If there were such a thing as a Ski Hall of Fame (for skis, not people), they would have to consecrate a separate wing for the Stöckli Laser AX.  Throughout its long history, no other ski has blended the best properties of race skis with just enough softening agents to make a ski mindlessly simple to steer for non-racing experts. When it was introduced, the Laser AX was by far the widest Laser, Stockli’s name for its FIS-legal skis and their recreational derivatives. The first iteration had only one flaw: it didn’t seem to have a first or second gear.

Stockli’s solution was, and remains, brilliant. Turtle Shell has the sublime simplicity of many great ideas: to make a sheet of Titanal more pliable, slice it down the middle, only do it in a serpentine slit, so the ski won’t feel like it’s hinging around its centerline. Then fill the slit with an elastomer and put it all in motion.  At low speeds, the Laser AX behaves like it’s half asleep, as the soft connection between the two sections of Titanal allows the ski to bend with minimal force.

When speeds increase, so do the vibrations they must contend with. When shaken, not stirred, by the buffeting induced by ever-higher speeds, the elastomer stiffens, tightening the elastic link between the two sections. The Titanal suddenly acts as if the two forebody sections were riveted together.  With the Titanal laminate again behaving like a single sheet, the Laser AX becomes a rail that couldn’t be knocked off course by a land mine.

The Laser AX wouldn’t be such a perennial all-star if it couldn’t crank out a short turn, but its stability along the entire edge is so serene, surrendering to a series of long, swooping arcs is inevitable. Big boys take note: the Laser AX is one of the few Frontside skis that could care less that you measure your clothes in acres covered. If your measurements are impressive but your skills are not, just size downwards until you hit your comfort zone. If you’re large and you charge, a long Laser AX is one of the few non-race skis that won’t wilt when you hit the after-burners.

Here’s an endorsement of a different sort.  Shop salespeople have umpteen different ways to earn free skis just by carrying a few sales across the goal line.  Stöcklis they have to pay for – not as much as you’re likely to pay, Dear Reader, but real money all the same – yet they’ll step up and invest in a Laser AX, because once you’ve skied it, most everything else seems second-rate. It’s not heading to the Ski Hall of Fame for nothing.