The Völkl Kendo 88 has changed its name to Mantra 88, but it hasn’t stopped owning the top spot among our Power potentates. It’s accuracy on edge remains immaculate and its overall performance envelope is as ginormous as ever. The Mantra 88’s kudos can be directly attributed to two upgrades instituted two seasons ago: Tailored Titanal Frame and Tailored Carbon Tips. Tailored Titanal Frame optimizes this keystone technology by making separate parts for each size, so smaller lengths aren’t saddled with out-sized components at the tip and tail. Tailored Carbon Tips liberate carbon fiber from the limited menu of options offered by prepreg laminates by stitching it into a fabric layer that can composed into any pattern the designer desires. In this instance, the carbon helps the tip to buffer shock so it stays in snow contact despite being modestly rockered. Together, the twin “Tailored” technologies make the Mantra 88 feel smoother, more balanced and more compliant overall. Here’s how veteran ski tester and renowned boot expert Jim Schaffner summed up his experience on the Kendo 88 from a couple of seasons ago that remains germane today: “This ski has an amazing range of performance. Today the snow was a combination of old, compacted snow, new wind-blown snow, and solid ice where the fresh snow was blown off. The Kendo did it all with ease. Very good grip on the hard stuff, with a silky feel on the duff.” Every ski in this genre has to be proficient off -trail, …

The longest tenured member of the All-Mountain East genre, Kästle’s MX88, is also the rare iconoclast that derives its design from a Frontside archetype. It’s essentially a carving tool surrounded by an ocean of double-rockered options, most of which are spin-offs from a wider flagship model. That it continues to out-perform most of the field is a testament to just how versatile a classic, cambered ski can be. I hasten to point out that the 2025 MX88 has a tiny bit of tip rocker, but it also has a new Hollowtech Evo shovel that keeps the forebody so quiet and connected, you’d swear the baseline was fully cambered. The MX88 serves as a reminder that any all-terrain, all-purpose tool has to be able to carve competently on groomers as the foundation of its skill set. This year, Kästle tacitly acknowledged what the market seems to have already decided: that the MX88 is as wide as one can make a traditional, wood, glass and Titanal laminate and still get the nimble skiing reflexes off-trail skiing demands. The 23/24 season was the last for the MX98, a ski with off-trail dimensions but a Super G’s appetite for attacking the fall line. It never really fit the accepted profile of an All-Mountain West ski. Adios, my Austrian amigo, I’ll ski you in my dreams. The same traits that keep the MX88 on line on hard snow prevent it from being deflected by piles of previously plundered powder. Despite being the closest thing to …

“The biggest problem in the Enforcer family is making a choice of the best one as an overall tool. I’m not sure you want to own multiple Enforcers; however, somewhere in that family is one that will best suit your style.” These are the pithy ruminations of the multi-talented Jim Schaffner, who can count among his many skills that of race coach, so he knows how to make a ski turn both ways. To expand a bit on Schaffner’s counsel, you can’t make a poor choice unless you make the unlikely mistake of getting the 104 when you never leave groomers or opt for the 89 on a heli trip. By the way, this virtual interchangeability within a model family is rare. It’s more common for one shining star to out-perform its siblings, or for the family to be structured around descending price points, with only the top model receiving the optimal construction. While there are some slight adaptations among the new Enforcers, it’s along the lines of optimizing the basic design for a specific footprint, not deleting critical components to meet a perceived market dependency on a lower price. So, what is the skier profile of the prospective partner for an Enforcer 89? We call the genre to which the Enforcer 89 belongs All-Mountain East for a reason: it inherently embodies the traits that are needed to navigate snow that tends to be hard on runs that are often narrow and relatively short. While hard snow surfaces are the …

The Anomaly 94 represents a complete break with the past: it isn’t just a softer Bonafide or some carver/all-mountain hybrid, it’s a new flavor all its own. Its interesting sidecut – note the high delta between the width at tip and tail – encourages a fall-line orientation. It will make short-radius arcs as long as they don’t stray far from said fall-line, but it would rather mix up a medley of medium to long arcs with the throttle open. The construction of the Anomaly 94 is an adaptation of the Fluxform design introduced in the Rustler collection last year. Fluxform breaks up the .6mm top sheet of Titanal into a central platform in the binding area and two outer strips running over the edges. The flex is more supple without surrendering an iota of edge grip. Trying to find the perfect balance between fierce edge hold and supple flex was the Bonafide’s ever-elusive Holy Grail; with the Anomaly 94, the quest has found what it has sought for lo, these many product cycles. Although the Anomaly 94 is a bit softer-flexing than the Bonafide, it’s still a Power stick that rewards a skilled skier. It’s even better than the Bonnie in that it’s easier to bend and finds the edge sooner when drifting into it. It doesn’t pop off the edge like an Old School slalom, but creates a platform you know right away you can trust. It has great edge grip on hard snow for what is at heart …

