Strictly speaking, Kästle’s LX82 isn’t a women’s ski. It exists, in part, because Kästle’s stock on-piste ski for many years, the exquisite MX83, had the mass of a collapsing star. To broaden its appeal in central Europe’s most important market segment, Kästle created the 2-model LX series, so lightweights of either gender could experience the liquid flow of the MX’s.

If the LX82 has a point of view, other than favoring less avoirdupois applied to its midsection, it’s that carving is cool and other pursuits are peripheral. Its character is written in its baseline, a fully cambered affair with a Fast Grip Shovel, so the instant it’s tipped it begins to carve an arc that seems to last from takeoff to landing.

Unlike a lot of skis with two layers of Titanal around the core, the LX82 doesn’t steer like a semi. It doesn’t need high speed to be responsive and never bucks its rider out of the saddle. We’ll give you a hint as to how it feels on the snow: In a Gadda Da Vida, baby. To all readers in your 60’s, if you didn’t say, “Iron Butterfly,” just what were you doing in the late1960’s? All younger fans of quintessential American rock are excused. This time.