It requires sustained success for a model to achieve iconic status so that its name is nearly as well-known as the brand itself. The Strato. The X-Scream. The 5500. The Black Pearl. If a model becomes so important to a brand’s success that its name sticks around for a decade or more – in a market that usually operates at a roughly 4-year life expectancy between model make-overs – the ski beneath the name has probably been tweaked a few times over that span.
Cutting to the chase, the latest MX84 changed two fundamental elements to its classic chassis, the lay-up of the all-wood core and the composition of its signature feature, the Hollowtech tip. The Infini Core is a close relative of the cores used in Kästle’s race skis, giving the new MX84 the solidity and responsiveness of a competition model. The ski feels more substantial, not just underfoot, but from tip to tail. The slender poplar and beech vertical stringers provide the fully cambered baseline with just the right ratio between flex distribution and rebound.
The connection to the snow begins in the shovel, where the Hollowtech Evo upgrades its shock absorption effect with extra layers of dampening agents, so the tip stays welded to the snow. This isn’t just an advantage on groomers, where the shovel finds early engagement on hard snow, but in bumps, as well. Skiing moguls is transformed from a brutal mugging to feeling like your skis are just following gravity’s flow.
The 2024 MX83 was a very good ski; the 2025 MX84 is a great one, right there with the Stöckli Montero AR as a speed-loving, corner-hugging, crud-eating machine. You’d think the MX84 was made to be an all-condition ski until you roll it out onto a long, undulating carpet of corduroy, where it can display its electric talent for carving. No matter what tune you play in your head while you ski, the MX84 can dance to it.
The longest tenured member of the All-Mountain East genre, Kästle’s MX88, is also the rare iconoclast that derives its design from a Frontside archetype. It’s essentially a carving tool surrounded by an ocean of double-rockered options, most of which are spin-offs from a wider flagship model. That it continues to out-perform most of the field is a testament to just how versatile a classic, cambered ski can be.
I hasten to point out that the 2025 MX88 has a tiny bit of tip rocker, but it also has a new Hollowtech Evo shovel that keeps the forebody so quiet and connected, you’d swear the baseline was fully cambered. The MX88 serves as a reminder that any all-terrain, all-purpose tool has to be able to carve competently on groomers as the foundation of its skill set.
This year, Kästle tacitly acknowledged what the market seems to have already decided: that the MX88 is as wide as one can make a traditional, wood, glass and Titanal laminate and still get the nimble skiing reflexes off-trail skiing demands. The 23/24 season was the last for the MX98, a ski with off-trail dimensions but a Super G’s appetite for attacking the fall line. It never really fit the accepted profile of an All-Mountain West ski. Adios, my Austrian amigo, I’ll ski you in my dreams.
The same traits that keep the MX88 on line on hard snow prevent it from being deflected by piles of previously plundered powder. Despite being the closest thing to a true carving ski in the diverse All-Mountain East category, when steered off-trail, the MX88 doesn’t flinch for a moment. You can swing a high edge away from your body, secure in the knowledge that the ski will never shimmy or shake as it slingshots across the fall line. It’s for access to sensations like this that one takes the trouble to become an expert in the first place.
Kästle’s MSRP’s hover near the peak of the retail pricing mountain, where the air is so thin only a few brands can survive in it. Kästle’s relatively new Czech ownership wants to expand the line by dropping a few experimental models down to a lower altitude, where the people, particularly less affluent younger people, can afford to acquire them.
Hence the ‘Z” in its name, a reference to Gen Z, otherwise known as young adults. The first foray in this direction was the ZX108, a non-metal, robustly rockered Big Mountain model with surprising moxie, introduced just two seasons ago. The ZX100 is its first offspring, with a retail tag of $649, a pittance for a Kästle and right in line with the rest of the market.
The low price wouldn’t be worth much if the ski couldn’t cut it, but the ZX100 is a knockout, particularly in the softer snow it’s made for. This became evident on a spring day at Mt. Rose, where the snow surface evolved from boilerplate to mush in the span of three hours. As soon as the top surface became loose enough to dislodge, the ZX100 was in its element. Its classic wood-and-fiberglass sandwich is strong on the edge and peppy coming off it. It’s sidecut is also right out of the time-honored playbook, with just a little more shape and tip-to-tail taper angle than the norm. Without metal to dampen its response to pressure, the ZX100 feels quick and lively even though its natural sidecut radius is 18m in a 180cm and short turns aren’t really its wheelhouse.
Its balanced flex feels easy to stay centered on, where the skier can instantly switch between smooth smears and sharp edge sets as the ZX100 hews closely to the fall line. If you want to make a tighter turn that’s more carve than swivel, be prepared to work for it, but that’s the case for just about every ski in this genre.
The only problem with Kästle’s MX series of Frontside-focused models is it’s proven to be a tough act to follow. Kästle’s initial foil to the MX’s preeminent position in the line was the Chris Davenport signature fleet of FX models, built with the same, premium components as the MX’s, but with a double-rockered baseline and a tapered tip and tail, both essential features of any off-trail collection. In a word, they ripped.
The original FX clan was ultimately deemed to be too similar to MX, so it was retired in favor of a FX family that was massively rockered and available both with and without metal. Their only drawback was the new FX’s didn’t ski nearly as well as the old ones, so the search continued for an off-trail alternative to MX. The final version of FX didn’t fare much better, despite an expensive construction that still couldn’t hold a candle to the MX’s mastery of its domain.
So, bid a fond farewell to FX and say hello to Paragon, a definite step in the right direction. If the new Paragons bear a striking resemblance to the returning ZX clan, it’s because they borrow the ZX molds, but swap out the wood core and add two sheets of Titanal. The Paragon core is one of the few that uses three woods – poplar, beech and Paulownia – to create just the right snow feel for a wide ski.
Considering that it’s made to ski in chopped-up, off-trail conditions, the Paragon 101 handles hard snow surfaces with the stability and response you’d expect from a wood-and-metal laminate. Its rockered and tapered tip isn’t going to initiate as early as a Frontside carver, but wherever the edge meets the snow, the grip is secure and unwavering. The Hollowtech 2.0 housed in the shovel lacks the shock-damping power of the Hollowtech Evo on the MX’s, but the Paragon’s amply rockered forebody doesn’t collide with the snow surface at the same angle as, say, the fully cambered MX84’s. For the terrain it’s meant to plunder, the Paragon 101 has all the damping power it needs.
Why would a relatively small ski company decide – seemingly out of the blue – to absorb the absurd expense of becoming a boot supplier? The answer to this question isn’t the usual brand-extension story, although that must be part of the overall strategy....
