One has to marvel at Stöckli’s iconoclasm. It wanted to make its Big Mountain model a little softer longitudinally, so it shaved about a hair’s width of Titanal off the base, down to a mere .8mm, or double the thickness of what a lot of manufacturers use, and kept a 1mm sheet on top, but tapered it so it’s “only” .7mm in the shovel. Stöckli also tinkered with the sidecut, adding a couple of mm’s to the shovel and slimming the waist a smidge, all of which may have made the new Stormrider 105 a little turnier than the 107 whose place it takes in the line, but quicker turn entry isn’t what Stormrider riders remember most vividly.

It’s the speed, the almost eerie calm at speed.

“Powerful GS turns,” purrs Pete from California Ski Company. “No speed limit. Felt stable at Mach ∞,” he notes admiringly. It’s not the raw speed per se, that’s so enthralling, but the ease at which the Stormrider 105 attains it and the uses it to fashion turns short enough to tuck into couloirs and long enough to ravage open bowls. “Killing it!!!,” exults the even more exuberant than usual Bob Gleason of Boot Doctors. “Surprisingly nimble ski for its waist size. The cross breeding of quickness, agility, and stability is in a class of its own.”

The biggest effect of Stöckli’s Big Mountain makeover is to make all this power and accuracy more accessible to the less-than-world-class skier. “A more forgiving Stöckli?” commented a sarcastic tester for The Sport Loft, amazed that the new 105 didn’t try to dictate turn shape. “Very versatile for a 105,” confirms CSC’s Paul Jacobs.

A citizen tester who frequents Alta Ski Shop put it a little differently: “WOW!! Best ski I have ever skied.” An unaffiliated tester had a similar off-the-charts experience, declaring, “The most fun u can have on snow. Not demanding. but no top end! What’s not to love?”