For the technical skier, the new Supershape i.Magnum from Head is so mindlessly simple to ski that it raises the philosophical question, “Who’s doing the skiing here?” Is the skier extracting this sublime performance from the ski or is the ski enabling this higher level of proficiency? Are the skis and the skiing they make possible inseparable? Put in parable form (popular with philosophers), can anyone from peasant to king step into a pair of i.Magnums and dominate?

Probably not, but it sure feels friendly to skiers who know how to lead into a turn aggressively. It’s like hiring the perfect event planner to handle the details on every turn. The top will be attended to by the bosomy forebody that hugs every arc it meets; the middle, equipped with Graphene™ and Titanal, is as dependable as an atomic clock; and it finishes with an electrically charged flourish. The ski brings virtually everything to the party; all the skier has to do is show up and smile for the selfie.

There’s a misconception about short-radius skis like the i.Magnum (13.1m @ 170cm) that they won’t do a long turn without getting wobbly and lose all composure off-piste. Poppycock. Of course it’s not a Powder ski, but the i.Magnum is no more perturbed by common off-trail conditions than it is by blue-tinted boilerplate. It will eat whatever you feed it. If you want a little more stability at speed and a slightly longer radius arc, don’t be shy about stepping up to the 177cm.