The Dancer 79 is a new breed for Faction — their first dedicated groomer ski. But it doesn't feel like a brand trying to be something it's not. It feels like a freeride company asking: what if we brought our construction philosophy to corduroy?

79mm waist, poplar core, dual Titanal sheets, full sidewall. On paper, it reads like any competent frontside ski. What sets it apart is how light it is. 1,640g in the 178 — that's noticeably lighter than most metal-laminate carvers in this class. The weight savings come from the poplar core and the thin Titanal sheets Faction calls "razor-thin." Less mass underfoot means quicker edge-to-edge transitions and less fatigue on a long groomer day.

The Elliptical Sidecut blends a longer radius underfoot with shorter radius at tip and tail. In practice, this means you can pivot the ski easily at low speed but it tightens up and holds when you push into a carve. The 17m radius at 178cm is moderate — not slalom-tight, not GS-long. It sits in a zone where you can snap off quick turns on steep groomers or open it up on wide blue cruisers without fighting the ski.

The Mustache Flex pattern is stiff underfoot and through the binding zone, then softens progressively in the tips and tails. The tips absorb crud and transition bumps. The stiff midsection holds when you drive through a turn. It's a pattern that rewards technique but doesn't punish the occasional sloppy turn the way a full race ski would.

Multiple professional testers flagged the same thing: this ski has energy. It pops out of turns. It wants to go. Skiers with good technique described it as "an adrenaline-fueled rocketship." Skiers without enough power to bend it found the edge grip underwhelming on hard snow. That's the trade-off — the lightness that makes it fun also means it doesn't have the brute dampening of a heavier frontside platform.

For PNW skiing, where morning hardpack turns to spring corn by noon, the Dancer 79 actually works better than you'd expect. The tip rocker handles the transition smoothly, and it proved surprisingly capable in soft bumps and spring slush according to testers who pushed it off-piste.