Overview
Our spider sense tingles when we hear the term “handmade” applied to skis, as the implication is that such slats will receive extraordinary care in manufacture no mass-produced ski can hope to receive. One reason we look sideways at the “handmade” qualifier is that all adult skis are to some degree handmade and some processes – even at “handmade” plants – are best managed robotically. In fact, there’s no obligatory reason a “handmade” ski should be superior, or conversely, a “mass produced” model shouldn’t be exquisite. While the “handmade” handle hopes to convey scrupulous craftsmanship, it’s just as likely to be a euphemism for “inefficient production technology with slack quality control.”
Of all the brands that hang their hat on a handmade reputation, Stöckli represents the best of what we associate with the term and avoids all the potential pitfalls. Perhaps all we need to say is that it is Swiss to the core. If it is inefficient, it’s because it chooses to be; who else tinkers with its production several times mid-season as new ideas are tested and adopted? Sure, other brands are also refining their products throughout the year, but they don’t usually make such midstream improvements available to the public. But if Stöckli concocts a faster race ski, the next model it makes – whether for a racer or a consumer – will incorporate those improvements. If that sounds special, it is.
Stöckli doesn’t condescend to their buying public. It assumes if you want its race skis, you want the same race skis its World Cup athletes use, so that’s what you get. It doesn’t compromise on construction and the finishing steps applied to all Stöckli skis are state-of-the-art and beyond meticulous. Most companies would fire any engineer who recommended a method that took a week to produce a finished ski; at Stöckli, they’d probably promote him.
Stöckli’s willingness to try new technology is evident in the recent history of its top Laser and Stormrider models, its two most popular series in the U.S. A few years ago, it inserted polyamide strips in the top Titanal layer of four Stormrider models, only to remove them a year later because the inserts were hard to manage from a quality control standpoint. Apparently undaunted by manufacturing challenges, it co-created Turtle Shell Technology, which consists of S-shaped slits in Titanal laminates that are filled with an elastomer so they can be squeezed together under pressure. Turtle Shell tech comes in two versions, Turtle Shell Racing, with a deep notch in the thick base laminate for competition skis, and Turtle Shell Comfort, with a smaller gap in the top sheet for recreational models like the erstwhile Laser AX and Laser MX for women.
While it fair to say that Stöckli marches to the beat of its own drum, it’s not completely immune to market trends. It’s made an effort to lighten its Stormrider series over the years, and, perhaps grudgingly, has incorporated a touch of tip and tail rocker to its all-world off-trail models.
With the addition six years ago of the Laser AR, Stöckli bridged the gap between its Laser and Stormrider collections, moving its widest carver within 5mm (waist width) of its narrowest all-mountain model. At 83mm underfoot, the Laser AR is one of a cluster of models that blur the distinction between on-trail and all-terrain models. In theory, an all-terrain ski would have more accommodations for powder-like conditions, but in practice a great many skiers with all-mountain skills spend upwards of 70% of their time on groomers. For them, a great carver like the Laser AR – since supplanted by the Montero AR – that won’t wilt in the face of a little loose snow is a more sensible option than a double-rockered fatty.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the Laser AR and Laser AX, but that didn’t deter Stöckli from altering them three years ago and tweaking them again for 2025. To draw attention to the two models’ all-terrain chops and cut them out of the large pack of Laser race skis, Stöckli gave them their own model family, Montero. Their greater terrain versatility supposedly derives from a slight change in sidecut that takes some of the curvature out of their shape and adds a mm or two at the waist. The 84mm Montero AR also adopted the Turtle Shell tech already built into the 80mm Montero AX.
While the Monteros aren’t behaviorally very different from their Laser forebears, the distinction between the AR and AX on snow remains genuine. The Montero AX likes its turns served shorter, and while it certainly won’t flounder in soft snow, neither does it feel the need to seek it out. The AR likes to run a little hotter and turns a blind eye to any terrain variability likely to be encountered in-resort. Both are Hall of Fame Frontside carvers with no discernable performance ceiling.
