only underfoot, with a sheet of carbon stringers in its place outside of the binding area. Then in the Maven 86 (no “C”), there are no carbon stringers.
Atomic says they were trying to achieve an ideal “power to weight ratio” with all of these skis, which brings us to to the question of weight. Looking at Atomic’s stated weights, the Maverick and Maven skis sit on the lighter end of the spectrum, but these days, they’re not totally out of the ordinary, since there are a lot of pretty lightweight all-mountain skis on the market. Here are Atomic’s stated weights (per ski) for the skis in the new lines:
- Atomic Maverick 100 Ti, 180 cm: 1800 g
- Atomic Maverick 95 Ti, 180 cm: 1800 g
- Atomic Maverick 88 Ti, 184 cm: 1800 g
- Atomic Maverick 86 C, 184 cm: 1700 g
- Atomic Maven 93 C, 172 cm: 1630 g
- Atomic Maven 86 C, 169 cm: 1450 g
- Atomic Maven 86, 169 cm: 1450 g
For reference, Atomic’s stated weight for the current 180 cm Vantage 97 Ti is 1900 g, so we’re particularly curious to see how these new skis compare to the Vantage skis in terms of damping and stability, as well as quickness and maneuverability.
In terms of shape and rocker profile, the Maverick and Maven skis look fairly similar to the Vantage skis. However, the Maverick and Maven skis do feature a bit more tip and tail taper, and from what we’ve seen, it appears like they also have deeper rocker lines while maintaining camber underfoot. Atomic is calling this approach to shape and rocker profile their “Flow Profile.” We’ll be able to say more about that once we have the skis in hand.
Here are some of the stated dimensions for the new Maverick and Maven skis (click on each name to expand):
Stated Dimensions (180 cm): 129.5-100-120 mm
Stated Sidecut Radius (180 cm): 19.2 m
Available Lengths: 172, 180, 188 cm
Stated Dimensions (180 cm): 129-94.5-113 mm
Stated Sidecut Radius (180 cm): 19.3 m
Available Lengths: 164, 172, 180, 188 cm
Stated Dimensions (176 cm): 124.5-88-109.5 mm
Stated Sidecut Radius (176 cm): 18.2 m
Available Lengths: 161, 169, 176, 184 cm
Stated Dimensions (176 cm): 124.5-88-109.5
Stated Sidecut Radius (176 cm): 18.2 m
Available Lengths: 153, 161, 169, 176, 184 cm
Stated Dimensions (172 cm): 127.5-94-111.5 mm
Stated Sidecut Radius (172 cm): 17.9 m
Available Lengths: 156, 164, 172 cm
Stated Dimensions (169 cm): 123-87.5-106.5 mm
Stated Sidecut Radius (169 cm): 16.9 m
Available Lengths: 147, 153, 161, 169 cm
Stated Dimensions (169 cm): 123-87.5-106.5 mm
Stated Sidecut Radius (169 cm): 16.9 m
Available Lengths: 147, 153, 161, 169 cm
The Maverick and Maven skis will be available for sale during the 21/22 season. We should be getting on several of the new Maverick and Maven skis in the near future, and are looking forward to seeing how they compare to the Vantage skis they replace, and the rest of the all-mountain-ski market. Blister Members can now check out our Flash Review of the Maverick 95 Ti, and then stay tuned for more First Looks and Flash Reviews in the future.
Was HRZN a good idea on those? Owning both the Vantage ’16 and a Chetler, that feels like a Frenkestein. Not a 1-quiver fan anymore here, so silently excited for your objective review.
In our experience, since the HRZN Tech inserts are only placed at the most rocketed portion of the tips and are therefore basically only in contact with the snow when it’s at least a few inches deep, I doubt it’ll have much of, or any negative impact on firm-snow performance.
Fair point! Looking forward to the full review.
There is already a ski out there called the Maverick. They should have come up with an original name.
https://www.foonskis.com/products/maverick
Skied 88 Maverick in 176 cm length today. Fast, solid at speed, great carving, nimble and responsive. Excellent in soft snow. Love them.
Thanks for the heads up and look forward to a full review and possible comparison to the newer 20/21 Nordica Enforcer 100.
Will be interested to see the flex patterns on some of these given the further reduction in weight. Would titanium be a first in skis? Have to imagine it’s titanal or these will be pretty expensive and probably inflexible skis. Will leave it to the metallurgists in the community to correct me on that. Actually sort of like OMatic, it’s about as meaningful as many others! Also makes me think of Wendy O Williams of the Plasmatics so that makes me more likely to actually remember it
So being fairly lightweight vs say a comparable enforcer 94, how damp are these things? Easier to smear?
Sorry, Maverick 95 vs Enforcer 94.
I just skied these in the afternoon of a 2” day at Alyeska and they are awesome. They diced the variable hard pack of beat up groomers no problem, but also smeared through softish wind-blown with relative ease. Can’t really speak to flotation, but they were quite damp through firm chop. As a firm snow ski at a soft snow mountain, the 100s are a very good to great option. Enough so that I ordered a pair when I was returning the demos.
I’m 6’0” ~155 lb aggressive skier and was on the 188 Maverick 100s. The only thing they didn’t feel awesome at was low speed anything. It seemed like the ski didn’t really come alive until I had a little speed going. Which makes sense for something with two layers of metal.
Great reviews.
I bought a pair of the 95’s at the end of the ‘22 season after trying at a demo day. I’m 78 yrs old and I find they upped my confidence tremendously; – can do almost anything with them. Slow, fast, crud, soft, or hard pack, they really shine!