Every other model in the new Anomaly series expects to become the all-day, everyday ski for whomever is wise enough to acquire it, and justifiably so. The 84, 88 and 94 are differentiated by their terrain biases, but not by skier size or ability. Any reasonably proficient skier would be thrilled by their quietly assertive power and sensitive steering.
But if your plan is to ride the Anomaly 102 every day, it would be very helpful if you were very good and didn’t mind skiing very fast. It also wouldn’t hurt if you were fairly stout lad, say in the 200-pound+ club. The bigger, the better and the faster you are, the more you’ll prefer the 102 over its slimmer siblings.
The widest Anomaly isn’t built any differently than the other Anomalies, there’s just more ski under you in a 102. The main benefit of added girth is higher flotation, so Blizzard’s design team bumped up the 102’s float-ability by skewing the size run long. With a wider silhouette stretched out over an elongated chassis, the Anomaly 102’s natural turn shape is on the long side. Even when coaxed into a tighter-than-normal turn, the 102 doesn’t veer far from the fall line. One reason the 102 is best left to experts is that it all but obliges the pilot to maintain a fall-line orientation, for with speed comes power, and with it the fortitude to blast through day-old chop.
The net effect is the Anomaly 102 delivers a cushioned ride that is more supple and terrain-absorbing rather than terrain-smashing. Its narrower body allows it to initiate turns more easily regardless of the snow conditions. Like the Cochise, it still favors the skilled skier who likes to motor, but it’s easier to drive, like switching from a one-ton pick-up to a luxury sedan.
The Anomaly 102 is a fantastic ski, as fast and as smooth as a bullet train, one that doesn’t make local stops for middle-of-the-pack intermediates. It’s not made to nurse the uninitiated into competence, but as a reward for those who have put in the time learning how to play with gravity on big mountains.
The only problem with Kästle’s MX series of Frontside-focused models is it’s proven to be a tough act to follow. Kästle’s initial foil to the MX’s preeminent position in the line was the Chris Davenport signature fleet of FX models, built with the same, premium components as the MX’s, but with a double-rockered baseline and a tapered tip and tail, both essential features of any off-trail collection. In a word, they ripped.
The original FX clan was ultimately deemed to be too similar to MX, so it was retired in favor of a FX family that was massively rockered and available both with and without metal. Their only drawback was the new FX’s didn’t ski nearly as well as the old ones, so the search continued for an off-trail alternative to MX. The final version of FX didn’t fare much better, despite an expensive construction that still couldn’t hold a candle to the MX’s mastery of its domain.
So, bid a fond farewell to FX and say hello to Paragon, a definite step in the right direction. If the new Paragons bear a striking resemblance to the returning ZX clan, it’s because they borrow the ZX molds, but swap out the wood core and add two sheets of Titanal. The Paragon core is one of the few that uses three woods – poplar, beech and Paulownia – to create just the right snow feel for a wide ski.
Considering that it’s made to ski in chopped-up, off-trail conditions, the Paragon 101 handles hard snow surfaces with the stability and response you’d expect from a wood-and-metal laminate. Its rockered and tapered tip isn’t going to initiate as early as a Frontside carver, but wherever the edge meets the snow, the grip is secure and unwavering. The Hollowtech 2.0 housed in the shovel lacks the shock-damping power of the Hollowtech Evo on the MX’s, but the Paragon’s amply rockered forebody doesn’t collide with the snow surface at the same angle as, say, the fully cambered MX84’s. For the terrain it’s meant to plunder, the Paragon 101 has all the damping power it needs.
As was the case with its men’s counterpart – the Mantra 102 – last year, the latest bundle of modifications to the Secret 102 has infused it with a complete personality transplant. As succinctly summarized by former US Ski Team member Edie Thys Morgan in her review of the 2023 Secret 102, “This is not the ski for the faint of heart or of flex.” The 2025 Secret 102 has shed its hell-bent ways. It no longer seeks to subdue whatever gets in its way, instead responding to its pilot’s subtle suggestions with grace and poise.
What happened to turn a barely tamed bronco into a well-trained show pony? Two factors did most of the heavy lifting, Tailored Titanal Frame and Tailored Carbon Tips. In the original Secret 102, the forward section of the 3-piece Titanal Frame was a one-size-fits-all affair; as of the 2024 iteration, each size received its own part. This is of particular importance in the smaller sizes women prefer. Every aspect of the Secret 102 is size-specific, so shorter skis aren’t saddled with over-sized components.
Part of the reason that the double-rockered Secret 102 rips groomers like a fully cambered ski is the manner in which Völkl applies an extra dose of carbon to the shovel. Most carbon that goes into skis are either thin stringers or weaves in a pre-set orientation. To get exactly the pattern they wanted, Volkl engineers created hundreds of prototypes, stitching carbon thread into a fleece matrix to arrive at just the right dosage to keep the tip quiet.
In this ski’s original incarnation, the lightweight Blaze 106 W seemed best suited to intermediate to advanced skiers looking for a mellow drifter, but it found a second calling as an in-bounds/backcountry hybrid for experts who appreciated its light weight off-trail and more-than-passable performance on piste. For 2025, the newly anointed Blaze 104 W has been given such an appreciable upgrade that experts may gravitate to it based on its in-bounds performance alone, although its raison d’etre remains its proficiency off-piste.
What could have elevated the Blaze 104 W from an intermediate’s crutch to an expert’s daily driver? Part of the transformation was as simple as augmenting the core thickness, but more significant is a clever allocation of Titanal and glass that gives the cambered center of the ski far more power and bite when driven into the turn, married to an energy-fueled exit that makes flowing through the turn transition automatic.
Titanal laminates that run wall-to-wall in the ski’s midsection induce a calming effect that extends well past their footprint, giving the Blaze 104 W a security on edge you wouldn’t expect in such a light, fat ski. The new Blaze 104 W is skinnier than its predecessor, but that’s not the only reason it can cut a tighter turn. Völkl made the Blaze 104 one of the first of its collection to be the recipient of a 4-Radius Drive sidecut; an interesting choice, as 4-Radius Drive exists primarily to engage the first few cm’s in a short-radius arc, part of the ski every other model in the Big Mountain genre treats like a forgotten relative.
