If one were to believe the pandering prose describing the Laser AR in Stöckli’s 2021 catalog, it’s an all-terrain ski. BTW, Stöckli annually produces the most lavishly produced yet poorly written catalog in the ski world. Here’s a taste lifted from the Laser AR’s thumbnail portrait: “This ski is especially well suited for the entire mountain in support of the saying: Come what may.” I love the oxymoronic claim of being precisely adapted for everything, particularly for a ski directly extracted from race room technology with the tech specs of a classic carver.

Everyone’s catalog copy is an exercise in bloviation, but there’s not much point in model differentiation – one of the main objectives of any catalog – if at the end of the day every ski skis every condition perfectly. Surely Stöckli’s claims about the AR’s versatility are merely unchecked marketing hyperbole that couldn’t possibly be true.

Then you go ski it in ten inches of wind-affected crud and discover, damn, it really doesn’t care what the conditions are. Of course it doesn’t even try to float on top; it simply demolishes whatever you put in front of it.   If you need assistance with your off-trail technique, the Laser AR is not going to help you figure it out. But if you have the skills, you’ll find it rock solid, quick on and off the edge and totally connected to the turn. For the accomplished technical skier, Stöckli’s goofy catalog copy turns out to be accurate: the Laser AR will keep on carving, come what may.

The Laser AR succeeds as an all-terrain tool largely due to a feature created to control torsion in race skis, the domain the Laser family calls home. Called Torsion Racing Technology, it consists of longitudinal splits in the bottom Titanal laminate that allow the tip and tail to deflect. What helps maintain edge contact on hard snow also lets the extremities adapt to irregular terrain without over-reacting.

But even TRT can’t turn this exquisite carver into a true crud ski. Just because the Laser AR can and will ski anything, doesn’t mean it’s the perfect ski for all conditions. It simply means it treats all conditions with equal contempt.