2025 Kastle MX88

The longest tenured member of the All-Mountain East genre, Kästle’s MX88, is also the rare iconoclast that derives its design from a Frontside archetype. It’s essentially a carving tool surrounded by an ocean of double-rockered options, most of which are spin-offs from a wider flagship model. That it continues to out-perform most of the field is a testament to just how versatile a classic, cambered ski can be. I hasten to point out that the 2025 MX88 has a tiny bit of tip rocker, but it also has a new Hollowtech Evo shovel that keeps the forebody so quiet and connected, you’d swear the baseline was fully cambered. The MX88 serves as a reminder that any all-terrain, all-purpose tool has to be able to carve competently on groomers as the foundation of its skill set. This year, Kästle tacitly acknowledged what the market seems to have already decided: that the MX88 is as wide as one can make a traditional, wood, glass and Titanal laminate and still get the nimble skiing reflexes off-trail skiing demands. The 23/24 season was the last for the MX98, a ski with off-trail dimensions but a Super G’s appetite for attacking the fall line. It never really fit the accepted profile of an All-Mountain West ski. Adios, my Austrian amigo, I’ll ski you in my dreams. The same traits that keep the MX88 on line on hard snow prevent it from being deflected by piles of previously plundered powder. Despite being the closest thing to a true carving ski in the diverse All-Mountain East category, when steered off-trail, the MX88 doesn’t flinch for a moment. You can swing a high edge away from your body, secure in the knowledge that the ski will never shimmy or shake as it slingshots across the fall line. It’s for access to sensations like this that one takes the trouble to become an expert in the first place.