You expect a race slalom ski to be whippet quick, and the Völkl Racetiger Speedwall SL UVO doesn’t disappoint in this signature department. What you don’t expect is the grace to accept longer turns when requested and a ride so polished it feels like the ski is doing all the heavy lifting.

As nimble as teenage gymnasts, these Völkls nonetheless never act nervous.  Their imperturbable calm is attributable to the UVO dampening element affixed to the forebody, allowing the skis to maintain snow contact through any turn shape.  “Turns like a sports car,” notes a Viking Ski Shop tester.  “Loved to bank turns and the grip is unreal,” he adds, concluding with the ultimate compliment: “More than a race ski.”

This SL’s ability to mix easy-to-access slingshot short turns with long, lingering loops without breaking a sweat earned it a podium finish in our bellwether criterion of Finesse/Power balance.  The last score a tester records on his card is also the most significant as it signifies a ski that delivers on all criteria that make slalom race skis the performance epiphany that they are, and also exhibits most of the qualities that they often don’t possess, such as ease of operation and low-speed turn facility.

A good ski tester, like any conscientious critic, ought to retain an emotional detachment while on duty, but we’re only human.  Try as we might to submerge our feelings, on occasion we fall hopelessly, exuberantly in love.  One spin around the dance floor with the Völkl Racetiger Speedwall GS UVO and this veteran of a few thousand test runs was ready to commit to a long-term relationship.

The Völkl GS proves that not only is power an aphrodisiac, but absolute power is irresistible.  So what if it’s impatient with short turns and thinks of going slow as a waste to its precious time?  If you were wooing a super model, would you expect her to do the dishes?  Just let the Racetiger be itself and its UVO shock-damping device will reward you with spectacular security at speed.

Once you’re in love, you tend to overlook minor flaws. Being with this ski gives you so much confidence you want to take it everywhere, but the GS UVO isn’t a nature gal who wants to picnic in the trees.  It likes the freedom of wide-open spaces where it can strut its stuff, surrendering to the sensations that only speed provides.

A lot of skis that favor long-radius turns do so because they couldn’t be bent into a tight arc under any amount of force.  The Völkl Code Speedwall L UVO lets you make a short turn if that’s what you want, even though it’s natural bent is to linger in turns that are on the long side.

The Code L doesn’t exude the power and raw energy of a race ski.  It’s a more genteel carver, with a forebody that belies its aggressive exterior, adorned with the UVO shock-dampening device, by bowing at the first hint of pressure.  This makes for a very easy-to-guide ski, despite its propensity for long-radius turns.

The proliferation of fat skis has upended the world of ski categories as we characterized them 20 years ago. The Code L is what we would have called a Cruiser in the misty past, made for the man who prefers long turns because short ones entail a lot more unnecessary thrashing about.  It’s quite possible to get from top to bottom on a groomed run without exhausting all of one’s natural resources, and the Code L facilitates just such a voyage.

Most skiers don’t make a lot of short radius turns on groomed runs because, A) the terrain doesn’t require short turns to maintain speed control, and B) short turns are easily mistaken for work.  The Code Speedwall S UVO solves the second problem by being simplicity itself to coax into a short turn.  The more energy the skier pours into to it, the more the Code S replies in kind.  “Tons of energy,” confirmed the high octane Corty Lawrence from Footloose.  “Rewards stronger skiers: super predictable, playful and “bouncy,” he adds.

While the Code S isn’t that fussy a ski for a slalom-hearted carver, if it could dictate the pilot’s behavior instead of the other way around, it would set the skier’s boots 8 inches apart and order up an unbroken ribbon of short radius turns.  To encourage this behavior, the Code S uses the UVO shock-damping device to absorb any vibrations that might ruffle the edge’s serenity.

It’s been several years since Völkl set the Frontside category on its ear with the introduction of the first RTM 84, a hard snow ski with a fully rockered baseline. At the time, camber was king, Völkl ruled the carving ski roost and the rule-bending RTM 84 achieved instant stardom.

Now the revolutionary ski has itself been overthrown by a new generation of carving tool that restores camber underfoot (to the delight of traditionalists who like an energetic ski) and adds a dollop of extra damping in the form of UVO, a shock-settling gizmo that’s mounted on the forebody. The net effect is to make the new RTM 84 a more accurate ski that’s also more responsive to skier input; the skier works less, the ski does more.

Whether on piste or off, the new RTM 84 UVO is ready to bow into a round arc that uses its coiled camber to assist the turn transition. As reliable as an atomic clock, the RTM 84 has morphed into a ski that is both more interesting for an expert and more accommodating of an intermediates transgressions.

