All ski names require a certain measure of decoding, as they tend to include cryptic abbreviations that contain vital clues as to the model’s performance potential. Such is the case with Kästle’s use of “HP” in the model names in its FX category. In the FX generation that drew its last breath two years ago, “HP” meant metal laminates in the recipe; in 2021, “HP” denotes the presence of carbon in the glass wrap of an interior core-within-a-core. Obviously, Titanal and carbon fiber don’t have the same properties, so the HP bump isn’t the performance boost it used to be.

The new FX series rests its laurels on three unifying factors: 3 woods in the core, a 3D shape to the top surface and Hollowtech 3.0, Kästle’s signature tip design that in this incarnation fills the entire shovel with a shock-absorbing insert. The FX series has always been focused on off-trail performance, willingly sacrificing a measure of on-trail connectivity to achieve easier behavior in soft snow. The FX96 HP lies squarely in this tradition, but it also went after two other objectives that didn’t do it any favors: lighter weight, a current market obsession, and lower price, an issue that has unquestionably inhibited Kästle sales.

With so many of its competitors’ AMW models equipped with two sheets of Titanal – the very element the FX96 HP dispensed with – the latest FX flagship fell below the performance standard established by its predecessors. The same test panel that raves about every MX model it can lay its hands on never warmed up to the FX96 HP.