As befits a flagship model, The Curv 85 GT is a showcase for Fischer’s best technology. In addition to two .8mm Titanal laminates, a full sheet of Diagofiber, Fischer’s signature synthetic shock dampener, quiets the ride from tip to tail. The Curv’s distinctive triple radius sidecut (short-long-short) is facilitated by thickening the core underfoot so the addition of edge angle tightens the turn shape automatically. Topping it all off, literally, is a wear-resistant topsheet of Fischer’s own creation. What all this technology delivers is a ski that reserves its best performances for relatively soft groomers. While it has a waist width (85mm) normally associated with all-terrain aptitude, The Curv 85 GT would rather be carving corduroy than deflecting crud bumps. (Whenever there’s a nearly 50mm drop between tip width and waist, there’s a decided disposition in favor of groomers.) With a softer flex than the recently retired RC One 86 GT (and other notable denizens of the carving clique), it’s easier to bow in a lower speed range, so skiers who lack the power to drive a true race ski can still feel the exhilaration of a cleanly carved arc. In a switch from the industry norm – and Fischer’s own previous practice – the narrower members of The Curv clan have a lower performance range than the 85mm flagship. Hence The Curv GT 80 with its thinner (.5mm) Ti sheets feels less substantial and less accurate on edge despite its more slender footprint. The Curv 85 GT is likely …

The Steadfast 85 DC manages to combine an easy-flexing camber line with a torsionally rigid lay-up that holds its line on hard snow. Its behavior is driven by a Double Core design that splits the wood core in half and inserts a Titanal laminate and a shock-damping polymer dubbed Pulse Core in the middle. As applied to the deep sidecut (51mm drop between tip and waist) and high taper angle (21mm drop from tip to tail) of the Steadfast 85, the Double Core design delivers a carving machine with a velvety flow from turn to turn. The Steadfast 85’s ability to generate an infinite supply of short- to medium-radius turns left Peter Glenn’s Mark Rafferty gleefully gasping for air. “ I think I need to get in better shape if I’m going to ski the Steadfast 85,” Rafferty concluded after his initial test run. “Not cuz it’s tough to ski,” he explains. “Oh no, it makes every turn with ease. Slow, easy, run-out turns. And ripping, aggressive, high-g carves. I had screamingly powerful turns. Whew! I’m panting, thinking, I gotta do that again. I’m glad I can catch my breath on the chair. Yes, it’s that fun,” he breathlessly concludes. As Rafferty’s testimony alleges, the carvaholic shape of the Steadfast 85’s forebody has never met a turn it didn’t like, while its high taper angle prompts the tail to release whenever the pilot elects to lower the edge angle. The Steadfast 85 is the rare All-Mountain East model that’s derived …

The Kore 93 has been shattering preconceptions about what a lightweight, off-trail ski can do since its inception, and it’s only gotten better. In the most recent re-design, Head cut out the honeycomb Koroyd component in its core’s center section, replacing it with an all-wood mix of poplar and Karuba. Graphene remains the difference-maker, as Head can move it around the ski to change flex with virtually no effect on mass. Head tweaked its Graphene distribution across the Kore line in 2022, so that narrower models like the Kore 93 would have more bite on the firm snow they’ll be on half their lives, while fatties like the Kore 111 got an extra dose of drift and deflection. Three seasons ago, I was blessed to hop on a 2022 Kore 93 just moments after dismounting a Kore 111. The conditions were hacked-up, wind-affected powder, nearly ideal conditions for measuring any ski’s off-trail chops. I was prepared for it to be very good; I didn’t expect it to knock my socks off. Of course, the Kore 93 couldn’t match the flotation of the Kore 111, but it was otherwise so quick and stable I didn’t mind being a bit more in the snow than on it. Unlike the fatter ski, the Kore 93 was tight-radius friendly at all times, a real bonus in the trees where sudden cornering is critical. Back on the open trail, the Kore 93 was simplicity itself to guide from pillow to pillow in the track-riven slope. …

