Rossignol S6 Caballero Ski - 2009 BCS

What can I say that’s not already been said. The S6 does so many things well. It’s not GREAT at any one thing, but is a perfect utility ski. It gets more use than any other ski in my quiver. I went with a pure alpine setup, as it’s too heavy for my liking to be a good touring ski.

My friends and I all have a pair of these mounted with Randonee bindings but we ski them everyday. For how fat it is, it'll ski everything, everywhere. When the time comes to unlock the heel and go touring in the backcountry its weight reduction construction pays off big time without making the ski too light. Learn from my mistake, if a ski is too light it won't ski well. The S6 is the perfect mix of light weight and hard charging.

Personal Background: I have been skiing regularly for 20+ years. I grew up on the Ice Coast and raced in high school. I presently live in UT and ski approximately 50 days a year. I primarily ski at The Canyons and Alta although I put about 5-10 days in a year at the Bird and other UT resorts. I am tall and thin at 6'2" and about 165lbs.

My setup: Rossi S6 with Marker Dukes and Technica Agent 120s.

Why I love this ski: I am an aggressive all mountain skier, but due to my size and weight am not a super powerful skier. This ski allows me to charge and still finesse the ski and terrain to accomplish nearly any type of turn in any type of terrain. With a short 21m turning radius this ski really locks in to the turn if you really initiate it to swing around quickly. Once locked, this ski allows one to lay down railroad style carves on groomers, crud and even powder. Due to the sheer width and surface area of the ski it floats very well in blower and could easily be an East Coast pow board. For real deep UT days I still prefer something a little wider and rockered, but for 95% of winter days, this ski does the trick....well! This is my everyday go to ski and despite its size, it does nearly everything nearly perfectly!

These skis are great in the pow, through the crud and for killing it on the hill. Definitely a great all around fatter ski, kills the downhill. love em

Demoed this ski last year (186) and absolutely fell in love. Switch riding was a breeze with the insane amounts of stability from the 110 underfoot. But it skis so nimbly, that you don't realize it's size until you look down. Only thing these skis can't do well is moguls haha.
Hardpack - felt great carving at med/high speeds..stable, and very responsive and predictable flex pattern.
Crud - i'm used to riding freestyle skis, so this was a huge upgrade in stabillity, the extra length and stiffness underfoot made the ski bust through crud with ease, and the softness in the tip/tail made it so your knees didn't take much abuse no matter what the terrain.
Powder - the size/playfulness of this ski made it a blast in the pow, as well as being easily able to initiate turns and go turn to turn quickly, it was able to charge hard without losing responsiveness.
Park - They were a bit big for larger spins/switchups, but good for an EPesque riding style.. slow deliberate smooth spins. Things had tons of pop.. so much so that I flew over a few landings while getting used to it... not as easy on the knees. And again, very stable to ride switch, with tons of length/width to back you up however fast you want to go.

Bottom line - Amazing all mountain freestyle ski. Pretty much a giant park ski. Same general idea as the SFB or Lizzie, but a tad stiffer underfoot, and less sym. I believe.

Snowbird/Alta 2009 season:
I ski the east usually so I rented the s7 first for some powder fun. Second day out got on the s6's and never looked back. Someone said it was like getting the cheat codes to a video game. This is not an overstatement.
You can take these boards in any type of snow (short of an iced race coarse) and feel like King Kong. Powder no problem. Junk snow no problem. If you know how to race, roll these suckers over and feel like your on a roller coaster ride. The most fun I've had since I was a little kid.

I like this ski for days that aren't super deep. It isn't as playful as the S7, but if you can't bring yourself to get on boards quite so weird, this floated fine in 5-8" of Utah powder both times I skied it this year. The tail is stiff enough to land some pretty big drops and will help you if you end up a bit it the back seat. The shortish turning radius also makes it easy to lay trenches in the groomers if that is your thing. I'd say this skied really well on groomers for being a fatter ski, and would be a good choice if you had to pick one ski to do it all out west.

lots of fun.. these skis are very agile and make you feel comfortable in tight, technical areas

not big enough for me on deep days , those with say.. 8inches fresh or more

super light weight, felt like the lightest ski I have been on this year

I have the S6's in the 174 length set up for tele skiing. The skis are big enough to float in the deep with very minimal tip-dive. They're fun in crud and choppy stuff because you can turn quickly with the traditional twin-tip shape and camber. They're not the most nimble on groomers and bumps, but they ski surprisingly well. There is definetly a fair bit of sidecut. It's a very forgiving ski and has a mild flex. I've had problems with Rossi's delaminating in the past, but so far the S6's are holding. At 106 underfoot, they're not too much of a best to take touring if you've got free pivot bindings. They're a great ski on the down, so I don't mind dragging them up.

It's not on backcountry.com, but the dimensions are slightly different for the 174cm length. They are stamped on the ski as follows: 134/106/129.

These skis are very versatile. They are fairly lightweight for their size. 110mm underfoot lets them rock on any terrain. I wish that they were a tad stiffer for really charging hard in crud though. For not being rockered they ski pow amazingly well. They are stable at moderate to high speeds. Turn well on hardpack. These are the exact same ski as the Rossignol Steeze and previous versions of the Rossignol S6. They are also the same as the Telemark Rossignol Ravyn.