Fischer introduced the Ranger 115 XTi only last year, and already it’s been run through the mild makeover machine. The intention was to make the flagship Ranger less of a ginormous carving entity and more of a New School slarver with a looser snow connection, what the current generation of freeriders refer to as “buttery.”

Mission accomplished. The new Ranger 115 FR is still stable, but it’s a different sort of stability, less dependent on edge grip but as determined as ever not to be pushed around by heavy, pre-pummeled piles of what had recently been powder. Fischer didn’t tamper with the Ranger’s shape or turn radius, so it retains its affinity for long turns, and it still has the torsional rigidity to latch onto a high edge angle when summoned, but its regular style might be called, “authoritative drift;” you may not be riding the edge, but you have everything under control.

Part of making a kinder, gentler Ranger 115 entailed suctioning 100g’s off the old ski’s weight and trimming the MSRP by $100, two laudable examples of addition by subtraction.