The Volkl RTM 86 is at heart an XL Frontside ski that outgrew the rest of its class, landing it in the All-Mountain East genre, where it’s a little out of place. It tries to fit in with the rest of the AME family, adopting the de rigeur tip and tail rocker that is deemed essential for off-trail skiing. But just as fat skis with floppy tips beg to be taken off-piste, the RTM 86 longs to gallop down groomers where it doesn’t have to worry about irregular terrain breaking up its beautiful carves.
If we were to classify skis by their predilections instead of their dimensions, the RTM 86 would be a Luxury Carver, with the silky ride of a six-figure sedan. It’s relatively easy to flex, which allows the cambered area underfoot to blend into the arc formed by the long tip and tail rocker zones, creating a unified platform that supports the skier throughout its preferred long-radius turns. If it acts uninterested in slower speeds and shorter turns, it’s because it can’t wait to get up to speed and show off what it does best. After all, who buys a car with five forward gears based on how it performs in first?
Skiers who loved the first generation RTM 84 will rediscover its power and grip in the RTM 86, as both models use a double dose of Titanal to stabilize the ski at speed. The RTM 86 has the performance edge over its ancestor, as the 86 uses the 3D.Ridge chassis to pare away excess weight and 3D.Glass to boost edge grip and responsiveness. 3D.Glass, introduced just last season, proved to be the best technical upgrade applied to existing models in 2018, instantly turning good skis into great ones.
The defining trait of the RTM 86’s on-snow behavior is its obsession with maintaining snow contact. It loves to lay down dual tracks that never break rhythm or shimmy off line. It can be coaxed into a drift and actually acquits itself well in the bumps as long as there’s some sort of path through them. Like any powerful ski, light dustings of powder pose no issues for the RTM 86, so they’re still fun in soft, broken-up snow.