Stöckli already made the best ski in the Frontside genre, the 2022 Laser AR, but the Swiss have a habit of upgrading their models whether they need it or not, so in 2023 they gave the AR a slightly wider waist, a skinnier tip, a wider tail and a new damping system, all in the service of making a perfect on-trail ski a bit better at pummeling ungroomed snow into submission. In keeping with its tradition of not leaving well enough alone, Stöckli has again tinkered with the Montero AR, this time by adding a variation of its Turtle Shell tech to the tip and tail, so the ski works like a fully engaged carving tool on groomers and a compliant terrain adapter off-piste.   We can’t think of another model in any genre that is better able to handle a full-speed transition from a granite-hard groomer to unkempt crud without flinching.

For those of you who didn’t get the memo, Turtle Shell Technology entails an S-shaped split in the top Titanal sheet that’s filled with an elastomer that stiffens when vigorously vibrated. In the latest execution, dubbed Tip and Tail Flex Technology, the single split is replaced with two squiggly splits in the Titanal laminates at tip and tail. The net effect is a ski tip that becomes more torsionally rigid as it’s rolled up on edge, without being an intractable rail when the energy input is low. There are other reasons contributing to the Montero AR’s unperturbable trajectory regardless of snow condition, but Turtle Shell tech is definitely a part of its magic formula.

While there’s no law preventing an intermediate skier from getting the Montero AR in a shorter length, it’s a waste of the AR’s talents to be on the feet of a neophyte. But while it helps to be a strong skier (when doesn’t it help?), one doesn’t have to be a Power skier intent on breaking the sound barrier. “At slow speeds, I enjoyed rolling into sweet, round turns,” rhapsodized Peter Glenn’s Mark Rafferty, “almost as much as I loved leaving big, round trenches that might have swallowed up small animals. But the point is, the AR is a ski that you can have a blast on whether you’re on a lazy stroll or blasting down a cruiser.”

Without a doubt, one of Stöckli’s signature sensations is serenity at speed, which helps make them sublimely simple to ski once you have the requisite skills. Consider the Montero AR to be like an F1 car in that anyone can probably manage to strap into and steer out of the pits, but the citizen driver will never have a clue about its potential. The Montero AR has F1-quality potential.

If you believe the copy in Stöckli’s sumptuously produced catalog, the addition of 1mm at the waist transformed the Montero AR (compared to the Laser AR) into the perfect powder ski. This is obvious twaddle, but the Montero AR does handle loose and irregular snow well for the same reasons it skis groomers immaculately: it’s never nervous. It has the unruffled calm on edge of a race ski without being as finicky to handle in soft snow. But 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.

Given that the Montero AR and Montero AX are built along the same lines, with only their sidecut to distinguish them, it’s natural to wonder just if and how they differ.  Basically, the AX skis more like a slalom that’s comfortable at high speed, while the AR behaves like a high-geared GS ski that can cut a sharp corner on demand. If you like your turns firecracker quick, the AX will give you the kick you’re looking for. If you prefer to open the throttle and charge, the AR will reveal a brilliant repertoire of turn shapes, all as precise as a surgeon’s incision.

As we wrote of the Laser AR three years ago, the Laser AR behaves as if it only retired from the race circuit last season. Although by Stöckli’s lights its baseline is double-rockered, its snow connection feels like it’s fully cambered. For any skier with a racing background, it will take about ten seconds to figure it out. Just because its tip is rockered (mildly) and split (cleverly), doesn’t mean it can’t sniff out the top of a turn, and its hold from its midsection to its barely rounded tail is immaculate. Of course, it’s not going to float like a Big Mountain model, but it has as much stability in one foot of tracked-up terrain as the best of its fatter cousins.