Just last season, Dynastar radically altered its all-mountain offering, replacing the long-in-the-tooth Cham/Legend design with the M-Pro series. The M-Pro collection consists of four models, that roughly parallel the ability hierarchy of novice (M-Pro 84), intermediate (M-Pro 90), advanced (M-Pro 99) and pro athlete (M-Pro Rider).
The M-Pro 99 is clearly the sweetspot in the series, with more Titanal in its guts and a more connected-to-the-snow baseline. While there’s metal in its make-up, it’s a relatively mild dose, so the M-Pro 99 Ti doesn’t behave like a typical Austrian wood-and-metal sandwich. It’s lighter and looser, with a baseline and build that are biased to off-trail conditions. It performs best when the surface isn’t too slick, so it has something to push against and improve contact along the length of the ski.
Skiers who don’t barrel straight down the fall line will appreciate the M-Pro 99’s mix of agility and stability. Its natural inclination is to make a medium to long radius turn; short turns will tend to involve a bit of drift at the top and bottom with a clean edge in the belly of the turn. Chargers who attack the hill like Footloose’s Larry Rhoads will want to step up to the 186cm length, which Rhoads describes as a “22m machine that eats up terrain.”
Many, if not all, models in the All-Mountain West genre bill themselves as “50/50” skis, meaning they are equally adept on hard, groomed snow and soft, irregular crud. But Dynastar knows that skiers don’t buy a 99mm-waisted ski to cruise groomers; they get one in hopes of never seeing a groomer again.
So, the M-Pro 99 is clearly more of a 70/30 stick, with the 70% falling on the off-trail side of the ledger. The shallow sidecut and square tail design signal a directional ski that will plane evenly through tracked-up pow. Note the mere 10mm difference between tip width and tail, and less than 30mm delta from tip to waist. The only other place you’ll find sidecuts as straight as this is among the behemoths in the Powder platoon. One way to think of the M-Pro 99 is as Powder ski shrunk to everyday dimensions, with a more supportive tail that will make a crisper arc on hardpack.
While there’s no doubt the M-Pro 99 would rather face a powder field than a race course, it’s able to ride a quiet edge on hard snow in part because it uses a hybrid core, with a band of poplar down the middle and PU down the sides. As long as the top layer of snow has some give to it, M-Pro 99 handles easily and responsively. Its bias towards longer turns and their attendant higher speeds tilts its suitability to advanced skiers, but other aspects of its design favor Finesse skiers who aren’t likely to overload the tip.
There’s a new kid on Dynastar’s block, the M-Free 99, and it’s a different deal entirely. Essentially a narrow Powder ski, its heavily rockered baseline is as loose as sneakers without laces. (It’s reviewed on Realskiers with our All-Mountain West Finesse Favorites.). If you want more terrain versatility, the M-Pro 99 is the way to go.
Theron Lee is a precise technical skier with a penchant for short-radius arcing. His take on the M-Pro 99 in a 179cm: “Great all-around ski able to ski a multitude of radii. Early rise in the tip allowed it to go over variable snow the new core made with polyurethane delivered a smooth ride and kept it quiet and stable at speed.”
Dynastar draws no distinction between its men’s and women’s models, so a few women testers were able to essay the M-Pro 99 in a 170cm. Lara Hughes-Allen filed this dispatch: “I really liked this ski. I don’t usually ski anything much over 90mmm underfoot, but I was really impressed with this ski on groomers and off piste. I skied it on a day where we had gotten about a foot of new snow over crud/ice and it had a lot of float through the soft snow, but also charged through the crud. Surprisingly grippy on the groomers as well.”
Meghan Ochs, a powerful technical skier who prefers her skis fully cambered, was surprised to find the M-Pro 99 “performed better in all categories despite the rockered tip.” Because it offers high performance without a lot of exertion from the pilot, we again award the M-Pro 99 a Silver Skier Selection.
