Review: Rossignol Sender Free 110

Rossignol Sender Free 110 Specs

• Size skied: 176cm, 184cm
• Lengths available: 160cm, 168cm, 176cm, 184cm, 191cm
• Sidecut: 139mm - 109mm - 132mm
• Radius: 16m (1600cm)
• Profile: Twin rocker
• Weight: 2200g (184cm)

Shape, Flex and Construction 

Rossignol’s new Sender Free 110 might look like every other fat freestyle ski out there, with significant tip and tail rocker and a fairly symmetrical shape. Look a little closer though, and you’ll notice some details that are the magic behind its versatility. Despite the deep rocker lines, there isn’t much tip and tail taper, giving the ski a really long effective edge once it’s on edge, adding stability and power. Underfoot, there’s a healthy dose of camber, adding even more power and poppiness.

From a stiffness standpoint, the Sender Free 110 is incredibly stiff underfoot, thanks Rossignol’s Titanal Beam metal insert, quickly giving way to quite soft tips and tails. The ski flexes very roundly, but the stiff underfoot section makes it easy to load these up and air off anything in sight. 

Despite the generous tip and tail rocker, the Sender Free 110 doesn’t ski particularly short, thanks to the reduced tip and tail taper and very long effective edge. The medium/long 20-meter turn radius allows for a variety of turn shapes when on edge.

The freestyle leanings of the Sender Free 110 really comes out when you look at the mount point, which is as close to true center as just about any non-park ski on the market. The recommended -3.5cm from center mark might be a little too far forward for more traditional skiers, but freestyle-oriented testers loved it.

On-Snow Performance

There isn’t really a particular area of the mountain where the Sender Free 110 shines–it’s versatility is astounding, and testers loved riding it in all manner of terrain, from the steep and technical big-mountain terrain in Sunshine Village’s Delirium Dive, to groomers, to slushy park laps. In many ways, it’s a point-and-shoot kind of weapon that performs similarly well, no matter if the conditions underfoot involve untracked pow or cut-up chop.

While it’s quite playful, the ski prefers big, wide-open turns and inspires confidence for fast and powerful riding in really gnarly terrain–it’s no wonder these have won Freeride World Tour titles on the feet of Marcus Goguen. What’s impressive is that it makes this kind of skiing accessible to less strong skiers who might typically shy away from straight lining a bowl. The core construction is incredibly damp and quiet and allows for pretty relaxed skiing in chopped up, tracked out conditions, where it’s easy to just let the ski’s suspension do the work.

One tester said: “The Sender Free 110 has a really playful feel and can be skied in a laid-back kind of manner. At the same time you can really step on it and trust the stability of the ski at speed. It’s definitely a ski designed to be skied in a bit of soft snow.”

The hard-charging nature of the skis definitely makes it a ski that will tire you out quicker than most. Testers found that it was harder to ride in tighter terrain like moguls and steep trees unless you really drove the ski, but found that it was still quite fun to jump around on in this type of terrain.

Anecdotally, while this ski is marketed as a men’s ski and the construction of it is definitely more akin to what you’ll find in other men’s freeride skis on the market, as a 120lb, 5’5” female skier, I loved these skis. They were fun primarily because I could ski through the scariest, gnarliest sun crust with complete confidence that I wasn’t going to catch an edge or hit something that would make these skis waver. They were intuitive and fairly easy to turn, but the harder you ski them, the more they respond. All to say, hard-charging ladies, don’t shy away from this ski! 

Comparisons

When compared to the Salomon QST Blank, another popular freeride ski of a similar width, one tester found that the Sender Free 110 provided much more stability at speed, at the cost of the Blank’s more playful character. Specifically, his words were “the Sender is a stomp and thug it out kind of vibe.”

Other testers said similar things about the Sender Free 110’s stability in comparison to skis like the Blizzard Sheeva 11 and RMU Valhalla 107, noting that the Sender Free 110 also chattered significantly less than these other two options on hard pack. On the other end of things, another tester noted that the Sender Free 110 was much more playful than the Nordica Unleashed 108 and was generally more fun to ski because of how well it held up at high speeds. 

What type of skier is the Rossignol Sender Free 110 best for? 

Skiers who are looking to get into bigger terrain and stomp everything will enjoy the “stomp and thug it out-ness” of the Sender Free 110. However, don’t be fooled–it still takes plenty of drive to control and make it perform, so the stronger the skier the better the ski performs. If you can ski the Sender Free 110, it will reward you in most conditions.