Now in its sixth year, the Bonafide has earned the right to be considered among the greatest all-terrain skis ever made. It rolls to a precise edge with the languid ease of a ballerina, then grips the snow with the tenacity of an arm wrestler.
Best of all, its determination to cut a clean arc is unperturbed by whatever lies in its path. If it’s in the snow/ice extended family, the Bonafide can overpower it with the aplomb of an invincible superhero. If you don’t know what conditions are going to prevail on any given day, or if you’re taking a trip and can only take one pair of rides with you, taking a Bonafide along provides maximum fun insurance.
One thing that hasn’t changed about the Cham is the shape, which houses a turn-on-a-dime slalom-turn skill set inside a longer frame that assists flotation without inhibiting pivoting. This allows the Cham 2.0 97 to smudge a turn in a tight couloir or gallop headlong down the fall line with equal facility. The way its pintail rearbody is tucked in, the Cham can be counted on to readily release the turn to avoid any awkward hang-ups.
Cham 2.0 W 97 is essentially a fat ski with a slalom sidecut (14m @ 172cm) that skis shorter than it measures without resorting to smearing sideways. As with any of our Recommended models, it can cope with the monotony of groomed slopes, but these aren’t the moments it lives for.
Like its prospective owner, it would prefer to make first tracks down a pristine pasture, but if all that’s left is a mishmash of old tracks with scattered powder pockets, the Cham 2.0 W 97 will make the most of the situation.
The Kästle FX95 HP isn’t just an all-terrain, all-condition ski; it’s also an all-attitude ski. This odd elocution means that the FX95 HP doesn’t care if your style is docile or dominating, the FX95 HP is going to hold on to every medium-to-long radius arc as if the fate of Austria hung in the balance.
There is one caveat: it helps to go lickety split . This is never more true than in still-crystalline, crisscrossed crud, when the Dual Rise baseline of the FX95 HP feels most appreciated as an aid to maneuverability over and around submerged obstacles. The trade-off is that its rockered tip and tail feel less motivated when confronted with crystalline groomage. Because of its two layers of Titanal, the FX95 HP never feels unstable at speed, but its baseline unquestionably favors variable terrain as long as it’s not the consistency of haggis.
The Faction Nine.5 is an All-Mountain ski that favors any Finesse skier from intermediate to advanced; its broad ability range could be attributable to Faction’s unique transition zones between the rockered tip (10mm elevation) and tail (5mm) and the cambered (2mm) center section that make a long, strong ski feel shorter and easily re-directed. If the Nine.5 has a particular affinity for off-trail conditions, the culprit lies in its baseline that pulls the front rocker back 20cm from the tip and keeps the tail off the snow for 10cm. What remains in contact with mother earth is fairly stout, bolstered by a full sheet of Titanal that won’t let the Nine.5 get bossed around in set-up crud.
