Stöckli already made the best ski in the Frontside genre, the 2022 Laser AR, but the Swiss have a habit of upgrading their models whether they need it or not, so in 2023 they gave the AR a slightly wider waist, a skinnier tip, a wider tail and a new damping system, all in the service of making a perfect on-trail ski a bit better at pummeling ungroomed snow into submission. We can’t think of another model in any genre that is better able to handle a full-speed transition from a granite-hard groomer to unkempt crud without flinching.
Perhaps to make life easier on the folks in production, the Montero AR borrows its new damping system from its running mate, the Montero AX. Turtle Shell Technology entails an S-shaped split in the top Titanal sheet that’s filled with an elastomer that stiffens when vigorously vibrated. The net effect is a ski that’s becomes more torsionally rigid at speed without being an intractable rail when the energy input is low. There are other reasons contributing to the Montero AR’s unperturbable trajectory regardless of snow condition, but Turtle Shell tech is definitely a part of its magic formula.
While there’s no law preventing an intermediate skier from getting the Montero AR in a shorter length, it’s a waste of the AR’s talents to be on the feet of a neophyte. But while it helps to be a strong skier (when doesn’t it help?), one doesn’t have to be a Power skier intent on breaking the sound barrier. “At slow speeds, I enjoyed rolling into sweet, round turns,” rhapsodized Peter Glenn’s Mark A, “almost as much as I loved leaving big, round trenches that might have swallowed up small animals. But the point is, the AR is a ski that you can have a blast on whether you’re on a lazy stroll or blasting down a cruiser.”
Without a doubt, one of Stockli’s signature sensations is serenity at speed. It’s why many expert testers give skis like the Montero AR high marks for Finesse properties like forgiveness and Finesse/Power balance: they’re sublimely simple to ski once you have the requisite skills. Consider the Montero AR to be like an F1 car in that anyone can probably get in it and steer it, but the citizen driver will never have a clue about its potential. The Montero AR has F1-quality potential.
If you believe the copy in Stockli’s sumptuously produced catalog, the addition of 1mm at the waist has transformed the Montero AR into the perfect powder ski. This is obvious twaddle, but the Montero AR does handle loose and irregular snow well for the same reasons it skis groomers immaculately: it’s never nervous. It has the unruffled calm on edge of a race ski without being as finicky to handle in soft snow. But just because the Laser AR can and will ski anything, doesn’t mean it’s the perfect ski for all conditions. It simply means it treats all conditions with equal contempt.
Given that the new Montero AR and Montero AX are built along the same lines, with only their sidecut to distinguish them, it’s natural to wonder just if and how they differ. Basically, the AX skis more like a slalom that’s comfortable at high speed, while the AR behaves like a high-geared GS ski that can cut a sharp corner on demand. If you like your turns firecracker quick, the AX will give you the kick you’re looking for. If you prefer to open the throttle and charge, the AR will reveal a brilliant repertoire of turn shapes, all as precise as a surgeon’s incision.
As we wrote of the Laser AR last season, the Laser AR behaves as if it only retired from the race circuit last season. Although by Stockli’s lights its baseline is double-rockered, its snow connection feels like it’s fully cambered. For any skier with a racing background, it will take about ten seconds to figure it out. Just because its tip is rockered (mildly) and split (cleverly), doesn’t mean it can’t sniff out the top of a turn, and its hold from its midsection to its barely rounded tail is immaculate. Of course, it’s not going to float like a Big Mountain model, but it has as much stability in one foot of tracked-up terrain as the best of its fatter cousins.