Völkl has a time-honored tradition of changing every thing they can think of about a ski but its name.  While the trade is obliged to follow these multiple mutations, how on earth is today’s distracted consumer expected to know that the ski he/she researched only last season is now another beast all together?  The freshly metamorphosed RTM 81 is a case in point.

Völkl didn’t just tweak the RTM 81’s make-up; they virtually reversed it.  A year ago this ski had broad shoulders rising up over the edge; now all the elevation is in the middle of the ski, the padded perimeter replaced with a thin sliver of ski.  A baseline that had been fully rockered when these pages issued last season has been sent back to camber school and returned with enough arch underfoot to give the new RTM 81 the sexy sensation of rebound to go along with its firm-handshake grip.

If the generally open-minded RTM 81 can be said to have a predisposition for one activity, it would be spooling precise, medium-radius arcs down an avenue of undulating white carpet without losing grip for a beat or once straying off course.

If you’ve already achieved genuine all-mountain expertise, Völkl has you covered six ways to Sunday with powerhouse models like the Kenja and Aura.  The Yumi is for those who aren’t quite there yet but want to sharpen their all-terrain skills until they shine.

The woman who is going to spend the vast majority of her time on trail will be better served on the Charisma or another Essenza series carver, but if wanderlust is in your genes, the Yumi will take you more places in comfort. Note that the Yumi scored best at continuous carving and ease of operation, which together make for a great set of training wheels. The Yumi also scored well at one of our best metrics for overall performance, the rating for Finesse/Power balance; a high score indicates a ski that delivers power with a minimum of provisos about how fast and hard it needs to be skied.

The Yumi scores well in this bell-weather statistic for it’s a purposeful pussycat, developing proper technique with supportive encouragement rather than the stinging lash of über-precision. The Yumi is less accurate at speed than its big sisters, but it also doesn’t ask you to perform perfectly to deliver a delightful ski experience.

One of Völkl’s charming marketing quirks is their preference for keeping a name – such as Charisma – intact while making wholesale changes in the ski’s make-up.  The Charisma of 2016 is still a lightweight carver with a passion for short turns, but a year ago it purloined its wood core structure from the avant-garde V-Werks series, making it lighter than ever before.

The Charisma is adorned with a dollop of tip rocker, but it’s so well integrated into the ski’s camber line the only noticeable effect is an improvement in ease in all conditions.  A bundle of Charisma features bear the “Bio-Logic” stamp, all of which work together to not just improve comfort but add to skier safety.

The tail is a little narrower and not as stiff as the forebody, so the culprit in the caboose that plays a factor in some knee sprains will release the load on the rearbody of the ski.  The ski’s top profile elevates the toe piece of the (Marker) integrated binding so the skier’s stance is level, helping to equalize the strain on quads and hamstrings, where an imbalance can likewise contribute to knee injuries.

In short, a lot of thought went into making the Charisma truly a women’s ski and not just a paint job with a forward mounting mark. The Charisma is comfortable running occasional raids into ungroomed environs, but it still struts its best stuff when lacing short slashes together down a pitched patch of crisp corduroy.

Not every Völkl is made for those who graduated at the head of their class in ski school.  The Chiara has no pretensions about an elitist pedigree; it’s more than happy to do charity work among skiers who could use some extra tutoring.

Experts should look elsewhere for thrills. (Note the sizes offered: the only expert you’ll find on a 141cm better be doing ballet.) The Chiara is geared down to match the speed range intermediates usually inhabit.  It’s as interested in charging into heavy, uneven snow as someone wearing stilts would be.  But if you keep her corralled on the gentle groomed slopes that are her comfort zone, the Chiara will make a commoner skier feel like a queen.

Some women’s skis are meant to gently ferry the skier to the bottom without undue stimulation.  Then there’s the Allura, which Völkl might consider rechristening the Avanti, for this baby wants to go forward, and fast.  Völkl values carving capability on hard snow more than motherhood, and the Allura comes alive as soon as it’s tilted and pressured.

But you’d best have the skills to hold on, for the Allura’s voluptuous sidecut is a short-radius trench digger with an insatiable appetite for hooking up at speed.  What it doesn’t include in its diet is deep snow, an understandable limitation in an archetypical Frontside ski.

Völkl kept the model name and basic construction, but altered just about everything else about the new and noticeably improved Kendo.   While the baseline retains a cambered profile underfoot, the tip and tail are now emphatically rockered.  The sidecut has been tweaked a tad dimensionally, and the new tip has the elongated taper associated with off-piste skis instead of the traditional sidecut that has been a Kendo staple for what seems like an eternity.

While it hasn’t been quite that long, the Kendo has been around long enough that it’s become a reference ski, meaning it sets the performance bar for the entire category.  We’re pleased to report that hasn’t changed; the Kendo remains the standard against which other All-Mountain East skis are judged.

