In my opinion a hardtail would be great for that since (in my area at least) there is lots of uphills, so you dont always want the bob from a FS. It's a trade off. FS better for on the downhills of xc but its harder to go uphills. On hardails, It is way better up hill but not as great going downhill. All you have to do is use your legs on a hardtail to soke up the bumps more and your set.
Hope this helped.