Last season Stöckli softened the Stormrider 95 to universal acclaim. The earlier Stormrider 95 was thrilling, but it ran for the barn as if its tail were on fire. The more recent version, continued this year, is still an exciting ski, but now it’s as smooth and potent as an XO Armagnac.

Because of Stöckli’s bulletproof, Titanal-laden construction, the Stormrider 95 drives like a limo in that at times you don’t feel like you’re doing the driving. It’s that effortless. You tip, it steers and boy oh boy, does it hold.

The Stormrider 95 holds so well, in fact, the pilot may not feel incentivized to slow down. On test card after test card, still-awed evaluators noted, often in all caps, “NO SPEED LIMIT.”

They might have added, “No terrain limits, either.” Like most Stöcklis, this Stormrider doesn’t lack for confidence. It knows it’s better than whatever sort of frozen water you plan to plunge into, and it has a tendency to transfer this preternatural calm to its pilot. If the true measure of a ski is how well it performs in god-awful conditions it wasn’t meant to endure, the Stormrider 95 is an all-star.

While the Stormrider 95 feels easy-peasy for an expert, that doesn’t mean its talents are as readily accessible to the less skilled skier. Most skiers who are guessing their way down the hill won’t cotton to the Stormrider 95’s propensity to begin each run in fourth gear.

Skiers who share this Stormrider’s addiction to speed and indifference to snow conditions from perfect to putrid will find a companion for life. As noted at the conclusion of last year’s review, if a Humvee and a Ferrari had a love child, it would drive like the Stormrider 95.