The Kendo is programmed to spring into action when it’s rolled to a high edge angle, where the energy coiled in its compressed camber can propel the pilot on a precise trajectory into the next turn. Scott Sahr of Aspen Ski and Board noted how it “holds a great edge at high speeds, with good rebound for maximizing turn transitions.”

The last paragraph could just as easily been written about Kendos of yore, but there’s more to the new Kendo, for as Matt from Footloose observes, “The evolution of this ski keeps getting better and better.”  What’s getting better are its all-terrain temperament, its adaptability to 3-D conditions and its willingness to get off the edge and drift.  The half-drift, half-carve turn known as a stivot is second nature to the new Kendo, an indication that it’s more open to suggestion about turn shape and snow conditions than its predecessors. In a word, it’s smoother.

Although Völkl plumped up the waist of the RTM 86 UVO to push it into for our All-Mountain East category, this is in all other respects a Frontside carver.  “Doctor” Bob Gleason pegged it as a “go-to ski for groomers, quiet and predictable.  Smooth at speed and reliable as a Ford truck.”

The RTM 86 UVO ought to be as smooth as XO cognac for it is loaded with the swankiest technology in the RTM family, including Titanal laminates, the UVO dampening device, the latest 3D.RIDGE design and a new Marker binding system engineered for the wider ski.  If this amalgamation sounds as easy to bend as a balance beam, fear not; while the RTM 86 likes to linger in a long arc, it isn’t hard to handle.  It’s a groomed-snow ski with a penchant for continuous carving, what was once referred to as a cruiser.

The Kenja is one of the last iconic Völkls to go through the modernization process that inevitably added rocker to what was once a traditional, fully cambered baseline. Being the youngest child can have its benefits, for Völkl learned from its elder siblings that retaining a soupcon of camber underfoot accented the agility that makes the new Kenja feel responsive despite the often energy-sapping presence of tip and tail rocker.

“The changes to this ski are all good,” reassures The Boot Doctors’ Galena Gleason. “Nimble and easy to initiate, yet it charges.  I was blown away by how stable [it was] at speed.”  While Galena was describing the new Kenja, she could have written the same words about its progenitors, implying that the latest iteration has improved without losing the essential properties that made the Kenja practically a brand unto itself among women’s skis.

The 2016 Kenja has a little more surface area to assist flotation off-piste, plus a bit of a boost to its tail dimensions, which helps it see a carved turn through to completion.  Both alterations are beneficial to average skiers, but the Kenja sill saves her best moves for the experts who, like Galena, know how to tilt and push her to extract the most from her potential.

If there’s a condition the Kenja can’t master, it probably doesn’t involve snow.  If you’re an advanced to expert woman who skis everything the patrol will open, you should own a pair of these skis.

Last season the Mantra underwent a radical transformation, switching from a fairly traditional, cambered baseline to a double-rockered profile that obliterated any hint of camber.  Overnight, the Mantra went from a ski that etched turns with the accuracy of a wide race ski to one that treated carving and drifting as equally viable options.

The net effect of the Mantra’s metamorphosis was an elevation of its off-trail adaptability.  The new version readily conforms to the abrupt angles encountered in moguls and follows the contours of berms and wind drifts as if to the manner born.  It still isn’t enamored of tight turns and as for slow-speed skiing, it’s attitude remains, “remind me why we’re doing this?”  These quibbles aside, the new Mantra is much less finicky about how it’s steered, which makes maneuvering in dicey trees less dependent on flawless technique.

You wouldn’t think that the new Mantra’s inverted baseline would grip tenaciously on hard snow or generate much energy when compressed in soft snow.  You probably already know the answer: you’d be wrong.  “It carves despite the [change in] camber story,” asserts Matt from Footloose.  “Burly as it seems, it has a much lighter, fun feel than other wood/metal laminate skis.”

The reason we’re not recommending the new 90EIGHT isn’t because it didn’t pass muster; instead, it skipped class.  By the time we saw the first sample of a 90EIGHT, the ski test circus had left town.  About all we can say from our limited exposure is it seemed more comfortable in the sort of soft snow one encounters off-piste, where it could bank its wide body into a wall of snow, rather than on the firm conditions that prevail on trail.  But our speculations are premature. We’re including the 90EIGHT in our brand coverage to enable our readers to find it so they can evaluate it for themselves.

The Völkl Aura underwent an end-to-end overhaul last year that altered everything but the model name.  Völkl tapered the tip, moving the contact point further back, and double rockered the baseline, virtually flipping the cambered arch underfoot upside down.

The changes gave the Aura a personality transplant. It went from being a prima donna who could really sing but should you hit a false note in how you handle her you’d hear about it, to a go-along-to-get-along gal who will smear a turn without throwing a hissy fit.

