LX73

Kästle wasn’t even trying to make a knockout women’s ski. It applied a square sidewall to what was previously a cap ski to give it a performance kick, in the process raising the performance bar to the elite level. It doesn’t hurt that the stock lay-up for a Kästle is a vertically laminated beech/silver fir core encased in twin laminates of glass and Titanal. There’s a reason it’s the foundation of all the best hard-snow skis being made today. The strongest women might overpower it, but the LX73 isn’t meant for them. It’s a confidence builder for those who aren’t as skilled or athletic as they’d like to be.

Famous 10

While it’s always sketchy to over-analyze data drawn from a small sample, perfect scores are hard to ignore. The 2019 Famous 10 earned 10’s across the board for Short-Radius Turning and nearly did the same for being Early to the Edge. If you’re a slalom-turn devotee who doesn’t want to sling around the heft of a race ski, the Famous 10 is a potential life partner.

S/Max Blast

Salomon’s Technical skis must feel like Rodney Dangerfield: they can’t get no respect, no respect at all, I tell ya. The S/Max Blast is a new ski, and still hardly anyone in our test panel took them for a spin. This is but one measure of how the QST series...

Laser SX

Stöckli has a knack for making perfect skis, then improving them. Judging by test cards from prior seasons, no one could imagine a better on-piste ski than the 2018 Laser SX. “Simply put, the best on-piste ski for the advanced skier,” proclaimed Cal Ski Company...

Laser MX

Stöckli takes racing very, very seriously. Perhaps that’s why the Swiss brand has waited forever to make a women’s Laser; if making a women’s model entails a compromise on performance, forget it. To make sure the new Laser MX would be worthy, Stöckli teamed up with...