BMX105 HP
The Kästle BMX105 HP can carve if it must, but carving usually means hard snow, and hard snow isn’t its preferred milieu. The BMX105 HP is nearly the opposite of a carving tool despite being built from the same ingredients, contorting Kästle’s customary wood/glass/Titanal sandwich into a double-rockered baseline with only a hint of sidecut. Tapered tips and tails connected by a straighter sidecut create a platform that planes evenly though deep, uneven snow, but be prepared to exert more effort if you want to initiate a tight line on hard snow. It can get away with liking its turns long and fast because its classic construction ensures that no powder on earth can withstand it.
Pinnacle 85
We don’t normally review skis that aim to sell for $399 for two main reasons: they’re built as much to hit a price point as match a performance profile, and we don’t often find them at the test venues we frequent. If we do get the chance to try one out, like the...LX73
Kästle wasn’t even trying to make a knockout women’s ski. It applied a square sidewall to what was previously a cap ski to give it a performance kick, in the process raising the performance bar to the elite level. It doesn’t hurt that the stock lay-up for a Kästle is a vertically laminated beech/silver fir core encased in twin laminates of glass and Titanal. There’s a reason it’s the foundation of all the best hard-snow skis being made today. The strongest women might overpower it, but the LX73 isn’t meant for them. It’s a confidence builder for those who aren’t as skilled or athletic as they’d like to be.
Sick Day 114
If all you knew about the Line Sick Day 114 were its waist width (114mm), sidecut radius (23.9m) and that it’s tip and tail were tapered, you’d expect it to turn with all the agility and grace of the Exxon Valdez. And you might be right if Line ladled on the Titanal, but the Sick Day 114 is unshackled by metal bonds. It retains the springiness of an all-glass ski, and lo and behold, it steers with ease of a far shapelier ski. Its tapered tip keeps it from diving into a turn at the very top, so it smears its way through turn entry before settling on an edge that rolls comfortably through rubble.