The fraternal relationship between Blizzard’s two All-Mountain East entries, the elder brother Brahma 88 and its upstart sibling, the Rustler 9, encapsulates the contrasting cast of characters that populate this crossroads category. While both skis belong to off-trail families, their personalities couldn’t be more different than, well, two brothers.
The Rustler 9, is not interested in following its elder’s tracks. Its comparatively loose, tapered tip wants to party. The Titanal laminate just below its topskin restores order underfoot, but nothing can suppress its youthful exuberance.
Ski buyers always ask at some point in their give-and-take with the salesperson, “How is it in the bumps?” While the flip reply is always, “As good as you are,” in the case of the Rustler 9, the ski actually is well suited to today’s hacked-up mogul formations.
Put in Realskiers’ terms, the pliable Rustler 9 is a Finesse ski while the stouter Brahma 88 is a Power ski. The Brahma’s best scores are for performance criteria like carving accuracy and stability at speed; the Rustler 9’s marks reveal a model with a high aptitude for off-trail conditions with a peppy personality that’s easy to manage. It’s not that it’s bad at edging, it’s just doesn’t care for the regimented lifestyle of a carving ski. It prefers life off-trail where it has the freedom to add a bit of schmear to every turn.
Let the record show that no ski made as giant a leap forward in 2020 as the Salomon QST 92. In its two earlier incarnations it barely met our Recommended minimum standards, barely hanging on the tail end of the Finesse ski standings. Now it resides near the top of our Finesse rankings, and the result is no fluke. The current QST has more of everything you want – edging power on trail, a better shape for off-trail, a more solid platform – and less of what you don’t want: tip chatter, indifferent grip, overall looseness. Salomon pulled off this coup by reconfiguring how it used its primary components, flax, basalt and, of course, carbon. The basalt and carbon are woven together in an end-to-end matrix, while the flax gets its own mat directly underfoot. An all-poplar core is reinforced by a patch of Titanal in the mid-section and finished with new cork inserts in the tip and tail.
The cork by itself is a major contributor to the QST 92’s calmness, as it’s reputed to be 16 times more shock absorbing than the Koroyd honeycomb it replaces. What’s truly amazing is that the 2020, more torsionally rigid QST 92 comes in over 200g lighter than the 2019 version. Its strength to weight ratio has to be among the leaders, not in the AME genre, but across all categories.
Tester: Emma Whitelande
I hop on the chairlift, three other women next to me, yet we don’t speak a word. We are all utterly focused on the run we just took and getting our thoughts down on our test cards while they are fresh in our mind. Now as I glance down, I see four different versions of what is to ultimately become the Mindbender 88Ti Alliance. This is the first test of many to come with the goal of creating one of the most versatile skis for women.
With each subsequent test and discussion, we all agreed we sought to create a ski that felt stable, balanced and confidence inspiring to a range of skier types. Too heavy of a ski would steer many women away, but too light meant the ski would constantly deflect and bounce around. An overly stiff ski would require too much muscling and race technique to get the ski to bend.
Titanal Y-Beam construction evolved through the process of developing the desired weight and stiffness for the women’s 88Ti. Titanal is laid over the ski in a ‘Y’ shape creating the flex profile, producing precise turn initiation while allowing for easy release out of a turn. Having the metal laid out in a ‘Y’ allows for a weight savings while maintaining desired stiffness. The Titanal Y-Beam created for the Mindbender 88 Ti Alliance became the design that was applied to the rest of the Mindbender collection, both for men and women.
The return of the MX88 to the Kästle line is a significant re-launch, as it’s not only a revered model with more than 10 years of history, it’s also one of the first skis made by Kästle for Kästle in over two decades. To finally get to the point, the resuscitated MX88 is a gem, perhaps the smoothest, most unperturbed ride in a genre overstocked with stellar skis.
The changes to the new MX88 are similar to the tweaks applied to the Blizzard Brahma 88 and Nordica Enforcer 94 in that the particulars sound inconsequential, yet the total effect is stunning. Using poplar in the core in lieu of silver fir makes the MX88 considerably lighter than the MX89, so the new model feels more nimble. The forebody now has a hint of early rise but it doesn’t compromise snow contact because the new Hollowtech 3.0 tip design muffles shock before it can knock the edge off line.
All these embellishments make the MX88 easier to bow and more subtle in its transition from edge to edge. The new MX88 takes less effort to guide without surrendering an ounce of its power quotient, so it’s more amenable to the movements of the less skilled skier. While it’s not necessary to ski the MX88 with the speedometer pegged, it would be a shame not to let it run.
