There are plenty of choices in the market for skiers who want a shorter camber zone, something easier to swivel, maybe a little fatter so it will float better. The MX84 is the antidote to all that. Its absurdly high Finesse score isn’t because it’s easy for anyone to ski; it’s because the experts who tested it fell in love with its line-hugging power and imperturbable calm. This is why testers who rarely write comments start decorating their test cards with hearts.
Take a peak at the MX74’s turn radius measurement: 14.7m in a 172cm. That’s cobra quick. With a whopping 50mm of width differential between tip and waist, the MX74 sucks the skier into the top of the turn with the irresistible authority of a black hole. Once on edge, your trajectory is predetermined by the angle of the base against the snow surface plus whatever pressure you apply. The more energy you put in, the more you get out.
Kästle wasn’t even trying to make a knockout women’s ski. It applied a square sidewall to what was previously a cap ski to give it a performance kick, in the process raising the performance bar to the elite level. It doesn’t hurt that the stock lay-up for a Kästle is a vertically laminated beech/silver fir core encased in twin laminates of glass and Titanal. There’s a reason it’s the foundation of all the best hard-snow skis being made today.
One way to make a fundamentally strong construction more docile is to rocker it, which reduces the amount of ski that operates on hardpack conditions. Because the ski tip and tail bend away from the snow surface, for there to be ski/snow contact in these areas the snow must rise up to meet them. This makes a ski like the Kästle FX85 HP feel more at home in a patch of day-old crud than it does on an acre of crystal carpet.
Like a benevolent despot, the new Kästle LX85 has power in its bloodlines but mercy in its heart. A look at its components suggests a ski with all the rigor of a race ski, with a vertically laminated wood core encased in glass and twin sheets of Titanal. The cap construction of the earlier LX’s has been replaced with the square sidewalls associated with more powerful skis. But its tip and tail are tapered to take the edge off their reactions and the forebody has the slight elevation that is considered essential on an off-trail ski.