Like every other Völkl that got the 3D.Glass upgrade, the 100 Eight made a quantum leap in edging power, stability in the upper speed range and liveliness. The wafer-thin border of its 3D.Ridge design can be trusted to hold a unwavering edge, which gives skilled skiers the confidence to rail it and hit the after-burners.

Its brilliance on a high edge comes at the price of making a short arc, with the ever-accelerating speeds bigger turns engender. You’ll never get a ski with the 100 Eight’s sidecut to carve a tidy arc, but it has the solution on demand: a fully rockered baseline without a whisper of camber to interfere with a smudged slide. If you want to aim the other way RIGHT NOW, just turn your feet. No unpleasant contortions required.

Now that it’s been given an extra base layer of prepreg glass, the 100Eight can’t pretend to be some featherweight. It has some meat on its bones, so it nearly performs at the level of the V-Werks Katana. The 100Eight is heavier, so it can’t be called Katana Lite, but the 2018 edition has many of its granddad’s attributes, most notably the ability to blend an off-road footprint with the steering accuracy of a Frontside ski.

Our testers favorite term for the 2018 100Eight is “predictable.” This may sound like damning with faint praise, but predictability across the spectrum of off-piste conditions takes talent. It goes without saying the 100Eight is sublime in uncut powder; it’s the ability to manage all other possibilities captured under the “Off-Piste” umbrella that sets the 100 Eight apart.

It’s hard to imagine what sort of snow condition would give the 100 Eight pause: avalanche slabs, chunks of snow the shape and consistency of kitchen appliances, perhaps frozen chicken heads? Despite being rockered throughout, there’s no tip flap in most conditions. The skier doesn’t have to adapt or adjust; he just has to ski.