Once Stöckli created the Montero family by plumping up the Laser AX and AR, it left a space in the narrow end of the this Frontside family for a more svelte sibling, a void filled two years ago with the Montero AS. The “S” is short for “Slalom,” and it’s 13.7m sidecut radius (166cm) proves this isn’t simply marketing bluster. Left to its own devices, it would crank out cat-quick arcs from dawn to dusk, a skiing style that isn’t exactly in its heyday on American pistes. It can be feathered into a longer turn, of course, but it’s crazy to get a ski this slalom-centric and then feed it a diet of GS turns. There’s also a Montero for women, but its 80mm waist and less radical sidecut should be more turn-agnostic than the go-short-or-go-home Montero AS.
In 2025, Stöckli engineers again indulged their passion for tinkering with perfection, adding a second split to the Turtleshell tip on the Montero AR and AX. The idea is to make the shovel more flexible and tolerant of uneven terrain when running flat, but as soon as it’s tipped on edge, it stiffens into a resilient beam the skier can drive into. To help activate this Turtleshell action at the very top of the turn, the mounting point has also been moved forward on both the modified Monteros.
For, well… forever, Stöckli’s elevated retail pricing put a damper on its growth prospects in this country. That era seems to be over, and it’s not because Stöckli scrapped its pricing policy. It’s due to a steadily growing appreciation among specialty ski retailers that their core customers are willing to pay the Stöckli premium to get the best available ski experience. In my unabashedly unscientific estimation, Stöckli may have grown more in the last two years than any other ski brand in the U.S.
The 2026 Season
The evidence that Stöckli never stops tweaking even its most successful models is again on display in the changes administered to a revised Stormrider 88. As happened to the Stormrider 95 last season. the new Stormrider 88 has a wider tip, lending more shape to its sidecut and tightening its turn radius. There is also now a fourth size, and a shorter increment between sizes (from 9mm down to 5mm). To improve off-piste performance, the front rocker is a little taller and a tad longer, while the tail is a little softer and more forgiving, so the latest SR 88 releases the edge more readily and won’t buck when asked to occasionally slarve a turn. The new tail design may be a little softer and more forgiving, but it is still a flat, squared-off tail, unlike the banana-shaped tails that adorn most off-trail designs.
The ever-popular Stormrider 95 (in my opinion, the best execution (at least up to this season) of the Stormrider design) didn’t change sidecut this season, but a softer rubber laminate in the tip will make for a calmer ride through choppy crud, without resorting to the knee-jerk expedient of ladling on more metal. All the Stormriders, including the beefy SR 102, receive a new topcoat called Titanal Tech Pro, to help protect the topskin from nicks and cuts.
Last season, the Montero AR and AX were the beneficiaries of a spin-off of Turtleshell Tech that makes a pair of side-by-side, squiggly cuts in the Titanal topsheet at both tip and tail. This allows the ski to follow terrain without getting knocked off course, as well as having a calming effect that seems to improve snow contact for the full length of the ski. For 2026, these embellishments were applied to the short-radius specialist the Montero AS and the women-specific Montero AW, which also get the Titanal Tech Pro treatment. A bonus rubber laminate underfoot provides some reinforcement the binding area, and moving the mounting point forward by 10mm improves connectivity in the forebody.
Another new Stöckli that’s getting traction in the U.S. market is the women-specific Laser MP. (The Laser SC had served the role of women’s model among the Lasers, but it wasn’t created from scratch to serve as a women’s model. The race-genre Laser clan was the last Stöckli model family to finally offer a women-specific model.) The Laser MP uses a lighter core and has a slightly softer flex than the rest of the Laser family, but it is by no means diluted compared to the unisex models. It cuts a very tight turn (11.7m at 154cm), which favors the skilled, technical skier.