Did you ever have a ski dream where everything was perfect? You can’t tell if your skis are an extension of your being or visa versa. You flow from turn to turn expending all the energy of a passenger lounging on a high-speed train. The scenery blurs as your speed climbs steadily until you reach a zone where time warps, aging is reversed, and still you’re totally connected to the snow by forces that feel at once magnetic, emotional and gravitational.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll arrive at this transcendental state the first time you step into a Kästle MX84, but you will if you keep trying. For if you’re not a beautiful skier before you encounter an MX84, in time it will make you one. This claim probably sounds optimistic, if not delusional, yet several testers claim that the MX84 essentially coached them into making better turns. Rather than dismiss it as New Age hogwash, I suggest you reconsider the hypothesis that a great ski invites great skiing.

While we’re on the subject of improbabilities, let’s talk about the MX84 as a bump ski, a task for which it would appear to be supremely unqualified. Won’t its fully cambered baseline jam into a mogul’s topside, and won’t its square tails hang up trying to corner in the troughs? Isn’t it kinda heavy and a wee bit wide for today’s arrhythmic mogul fields? Would I be writing this paragraph if it did?

Remember, Dear Readers, that great fluidity entails staying in contact with a bump’s backside, a skill set at which the MX84 excels. Its twin Titanal laminates help keep it planted on the snow, and its signature Hollowtech tip sucks up shock as it slithers over rutted terrain with the natural ease of a python. Its secret weapon in the battle to maintain snow contact is its fully cambered baseline that’s always hunting the top of the next turn.

Of course bumps aren’t actually the MX84’s preferred medium, which would instead consist of endless acres of groomage. The MX84 is the carving tool against which all others are measured. It rules because its every edge set is so secure from beginning to end, and it stays glued to the snow at speeds usually reserved for the race course.

Here’s the testimony of Start Haus’ Jim Schaffner after a brief foray on the MX84: “The classic feeling of wood and metal construction. Very stable and very powerful. It skis the way I like to ski, with powerful edge engagement right from the start of the turn. Very powerful ski, this one is definitely worth having in the quiver. I would buy this ski. It matches up with my powerful style of skiing and I can’t really find much wrong with it.” Nuff said.