The Stormrider 102 doesn’t match the usual Big Mountain ski profile. Most skis in this genre are Finesse skis that enter the turn a day late and depend on a smudged swivel to come across the fall line. Despite a shallow sidecut that should be disposed to drift instead of carve, the Stormrider 102 is ready to ride a high edge as if its waist were 30mm thinner.  This ski knows that the secret to skiing cut-up crud is to hit it hard and take no prisoners, so it keeps close to the fall line, where it can pick off any soft pillows that should pop onto the radar.

Most skis in this category need some snow under their double-rockered baselines to settle them down, but the Stormrider 102 is made of sterner stuff.  Like any Big Mountain model, it prefers its snow soft and loose, but it can hold an edge on hard snow far better than most of its peers, and it’s never met a clump of spring sludge it couldn’t batter into submission. While it’s fair to say the top end of its performance range is very high, it’s also more demanding than the norm.  This is not a ski that can be tossed around on a whim, and its shallow sidecut favors a skilled skier who knows how to hew close to the fall line.

When I was a rank-and-file member of the SKI magazine test crew back in the aughties, I recall that every Stöckli seemed bred to run a Super G, regardless of which category it was entered in. I was reminded of those days on the Stormrider 102, as it is one of the rare Big Mountain models that seems cut from racing cloth; it skis like a Super G with an eating disorder.  It isn’t meant as a crutch for the inept, but as a weapon to be wielded by the skilled. If you’re looking for an off-trail ski that will mask your ineptitude and put a shiny gloss on your absence of technique, you have many other options that will be more accommodating.

But if you have the requisite skills, that’s another story. Ski as you would on any other technical ski: point them downhill and roll them to a high edge and don’t worry about whatever snow conditions lie in your path. Of course, they can drift and smear, but they know perfectly well what edges are for. One might consider its $1349 price tag to be adequate deterrent to keep less talented skiers from acquiring it by accident, but just in case, neophytes, heed my counsel: while you don’t have to be an expert to enjoy the Stormrider 102, these are not a set of training wheels. They reward aptitude and aggression, and presume established carving skills.  If those prerequisites are in place, you’ve earned the right to own a Stormrider 102.