Völkl has built an enviable reputation for its high-performance women’s skis, despite the fact that many of its most revered models – the Aura, Kiku and Kenja, for example – weren’t really women-specific models, but unisex skis in short sizes. The Secret 96 falls squarely in this tradition, for it faithfully mimics the construction of the new men’s M7 Mantra.

What makes the M7/Secret 96 design so remarkable is how its various features work together to create a ginormous performance envelope. One of its foundational elements is Tailored Titanal Frame, that loads up on mass where most brands pare away as much weight as they can.  Titanal Frame breaks the usual topsheet of Titanal into three separate parts: two long-armed horseshoes wrap around the tip and tail, and a thinner, disconnected plate rides in the center. Breaking the topsheet up like this makes it easier to bow the ski without losing one iota of gripping power.  Just below this Titanal triad is a long slab of unidirectional glass, a coiled spring just waiting to be energized by compression. The fusion of the metal and fiberglass elements is what gives the Secret 96 its peppy rebound, a trait not often found in wide, all-terrain skis.

In the same iconoclastic vein, the two new features that elevate the performance ceiling of the 2025 Secret 96 – 4 Radius Drive and Tailored Carbon Tips – focus on sharpening the short-radius aptitude of the very tip of the ski, where every other ski that calls itself “all-mountain” is rockered entirely out of contact. The new features are meant to enhance the Secret’s ability to cut a clean, sharp corner into a short-radius arc, a level of steering accuracy that no other ski in the genre can match.

It’s because of how all its design elements work together that the Secret 96 can execute a short, carved turn that is simply unattainable on most skis this wide; yet all this agility only appears when summoned. If the pilot never rakes the Secret up on a high enough edge angle to activate the tight-radius sidecut underfoot, she’ll never know she has an on-demand slalom turn under her at all times.

It takes a skilled skier to extract the Secret 96’s best qualities, so it’s not a great choice as an everyday ski for the average weekend warrior, whose skills development will be better served on something softer and narrower.  But if you’re a lass looking for a true all-terrain ski that skis as hard as you do, you’ve found your match in the Secret 96.