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.
Despite its emphasis on lightweight design, the Pro MT 86 TI is a heavyweight in the carving department. “Excellent carvability!” exulted Sturtevant’s of Sun Valley’s Olin Glenne when he first essayed the ski two seasons ago. “Solid feel, yet quick and very precise,” Glenne added, according the Pro MT 86 TI the distinction of his favorite all-terrain ski for Frontside conditions. All it takes to keep the Pro MT 86 TI in its traces is to keep it on edge, whether a slight edge engagement from an upright stance or a higher edge angle that cuts gashes into the groom. Its bliss is rolling edge to edge at a canter; powder up to knee high is easily defanged by the ski’s tip and tail rocker.
Sometimes simple solutions, well executed, yield surprisingly strong results. Fischer takes several measures to trim ounces off the My Pro MT 86, yet the overall impression is one of solidity and confident control. The ski is built on classic lines, with a vertically laminated all-wood core, fiberglass laminates that dictate flex distribution and rebound and ABS sidewalls for efficient energy transmission. Kimberley from California Ski Company finds the My Pro MT 86 “Responsive but forgiving. Fun and easy to ski on the whole mountain. Light,” she adds putting its lightweight in its proper place, behind its performance properties.
If there were such a tome as The Book of Ski Design Proverbs, it might contain this nugget of ancient wisdom: “Without stability, there can be no ease.” Fischer’s My Ranger 89 provides an appropriate illustration of this timeless adage’s veracity. This off-piste oriented arrow (note the slender tip dimension) earns the same marks for Finesse as the benchmark Black Pearl 88 and the New School Liberty Genesis 90, and it does so without surrendering the serenity at speed that only metal provides. That Fischer can slip Titanal around its lightweight Air Tec core and still keep a single ski’s weight at only 1620g @ 172cm is an indication of just how much material is removed in Fischer’s proprietary core milling process. The super-thin Carbon Nose inserted in the tip and tail reduces weight where it matters most.
Racers are well aware of the super-charging effect of elevation, so naturally the by-racers-for-racers The Curv incorporates a two-piece plate that gives the skier extra leverage over the edge. The ski beneath the energy-enhancing Booster plate is a World Cup clone with a more user-friendly sidecut. Titanal sheets and a proprietary carbon weave called Diagotex™ provide the power source; The Curv’s triple-radius sidecut gives it the intense, addictive hook-up action you buy a carving ski for. The short-radius forebody initiates a tight turn the instant it’s tipped, the longer-radius center draws out the belly of the turn while the skier is laid over, and the short-radius tail maintains contact across the fall line.
