If Disney Studios made animated ski movies, all the skis would have feelings and those of the BMX105 would be hurt. It was the only 2016 Kästle model to which our cross-country crew didn’t award a realskiers Recommended medallion, an emotional injury it might yet overcome if its modest (by Kästle standards) price tag provides sufficient inducement for the Kästle customer to consume it.

Remember the context from which this result is confected:  all our Kästle testers have known (and adored) this brand for years.  When they encounter a Kästle that isn’t, well, quite like a Kästle, they take it personally. So take this ski’s banishment from the Recommended club with caution: the BMX105 is still a fine Finesse ski that meets the requirements of job one, which is to simplify off-trail skiing.

As Kästles are unabashedly elitist skis, allow an elitist allusion: the BMX105 knows its business as well or better than the norm in its class, and it has an Ivy League pedigree, but it lacks the spunk and fortitude to stand out alongside the other members of its illustrious family.

In skiing terms, this means the BMX105 needs a berm of set-up schmutz to bank into, so its whole surface area supports the skier.  It wants to live at the high edge angles where 105’s rarely reside, and is a bit sullen and unresponsive when it doesn’t get its way.