If you were hoping to read a review of the Mantra 102, keep your shirt on, I’ll get to it. But I must digress before I’ve begun because I have no better place to sing the praises of the Katana 108, a marvel of a ski that in two years hasn’t tallied enough ballots to qualify for our Recommended ranks. I finally got a chance to ski it in appropriate conditions late last spring and it shattered every preconception I had about its capabilities.
You see, the Mantra 102 review you’ll soon encounter describes a ski that roars downhill with the force of a charging bull. Just how beastly will its Titanal Frame design be when expanded to a 108mm waistline? I expected it to have the turn radius of the Exxon Valdez.
So when I escorted a 177cm Katana 108 into a copse of tight trees, I was amazed to discover that I could swivel them as if they weighed no more than a whisper. They felt frisky and responsive and when loose on the open trail they exhibited relentless edge grip. Their combination of strength on edge and power off it invited speed that would set other skis in the Big Mountain genre into nervous paroxysms. For the skilled skier who knows that the key to shredding crud is maintaining momentum, the Katana 108 might be a better choice than the Mantra 102, which would make it the best Power ski on the market. Now, about that 102…
Not since the first Cochise rolled off the production line nearly a decade ago has there been a Big Mountain ski like the Völkl Mantra 102. You can feel the power percolating under the hood before you have it out of first gear. Even though it’s “only” 102mm underfoot, it feels more substantial. At slow speeds, its triple-radius sidecut (long-short-long) encourages the Mantra 102 to stay close to the fall line so it can pick up enough inertia to show its other moves. “It’s super stable in hardpack or crud,” confirms Patrick McCloud from Peter Glenn. “Somehow it manages to perform like a narrower waisted ski on the hard stuff but like a big ski in the soft stuff and crud. Very impressive.”
Once you’ve shown it you care by injecting speed into its veins, the Mantra 102 becomes more compliant. Even though it’s double rockered, its Titanal Frame design, which puts more mass around the tip and tail, keeps nearly the full length of the ski engaged. While not exactly nimble – its lowest score is for short turns – it doesn’t have to be, for whatever lies in its path better get out of its way or face extinction.
As I noted on my test card, “The ends are a bit loose but otherwise its phenomenal security makes you feel as powerful as King Kong, like you can drive through anything. I pity the scattered piles of soft snow that lie between me and the bottom; the last thing they will ever see is the Völkl logo bearing down on them.”
This “Mantra über alles” attitude is unusual in a Big Mountain genre where Finesse skis are in the majority. The Mantra 102 has as much interest in floating over new snow as a bathysphere, and would rather pummel a patch of soft snow than caress it. “It’s more traditional in the way it feels,” says Jim Schaffner of Star Haus, citing the Mantra 102’s technical approach to off-trail skiing. “A super solid ski for these conditions. [Schaffner skied on a 191cm– a big boys’ length – in ten inches of wind-affected pow.] I would say not as playful as some of the other 100+’s.”
If you’d had difficulty finding a Big Mountain ski that’s able to support your mass and your mojo, your search has ended. I’m sure that someone whose nickname is Bluto or Bruiser will use the Mantra 102 as his everyday ski, but its glory is a wide-open crud field where it can cut loose like an extra-large GS race ski with anger issues. The only other ski in the genre that can match its bottomless power reserve is its big bro, the Katana 108. To read about it, just scroll back to the top of this review.
