The attributes of All-Mountain West skis can be plotted along two axes: the Power/Finesse spectrum and the On-trail/Off-trail scale. The Dynastar Legend X 96 lives in the Finesse/Off-trail quadrant. The Legend X 96’s signature feature, Powerdrive, works differently from most shock-damping methods, by loosening the link between the outer sidewall and the central laminates. Powerdrive breaks the sidewall into three parts, which allows the main structural layers to sheer more easily, absorbing rough terrain the ski would otherwise bounce off. Because it manages to be damp without resorting to two sheets of Titanal, the Legend X 96 keeps the weight off and the stability up.
The Pro MT 95 TI is a wide ski for people who don’t like wide skis. It behaves as if it were a lightweight carver with a middleweight’s punch: calm on edge, unperturbed by speed and undeterred by brittle hardpack. If the Pro MT 95 TI isn’t exactly agile, neither is it ponderous; it feels capable of any direction change the situation requires. Despite its design concessions to off-trail conditions, the Pro MT 95 TI doesn’t stray far from its carving roots. Carving isn’t just second nature to it – the way it rails from edge to edge reveals that carving is actually its first nature.
Given its tapered tip and tail, the Kore 99 probably doesn’t care much about rocketing around on hardpack, but it has the good manners not to show it. Proof that it can handle the rigors of hard snow comes with the application of speed in increasingly heavy doses. (Note the nearly 9.0 average score for stability.) But the Kore 99’s proficiency on crispy corduroy is hardly the point; this ski was built for powder and its evil twin, crud. Not only is the Kore 99 palpably lighter than the norm, which reduces the power drain on the pilot, but its fairly straight midsection allows it to pivot more or less at will. This allows for the minor course corrections that are the difference between finding the freshies between the tracks and missing them. In a genre already well stocked with fall-line chargers, the Kore 99 provides an alternative snow feel.