The 2024 Nordica Enforcer 94 was not in need of a makeover. It was already one of the most versatile skis of its generation, so easy to steer from any stance and ever ready to switch between a drift or a carve on a whim. What do you fix on a ski that doesn’t require fixing? The fundamental components of the Enforcer 94’s success are its traditional materials: a vertically laminated wood core and two sheets of Titanal have always been part of the formula, but how the pieces fit together is new. All the 2025 Enforcers have been rebuilt from the inside out, adding a layer of elastomer (dubbed Pulse Core) between two wood laminates and top and bottom sheets of Titanal. This sandwich construction, called Double Core, had humble origins in the Wilde Belle women’s model, but the concept has matured in the hands of the Race Department, where it has already been applied to the Dobermann and Spitfire collections. Any change to a ski’s core is significant, but Nordica went further, subtly altering the baseline to lengthen the camber pocket and shorten the tip rocker. The shovel also was reshaped into a deeper curvature. The combined effect puts more edge in the snow on groomers and provides a better bumper in the front, where the ski takes the brunt of the impact in choppy conditions. The net effect of all these alterations is that an already compliant ski has become even simpler to steer. Distilled to their …

The 88mm-waisted All-Mountain ski has become a permanent fixture in many major brand’s collections because it hits the sweetspot for the plurality of skiers who plan to deploy the same pair of skis day-in, day-out. It’s the archetype for a model that lives in the middle of a series, able to perform like a Frontside ski on groomers and magically morph into an off-piste crud buster when summoned to perform off-trail. Because every brand structures its line a little differently, an 88 can be the top model in a Frontside-focused series or the narrowest member of an all-terrain clan. Regardless of the angle one views it from, an 88mm-waisted ski is expected to excel. The Anomaly 88 inherited the slot in the Blizzard line previously occupied by the Brahma, and it continues to offer the same, all-the-turns-you-can-eat menu. Its relatively narrow tail won’t hang up in mutilated moguls, and it has enough surface area to float near the top of 18-inches of powder. It has sufficient power and agility to keep a skilled skier amused even when the off-piste is kaput, yet it isn’t geared so high it won’t take the time to slow down and help a less talented enthusiast learn the ropes. Its performance envelope is huge but doesn’t extend into the extremes of bulletproof boilerplate, which is never fun, or bottomless powder, which is rarely encountered. I’m leery of the term “intuitive,” at least as it’s applied to computer software. But the Anomaly 88 feels intuitive on …

How can a ski as narrow-waisted as the Kore 87 come across as the most versatile ski in its wide-body family? After all, the Kore collection is 100% an off-trail creation; its avatar should be the Kore 111, not this string bean. The improbable polyvalence of the Kore 87 is partly explained by a sleight of hand Head pulled off in the make-up of the narrowest Kore models just three years ago. Taking advantage of Graphene’s ability to affect flex without a commensurate effect on mass, Head beefed up the Kore 87 to account for the certainty that it will spend much of its life on groomers. Its power quotient might have gone up another tick in 2022 with the substitution of poplar and Karuba for Koroyd, which subtly enhanced its feedback on hard snow. Two years ago, Head coated all the Kores with a sheath of urethane, mostly to protect the top and sides from minor nicks and scratches, with the added benefit of further smoothing out the ride. Renowned bootfitter Jim Schaffner dubbed the 2023 version of the Kore 87, “Fun, easy skiing, yet enough high performance to hold well on harder snow. This is a very good execution of a one-ski quiver ski for the aging crowd!” The recent improvements made to the Kore’s capacities on brittle hardpack don’t seem to have diminished its inherent talent for off-trail travel. You use your feet a lot off-trail as you pick a path through trees, moguls and other skiers’ …

To understand where the Salomon Stance 90 fits in the All-Mountain East pantheon of Recommended models, it’s helpful to first understand its role within Salomon’s line, where it is cagily categorized as All-Mountain Frontside, a mash-up of two adjacent Realskiers categories. The blended genre succinctly captures the intent of the Stance series, to create what are essentially Frontside skis with wanderlust, always interested in what lies off-trail yet easily persuaded to lay down a neatly carved turn on corduroy. Within the cross-brand context of the All-Mountain East genre, the Stance 90 stands apart from the crowd in several respects. While its twin Titanal laminates put it toe-to-toe with the eminent Power players in the genre, it responds to a light rein, emphasizing ease over brute force. While it’s positioned as having a Frontside bias, unlike other carving-centric AME skis – such as the Fischer The Curv GT 85, for example – it isn’t built on a Frontside chassis, but an all-mountain, double-rockered foundation. When the Stance series was launched in the 20/21 season, Salomon’s mainstay collection in the All-Mountain genres was QST, which focused on off-trail conditions. In the marketplace, QST had to go head-to-head with models from Blizzard, Nordica, Völkl and Stöckli, who loaded their best all-terrain skis with two sheets of Titanal. While the flagship QST 106 earned a following in the Big Mountain genre, the rest of the QST series didn’t fare as well against the richer constructions of the competition. Stance provided Salomon with its own, …

