specialized epic elite or s-works.. sweet sweet bikes. I had a s-works and sold it, regret it. Only thing I disliked was how proprietary everything was, rear wheel/shock - if something goes wrong your very beholden to your shop to get it fixed!

The new trek looks good but don't know how they ride, and scott is going to have a new full sus out in the next couple months - probably around olympic time (Nino Schuter was riding a prototype last weekend)

I was just out in Salt Lake City and got a chance to lay my hands on the new Cannondale Scapel SI. It was close to the top-tier build and size medium I'm guessing it weighed ~23lbs. Guy in the shop said he had already sold three of them and that it was his favorite full suspension XC bike at the moment (they also had Scott and Orbea in the shop... maybe Giant too).

Giant Anthem X Advanced 29er is a pretty good value for the money IMO.

It depends on how you want to define best/lightest (is money no object etc), but I think it would be difficult not to include a Scott Spark somewhere on your shortlist.

I would just drop the money on an epic. I've tried many many brands of full sus xc bikes and none perform all round as good as the epic. Most recently I'm riding a 27.5 anthem and I'm enjoying it more than the 29er version but it still lacks that outright efficiency/race factor like the epic. There's a reason why most of the top guys ride specialized... Unfortunately for me there's none left available over here so I have to wait for the 2017 model... (Anyone want an anthem advanced 27.5 0)?

I run an epic and like as it is the only dually that can carry 2 water bottles. They also have a good system for carrying spares. The models down from s-works don;t have as many proprietary component, they are half as much $ and weigh 0.5kg more.

Definitely the Specialized Epic. Really nice bike.