Selecting a mountain bike

[Tailwinds]

Hi all! I’m looking to get a mountain bike, looking for something fairly light to ride mostly flowy, non-technical trails. I come from a road racing background and have had a couple of heavy, squishy mountain bikes. They were not my thing so I sold them. I live in CO so looking for a decent climbing/descending bike. It seems the more stable MTB geometries often tend to be heavier, but hopefully I’m wrong and can find something that is light and has forgiving handling when descending. I don’t want to get in over my head with a twitchy-feeling bike on descents. I’m leaning toward a hardtail since I’m not riding technical trails and want to keep the weight down as much as possible. Some bikes that have caught my attention are the 2020 Specialized Epic HT (Expert preferably but expensive so would love to hear from someone who’s ridden the 2020 Comp), Ibis DV9 GX Eagle, Niner Air, and Santa Cruz Chameleon (but kinda heavy). It’s hard to find bikes to test ride right now due to the increased demand due to COVID. I’m 5’7” and weigh 120-125 pounds. I am a newbie to MTB’ing so I’m looking for suggestions from those who know more than I do. Thank you!