Two years ago, after several seasons of toil behind the R&D curtain, Fischer rolled out a completely overhauled Ranger line of off-trail models. The new clan consisted of hybrids that blended the two branches of the previous Ranger clan, the surfy FR series and the more connected Ti models. All the new Rangers received a dose of .5mm-thick Titanal underfoot married to a fairly loose tip and tail. As befits the family name, they all possess a decidedly off-trail bias. Fans of earlier Rangers will find the new series are more closely related behaviorally to the easy-to-smear FR models of yore than to the metal-laden Ti fraternity. The lighter weight (all poplar) core of the Ranger 90 suggests it might be a good option for living a double life as an in-resort/backcountry, all-purpose partner-in-climb. Its Aeroshape exterior further enables foot steering by reducing resistance when rotating a flat ski. The Ranger 90 encourages its navigator to assume a centered stance and take advantage of a double-rockered baseline that makes it easier to drift to an edge than ride a continuous rail. If carving is more your thing, Fischer’s The Curv GT 85 is a strong and precise trench-digger you’ll find among our Power Picks. The Ranger 90 derives from the opposite side of the carve/drift schism.

Depending on where and how you ski, the Maverick 88 Ti may be the best of the top 4 models in the current all-mountain series from Atomic, despite residing on the lowest rung of the pricing ladder. It arcs the best short-radius turns of the bunch despite a mid-radius sidecut that’s equally comfortable when allowed to run for the barn. Its tail is supportive without being flashy, gradually releasing its grip as it crosses the turn transition. As the narrowest of the Maverick Ti quartet, the 88 Ti is the best fit for today’s arrhythmic bumps, and its ability to access a short arc in a jiffy is a huge asset in the trees. When I let it run on a long, gradual ballroom on the sunny side of Mt. Rose, it remained predictable and trustworthy as I raked up the edge angle, banking off a receptive layer of solar-softened cream. Its baseline is more cambered than its siblings (15/75/10), so there’s a longer platform under the pilot in all conditions, without sacrificing its ability to swivel a turn in a pinch. The Maverick 88 Ti has a little brother that’s at least worth considering, particularly if one’s ski budget is no fatter than a race ski’s waist. The Maverick 86 C doesn’t have the security on edge of the 88 Ti, but it has most of its other properties. For skiers whose off-trail skills are sketchy, the 86 C provides a bridge to proficiency. It’s probably the best bump …

The Salomon QST 92 has risen from humble origins to its new position among the elite of the genre. Originally conceived to meet a lower price point ($500) and therefore underserved in the technology department, Salomon has been steadily enhancing its construction to match the latest innovations already added to pricier models, like the flagship QST 106. Just two years ago, the QST 92 adopted two features introduced the prior year in the QST 98, Double Sidewalls and full-length C/FX, Salomon’s signature carbon/flax combo. While the latest improvements no doubt contributed to the QST 92’s stellar performance, the bones they’re built on were pretty stout to begin with: an all-wood (poplar) core, full sidewalls (i.e., no cap), cork inserts to muffle shocks and a central Titanal plate that makes the entire ski feel more substantial. Beginning in 2023, the QST 92 has also mimicked the slightly lower rocker profile launched two years ago in the QST Blank and QST 98, so it feels more connected on all snow surfaces. Once you put it all in motion, you wouldn’t guess you’re piloting a price-point ski intended to retail at $600. The security on edge is fantastic on anything softer than boilerplate, it feels energetic crossing the fall line and it can switch between a carve and a drift on command. A lower-skill skier can’t find a more tolerant ski with such a high-performance ceiling. For a ski whose DNA is all about off-trail conditions, the QST 92 feels right at home …

Lest there be any confusion, the Atomic Maverick 86 C didn’t crack our Recommended ranks because it’s a great ski. It earned our appreciation because it’s a remarkably good deal at its target retail of $549.95, a price plateau mostly populated by dreck. Atomic has made a habit out of making a superior carbon ski with an 86mm footprint, going back to its first Vantage series. The Maverick 86 C continues in this grand tradition. I learned more about the Maverick 86 C’s capabilities than I intended to when I stepped into a pair during a Peter Glenn demo event at Palisades Tahoe. I was just in time to join a group taking an end-to-end mountain tour led by Jonny Moseley. Moseley and I were already well acquainted, going back to the days when I recruited him to ski for Head. I wasn’t going to miss the chance to spend some time with Jonny, no matter what skis were on my feet. So, off I went on an excursion that included more than the usual dose of moguls, for obvious reasons. I was gob smacked by how well the doughty little (176cm) Maverick could snake through bumps, its loosely connected tips smoothly sliding over the tops and soft flex helping it slither through troughs. When it was time to gallop back to the lift, the tail was supportive enough to be stable within the normal recreational speed range.