The data describes a ski that is just as ready to scrub a turn sideways as bite into a continuous carve.  The tapered tip has made the ski more forgiving, particularly off-trail, but hampers its ability to find an early edge on hard snow.  Its best scores serve as a reassuring reminder that the Aura still has two sheets of Titanal around a wood core, as it earned superior marks for off-piste performance, stability at speed and our best measure of versatility, Finesse/Power balance.

“Incredible all-mountain women’s ski!” wrote an obviously excited Kayla from Aspen Ski and Board. She found the Aura possesses “surprisingly strong edge hold for a fairly rockered ski and [is] extremely stable even on the hardpack at speed.”

Our Editor’s pick as Big Mountain Ski of the Year in 2014, the Völkl V-Werks Katana is still the avatar of excellence.  Völkl must have been impressed with the V-Werks Katana as well, for they extended its 3D.RIDGE design to a new slew of All-Mountain and Big Mountain skis.

What sets the V-Werks Katana apart is a Big Mountain ski girth and a Technical ski’s affinity for burying its edge into whatever surface you care to put in its path. Blend this capacity with eye-popping stability at speeds that would sink a less stalwart ship, and you have an elite skier’s magic carpet ride.

Made from 11 layers of carbon compressed into a stiff blade that cuts through powder from zero to forty-eight inches deep, it’s eerily light for its girth, which usually indicates trouble in Crud City.  But the Katana is as mellow as Kenny G when pounding through broken pow. The things this New Age Katana aren’t particularly good at are attributes its intended owner isn’t particularly concerned about, such as hold-your-hand ease at lollygagging speeds.

The 100EIGHT has a split personality. It’s a carving ski in a fat ski’s body, a soft-snow ski that wants you to ride the edge.  In realskiers’ parlance, it leans to the Finesse side of the Finesse/Power divide, with off-piste skiing and drifting to the edge its specialties.

Unlike most fat boys, the 100EIGHT impresses it pilot with its agility and light weight, promoting a sense of heightened response unusual in skis this wide.  “A bigger ski feel without being overbearing,” admired Bob from The Boot Doctors. “Easy to manipulate down bumps lines and through the woods.  Nice float in set-up soft stuff,” he adds, hitting the 100EIGHT’s strength: maneuverability in all soft snow circumstances.

Völkl seems determined to eradicate any remnants of their erstwhile reputation for making über-precise, unforgiving skis.  The One, Two and Three (does anyone spend less time in model-naming meetings than Völkl?) are all calibrated to smear, slide and slither.  The One is the only one that retains some vestigial notion of what carving an arc is about, which elevates it higher in our estimation even if it sinks a little lower in fresh snow.

There must be some guides in Alaska who feel the One doesn’t displace enough acreage in one turn, apparently necessitating the Two and Three, but for any in-resort skiing the One has more than enough flotation and sidewinding maneuverability to suit any situation but hardpack.  “An easy-going New School ski: great float in the powder and predictable in the crud,” penned Telluride’s Boot Doctor, Bob Gleason, “that’s fairly agile in the bumps for a 116 waist.”  This facility comes from a deep, smiling rocker line that matches a mogul trough like the bottom of nesting doll fits in its foundation.

Comparing the new Two to the One is a simple matter of addition: add 8mm of width to every dimension of the One and you’ve got the Two.  More surface area means more flotation and a super-easy-to-smear mentality.  A ski this wide, with this big a turn radius, isn’t meant for technical skiing.  The tapered shovel serves mostly for buffering, buttering and buoyancy as you mush the ski through the pow.  Mercifully, it skis a little narrower than its girth, but the Two is still very much a specialty Powder ride.

If all you did was look at its V-shaped baseline, you’d swear the Völkl Shiro was a swiveling disco stick.  The front rocker looks like it’s not going to end until it’s somewhere underfoot, where it runs into the pronounced rear rocker, which is slightly flattened this season for better stability on steeps. In the past, Völkl treated rocker they way kids react to cod liver oil: they may take it, but they don’t like it and aren’t convinced it’s good for you.

Apparently, they overcame their rocker allergy when they built the Shiro.  What’s amazing is that, with all that reverse camber, the Shiro is still at heart a directional ski.   In other words, it’s still a Völkl, geared to respond to a technical skier.  Should that technical skier find himself five feet from a sequoia and closing fast, he can pivot the entire operation sideways with virtually no resistance.  The ability to smear on demand is an enormous relief, especially as the day wears on and your personal power light starts blinking red.   The Shiro is a cross-generational ski with appeal for anyone who wants to preserve energy so they can – naturally – ski more powder runs.