2023 Scott Pure Piste 77

The 2023 Scott Pure Piste 77Ti is a front-side ripper with a surprising amount of off-trail capabilities. Thanks to the construction, shape, and profile of the ski, advanced and expert skiers will get the most out of the Piste 77Ti in terms of aggressive carving and even some all-mountain flair. At 77mm underfoot, nobody is going to mistake this for a freeride or powder ski, rather, it’s way more at home on the groomed terrain and in a carved turn. Built with a blend of light weight paulownia and denser beech woods, the Piste 77Ti has a strong platform and foundation to start from. In the 177, these skis generate an 18-meter turn radius, which is kind of on the longer side for a front-side ski, but is very welcome for those who are looking for versatility in the turn shape and style. That same 177 also weighs in at 1540 grams per ski, so in addition to being on the narrow side, it’s also on the lighter side. Skiers also get Scott’s carbon fiber stringers that are used in a cross-hatching format rather than a linear pattern as we see in the wider Pure skis. The titanal reinforcement laminate stays largely the same as those other Pures, extending just beyond the binding zone for excellent edge grip, consistency, and predictability. There’s a bit of tip rocker, but mostly camber and a flat tail through the rest of the ski, leaning it towards the front side in terms of performance.

Michael Rooney tested out the 184 and noted that it skied true to size. He gave the Pure Piste 77Ti top marks of 5 out of 5 for stability, forgiveness, torsional stiffness, and edge hold, and this is an impressive spread of top scores—ones that we don’t normally see being strung together. His overall impression, versatility, playfulness, quickness, and maneuverability scores were all 4’s, so there’s a pretty good indication based on these marks that Michael enjoyed his time on the Pure Piste 77Ti. He notes that “This Pure Piste ski is a great all-around ski. It is surprisingly good making turns on almost ice. It enjoys mixed conditions, too.” I like the sound of “almost ice,” it’s quite a good euphemism for very hard snow.

Greg Petrics was also on the 184 and he agreed that it skied true to size and that he would choose this length for himself. Greg’s top scores were 4’s out of 5 for versatility and forgiveness, with 3’s running the rest of the board. “The Scott Pure Piste has the personality of a master's GS ski that might even let you take it into the woods on a small powder day. The ski has a nice GS radius, and offers plenty of stability at speed. But it also is light enough that it tempted me to dip into some (admittedly firm) woods and see how they did on a micro dusting of fresh snow on ice. To my surprise they were pretty good in the woods, and didn't suffer from that tip dive that other piste skis sometimes can. I didn't find the speed limit on these skis making GS turns, but I also can't say that the ski felt super responsive either. I was waiting a bit for the ski to link up and come around. Overall, I think a lot of folks might like this ski, but intermediates and lower might find the experience of waiting for the sidecut to initiate a carve a little unnerving, and end up slarving all their turns. Overall, not a bad outcome if the skier mostly wants to playfully slarve.” Greg’s skill at carving clean turns and his ability to find the limit of the Piste 77Ti comes in handy here with his comments, showing that while skilled skiers can handle the ski’s ability to carve cleanly, it might not be the best front side ski for everyone.

Scott does a great job here making a front side ski behave like an all-mountain one, and the winner is the skier. We draw a lot of comparisons to either a Volkl Deacon 80 or a Blizzard Thunderbird R15 Ti in that they carve great but also have versatility.